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''Blue's Clues'' is an American children's television series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 1996.〔 Producers Angela Santomero, Todd Kessler and Traci Paige Johnson combined concepts from child development and early-childhood education with innovative animation and production techniques that helped their viewers learn. It was hosted originally by Steve Burns, who left in 2002 to pursue a music career, and was replaced by Donovan Patton. The show follows an animated blue-spotted dog named Blue as she plays a game with the host and the viewers. ''Blue's Clues'' became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on American commercial television and was critical to Nickelodeon's growth. It has been called "one of the most successful, critically acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time."〔 A spin-off called ''Blue's Room'' premiered in 2004. The show's producers and creators presented material in a narrative format instead of the more traditional magazine format, used repetition to reinforce its curriculum, and structured every episode the same way. They used research about child development and young children's viewing habits that had been conducted in the thirty years since the debut of ''Sesame Street'' in the U.S., and revolutionized the genre by inviting their viewers' involvement. Research was part of the creative and decision-making process in the production of the show and was integrated into all aspects and stages of the creative process. ''Blue's Clues'' was the first cutout animation series for preschoolers and resembles a storybook in its use of primary colors and its simple construction paper shapes of familiar objects with varied colors and textures. Its home-based setting is familiar to American children but has a look unlike other children's TV shows. A live production of ''Blue's Clues'', which used many of the production innovations developed by the show's creators, toured the U.S. starting in 1999. As of 2002, over 2 million people had attended over 1,000 performances. By 2002, ''Blue's Clues'' had received several awards for excellence in children's programming, educational software, and licensing, and had been nominated for nine Emmy Awards. It has been syndicated in 120 countries and translated into 15 languages. Regional versions of the show featuring local hosts have been produced in other countries. It was one of the first preschool shows to incorporate American Sign Language into its content. The show's extensive use of research in its development and production process inspired several research studies that have provided evidence for its effectiveness as a learning tool. ==History== ''Blue's Clues'' was developed during a transitional period for children's television. In 1990, Congress had passed the Children's Television Act, which required networks and TV stations to devote a portion of their programming to children's shows, but the legislation did not specify how many hours of programming broadcasters were required to air. It set no guidelines or criteria for educational programs and had no provisions for enforcement. According to author Diane Tracy in her 2002 book ''Blue's Clues for Success'', "The state of children's television was pretty dismal."〔 Since the late 1960s, PBS was one of the few sources for children's educational television programming in the U.S., and most other U.S. children's TV shows were violent and created for the purpose of selling toys.〔 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in 1997 that the commercial broadcast networks had to air educational children's programs for a minimum of three hours per week. The cable network Nickelodeon, which had been airing programs for six- to twelve-year-olds, was not legally bound by this legislation but complied with it anyway many years before the laws and regulations were passed.〔 Nickelodeon assigned a team of producers to create a new U.S. television program for young children in mid-1994 using research on early childhood education and the viewing habits of preschoolers. These producers, who were made up of the "green creative team"〔 of Angela Santomero, Todd Kessler and Traci Paige Johnson, met at Nickelodeon Studios for a month to develop ''Blue's Clues''. Kessler, Santomero and Johnson, according to Tracy, did not have the traditional backgrounds of most producers of children's programs but "did possess an amazing combination of talents, backgrounds and personal attributes".〔 Researcher Daniel R. Anderson of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who had also worked on ''Sesame Street'', was an adviser for the new show.〔 The character Blue was originally conceived as a cat, and the name of the show was to be "Blue's Prints," but the show's name was changed and Blue became a dog because Nickelodeon was already producing a show about a cat.〔 Kessler handled the show's production, Santomero the research, and Johnson the animation and design.〔 They were given a modest $150,000 to produce a pilot.〔 ''Blue's Clues'' premiered in the U.S. on September 8, 1996.〔 It was a smash hit, largely due to the producers' extensive research,〔 and became crucial to Nickelodeon's growth.〔 Within 18 months of its premiere, ''Blue's Clues'' was as well-known as more established children's shows such as the 30-year-old ''Sesame Street''.〔 It became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on commercial television.〔 By 2002, 13.7 million viewers tuned in each week.〔 In 2004, a spin-off, ''Blue's Room'', was launched. It featured puppets instead of animation as well as the original show's second host, Joe, in several episodes. ''Blue's Clues'' celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2006 with a DVD that consisted of a 12-minute retrospective produced by VH1's "Behind the Music" staff and a collection of "milestone"〔 episodes, including first host Steve Burns' 2002 departure.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blue's Clues」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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