I know many readers of this site were riveted by my report of a sighting of Al "Grandpa from Munsters" Lewis at the protest during the Republican convention two weeks ago.

It just gets better.

Last night, my friend Xian Crumlish (author of the upcoming book The Power Of Many which is about blog culture and online community) invited me to a show called "Sara is Obsessed With You", a sort of talk-show parody about a troubled woman named Sara who finds interesting people to interview. It was a very enjoyable show overall. It started with some standup comedy, then Sara greeted the first guest, the writer Jonathan Ames, who turned out to have been Xian's buddy from college. But the highlight of the show was a strange musical segment involving a squirrel and a rat in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, in which the squirrel was played by the writer Paul Ford and the rat was played by Steve Burns, who turns out to have been none other than the original Steve from "Blue's Clues".

You may have already noticed that Blue, that wacky dog, has been sporting his second Steve for a few years now. There were reports that the first Steve objected to the show's triviality and did not like his creativity reduced to playing straight man for a dog and wearing striped tan shirts because striped tan wouldn't interfere with the blue-screening necessary to produce an image of that canine scamp on the show. (One imagines that the creators of "Blue's Clues" also failed to pay the first Steve the full measure of benjamins he felt he deserved, because it's hard to imagine him walking out on this gig otherwise).

In any event, Steve is now fronting an indie rock band and hanging out in artsy crowds in Brooklyn and NY City. He's sporting Elvis Costello glasses and a scruffy beard and moustache. He is not instantly recognizable as Steve unless you are looking out for it. I should also report that Steve is not a tall person.

But, most importantly, I am happy to say that Steve is a talented guy and shows much creative promise. He co-wrote his musical segment with Paul Ford, and the work was very clever and enjoyable, telling a corny story of friendship and understanding with music that mixed influences from hiphop to 50s era Broadway. Steve's impression of a skeevy New York accented rat was also quite enjoyable.

Having witnessed his work, I agree with Steve that he is too talented to work with a blue dog on a show that was never anywhere near as good as "Teletubbies", "Thomas the Tank Engine" or even "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" in the first place. I hope we will see more from Steve Burns and I bet his band's first CD will turn out to be excellent.

Al "Grandpa" Lewis was not in the house last night.

COMMENTS:

by firecracker on Saturday, September 11 @ 09:08:10 PDT

Very interesting indeed... did you know that there was an urban legend floating around a few years ago that Steve was actually dead? The only rumors floating around about me... ok never mind. Anyway, two minor points. Steve's shirt is actually two-tone green. His pants are tan. I forgive you because of your disability. Also, there is not a "new" Steve on the show, but "Joe" which is Steve's brother.... or cousin. Or... never mind. Are you sure Steve isn't really Al Lewis? Or vice versa?

by firecracker on Saturday, September 11 @ 11:44:50 PDT

I forgot to ask if you tried to get Steve to skidoo anywhere... I hear he loves it.

heh.

by domokunmadness on Tuesday, September 14 @ 11:18:07 PDT

Thanks for the kind review and also for the insightful commentary about skidooing.

Steve
www.steveswebpage.com

by firecracker on Tuesday, September 14 @ 19:41:25 PDT

Anytime, that's why we're here.

by RaptorMage on Tuesday, September 14 @ 19:17:03 PDT

A friend who studied drama with Steve at SMU says he was a real party animal... not a dog, just somebody who works well with one. I'm glad he stayed with BC as long as he did, and I'm glad he's doing grown-up stuff now. Of course, I can afford to feel that way now that my youngest is 5.

As for Jay Jay... he couldn't touch Blue with a 10-foot wingspan. The original Blue, that is, on the BC that brought us "The King" and Ray Charles.

by firecracker on Wednesday, September 15 @ 05:37:09 PDT

Yes, Jay Jay is completely scary and is no where near the excellence of BC...

by brooklyn on Wednesday, September 15 @ 06:57:31 PDT

Obviously, you both missed the episode where Herkie the Helicopter is afraid to fly, and then learns to face his fears.

-- Levi

by firecracker on Wednesday, September 15 @ 07:14:00 PDT

yeah... apparently I missed that one. Apparently I value my ability to sleep at night without being tortured by mutant planes with freakish faces. My bad.