Blue’s Clues: Steve Burns Left Show Because Of Hair Loss? Sort Of …

Add another hero and celebrated celebrity to the long list of the follicly challenged: Pioneering children’s T.V. star, Steve Burns, who abruptly left his highly successful show, Blue’s Clues, at the height of its popularity in 2002, partly did so because he’d started losing his hair, according to the Huffington Post.

Many kids and parents that grew up with Steve, Blue, Paprika, Side Table, Side Drawer, the Mailbox and others from the 1996-2006 show were disappointed by Steve’s sudden announcement at the time that he was “going to college.”

What? College? You’ve got one of the most successful shows on television, even clobbering the Teletubbies and Sesame Street, you were named one of People Magazine’s Most Eligible Bachelors, what do you want with college? Maybe a good message for the rugrat Blue’s Clues viewers, but something always seemed suspicious about that explanation for Steve’s leaving Blue’s Clues.

Regardless, Steve’s decision was final, and soon his little brother, Joe, had moved in to try to fill Steve’s incredibly talented and charismatic shoes. That never quite worked out, and Blue, Steve and the rest drifted off into parent and childhood memories.

Fortunately, Sponge Bob had arrived on the scene in the midst of Steve and Blue’s incredible run and soaked up some of the inevitable tears, but that’s a different story. The thing about Steve’s going to college always seemed contrived, and the unsatisfying answer for “What happened to Steve?” always remained.

Like many celebrities, rumors had long swirled around Steve Burns, including that he was a drug addict and had died of a heroin overdose and those were before he even left Blue’s Clues. Other unsavory rumors included Steve getting killed in a car accident. So, when Steve did suddenly announce his retirement from Blue’s Clues, the stories really started to fly.

Fortunately, however, there was no horrible demise of Steve Burns, just a successful guy that was ready to move on after a Blue’s Clues career that included more than 100 episodes over 6 years. He wanted to pursue a music career, which he did, and, well, yeah, there was the hair thing:

“I knew I wasn’t gonna be doing children’s television all my life, mostly because I refused to lose my hair on a kid’s TV show,” said Burns in a 10 year Anniversary Blue’s Clues special. “And it was happenin’… fast.”

In the clip of Steve Burns below, The Moth Presents Steve Burns: Fameishness, it’s easy to see that Blue’s old pal, like many of us, has lost some hair over the years. But he’s none the worse for wear, still the same cool, charismatic and handsome guy, and certainly not dead.

Images via Google Images, video via Youtube