Blue Prints (found unaired pilot of "Blue's Clues" Nick Jr. animated/live-action series; 1994-1995)

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BluePrintsTC.jpg

The title card from the Blue Prints pilot.

Status: Found

Date found: 9 Sep 2023

Found by: Anonymous

Blue's Clues is an American animated/live-action children's TV show that aired on Nick Jr. from 1996 to 2006. The show follows Steve Burns and later Joe (Donovan Patton) and his dog, Blue, looking for "clues" (blue paw-prints made by Blue), and then piecing the clues together, leading into the climax of the story.

Development and Pilot

The show spent many years in development, with the show's writers experimenting around with different ideas, such as Blue originally being a cat named Mr. Orange, then Mr. Blue. These ideas resulted in the unaired 1994/1995 test pilot created with the working title, Blue Prints.

There is a common misconception that the pilot actually starred Mr. Orange, instead of Blue like in the final show. This is not true, as what little screenshots and footage are available shows that Blue is the featured character.

The pilot was shot in either 1994 or 1995; there are conflicting sources on the exact year the pilot was shot. The show's creator, Angela C. Santomero, said that the pilot was done in 1994,[1] while Dave Palmer, the co-designer of Blue and a crew member for the Blue Prints pilot, has said in an email that the pilot was done in the summer of 1995 with a small crew.[2]

After the pilot was finished, it was only shown to a few preschoolers as a way to test out the show's interactive elements. According to reports, the children ate it up, but there were several changes that needed to be made. Mr. Salt also had a Brooklyn accent as a contrast to the French accent he was ultimately given. Steve also sported a red shirt instead of his signature green stripes shown in the final show.

Availability

The pilot was very obscure and mostly unknown until 2006 when Nickelodeon aired a 10-year anniversary special detailing the history and development of the show. A few short clips of the pilot were shown, and the crew members commented on it. After the airing, fans of the series scoured online resources, including bootlegs, torrents, and file-sharing sites to no avail. Nickelodeon has yet to fully release the episode, as they have stated "it felt it was too different from the rest of the series."[citation needed]

On October 16th, 2020, the Nick Jr. Twitter account posted a previously unseen screenshot of the pilot that showed Blue with a slightly different design, proving that a copy does exist in Nickelodeon's possession.[3]

In January 2021, the show's co-creator, Angela C. Santomero, posted a picture of her and Steve from a taping of the pilot on her Instagram.[4] In the comment section, she revealed she has a copy of the pilot and stated that it was filmed around 1994.[5] It is unknown if she will release it.

On September 10th, 2021, for the show's 25th anniversary, Nick Jr.'s Twitter account uploaded a video about the pilot that includes some never-before-seen clips from it. Some clips in the video appear to confirm that the pilot was the basis for "Snack Time".[6] Some more differences can be seen, such as the cup as the first clue having two paw prints and being orange, as well as the notebook not having the thinking chair on its front cover.

Gallery

Images

Footage

Clip compilation featuring snippets from the Behind the Clues special and Nick Jr.'s social media accounts.

Videos

LSuperSonicQ's video on Blue Prints.

Scribbles to Screen's video on the subject.

See Also

Blue's Clues

Bumpers and Interstitials

Pilots

Other

External Links

References