Jumping the Shark: Blue's Clues

Blue's Clues

Blue's Clues is about a children's television show that was aired on Nickelodeon. It was a interactive way to get toddlers or children less than the age of 12 to get them to use their thinking skills. This show was basically about a character, a blue dog named Blue that always wanted to do something, and left hints so the other character at the time, Steve, could help solve it. Each episode consists of Blue leaving behind hints of his daily activities, in order for Steve to solve them, along with the children who watch it. The "Jump the Shark" moment of Blue's Clues, is when the main character Steve,."leaves for college" and his brother steps in and takes Steve's place. After this happened, many children, especially me at the time, didn't like the fact that Steve wasn't there. I remember when I watched the last episode when Steve was leaving, I was sad because he wasn't going to be there anymore. When I was little I felt like it wouldn't be the same show it was when Steve was there.

The show was considered better than the "new" Blue's Clues because the character Steve was the original character. This old version was favorable because as for the children, Steve was part of their childhood and they were so used to seeing him while watching the show as they grew up. As a little kid, I always thought that Steven was irreplaceable. Once you start getting used to seeing someone, especially a tv show that interests, you it's hard to like someone else, regardless of doing the same things as the original character did. Seeing an unfamiliar face would make children's feelings towards the show different. 

Once Joe appeared in the picture, things started to go downhill. I remember as a child, I couldn't even finish watching a show, because it would just seem different to me. After a new character filled in, I think it was hard for young kids to accept the fact that their all time favorite character wasn't there anymore. It's also difficult to accept a different person after seeing the original character endlessly. Even though Joe pretty much did what Steve did before he left, it just didn't have the same "fun" vibe as it did before. It all just seemed different and kind of uncomfortable to see that Joe wasn't really appropriate for this character, because Steve did the job the best.