Jabba: Fronting the most watched pre-school show in the US, Blue's Clues which aims to captivate, involve and empower pre-schoolers to learn as they play, welcome Steve Burns.

Steve Burns : How you doing? Well said ...

Jabba: Oh! thanks for coming. You are a hero of mine and my son who is almost 4 in the realm of watching tv and stuff, um. Who are your childhood TV heroes?

Steve Burns: Grover

Jabba: Grover?

Steve Burns: Grover and Bert. Yeah, Grover's early work. The whole 'near far' thing, it's like. That's it.

Jabba: Cookie Monster?

Steve Burns: Cookie Monster was cool, but Grover is where it's at. You know, I like Grover, I like Gonzo, Ii like Bert.

Jabba: You like the Muppet Show as well?

Steve Burns: Yeah, yeah. But you know, pretty much anything Frank Oz did I pretty much dug.

Jabba: So was that like a dream to work on a kids show?

Steve Burns: No not at all, you know I mean. I was just an actor, doing normal acting things in NY city and I never considered children's Television as something I would do, but ...

Jabba: You were on the stage, kinda in serious productions?

Steve Burns: Yeah, you know I played a murderer on crime dramas, and I did all kinds of commercials, you know acting stuff and it was just one audition I had one day and I had some ideas, and I walked in and turns out, you know, it's one of those thing we do everyday in Blue's Clues now.

Jabba: Wow, so you had to audition with the blue screen to nothing?

Steve Burns: Yeah pretty much and uh, the kids are the ones who actually picked me, you know. We showed the tape and I was the only ones the kids talk back to.

Jabba: Right, Ii try to be like you when Oscar, you know when I'm angry with Oscar, and I go 'what would Steve do?' he'd be nice, not like 'get in your *** room!' as you sometimes do ...

Steve Burns: [laughs]

Jabba: What do remember, Grover and Bert in mind, that was the most scandalous thing happening on children's tv when you were a kid? can you remember anything?

Steve Burns: yeah, remember when uh, when they finally figured out that snuffalupugous wasn't really there? that bummed me out, I was really upset by that. that was a kinda scandal. it wasn't scandalous to me cause I had an invisible friend at the time, you know. and then snuffupagous was all of a sudden not invisible anymore, kinda blew my mind, you know.

Jabba: the cover was blown!

Steve Burns: yeah

Jabba: have you, cause you kinda do a producing role on blue's clues as well as you supervise content or whatever, as well as present. have there been moments where you've vetoed? what's the most scandalous thing to happen on Blue's Clues?

Steve Burns: well, the things Ii tend to veto on Blue's Clues are the things that are just insufferably embarrassing, the things that kinda make you convulse and twitch when you watch it later you know? so Ii try to keep the really embarrassing outfits to a minimum and keep all the strange capering and dancing down to a minimum. try to be as cool as possible, try to be as Grover as possible.

Jabba: uh huh

Steve Burns: you know what I mean?

Jabba: do you reckon you've kinda gotten straighter as the years have gone on, are you less incline to 'uh, I don't know about the sunglasses ' or the..

Steve Burns: yeah exactly exactly, you know what I'm talking about . this is a hardcore fan right here

Jabba: woo hoo yeah!

Steve Burns: but yeah as I become producer there's less embarrassing moments

Jabba: yeah, I bet that they should, just get out there and be steve. which is, well I'm taking us to a point here due to scandal. maybe you could tell us what's going on here?

shows a clip of blue's treasure hunt. Steve's holding a tiny rolled up map and handing it to blue. it looks like steve is giving blue a joint! :)

Jabba: what is that about steve burns from blue's clues?? steve : heh, I was waiting for someone to pick up on that wooooohh!! this is a show called joint ...

Steve Burns: yeah I know, I know, but that's perfectly innocent, that's just a little scroll, a little treasure scroll.

laughs

Jabba: I made sure we cut up on the scroll kinda came on. so there hasn't been any scandals as far as you're aware of, trying to uncover your murky past or anything like that in the states?

Steve Burns: ah no, everyone's been pretty cool about that. although kids show host make pretty good targets for that sort of thing..

Jabba: yeah well, pee wee Herman, yeah exactly. well that' kinda the precedent there but uh, everyone's

Steve Burns: been kinda cool about that. I don't have such a murky past.

Jabba: no , well we looked into it, we couldn't find any murk at all. now blue is kinda here in the box you've had to travel and talk and talk and talk, do you get envious of your co-host here getting live the quiet life, while you're bust busy busy with the schedule.

Steve Burns: yea she's kinda getting a big head, the show's called Blue's Clues, she has a bigger dressing room, she translates much better into plush than I do

Jabba: see I haven't seen your doll yet

Steve Burns: it's not as good, it's just not as good

Jabba: well maybe we can kinda lift you out from that we have the full gear here, band gear and I noticed you play alot of instruments on the show and I'm quite convinced they're miming.

Steve Burns: oh no

Jabba: do you reckon you could kinda play any part of, maybe you could play the theme on a guitar here?

Steve Burns: yeah, I can do that

Jabba: do you want to get up and give it a go? I challenge you!

Steve Burns: yeah, if you guys don't mind I can do it

Jabba: Paul can we use your guitar? is that ok? hop over Steve

Steve Burns: ah, I'll give it a go anyway, a little bit of fame!

Jabba: we'll see if steve can play or not, we'll see if it's all mime! it could be all the **** mirrors? of television thanks to rocket science, rocket science are going to play in a sec

steve strikes a cord

Jabba: oh yeah!

Steve Burns: ok, uh we are looking for blues clues

plays we are looking for blues clues....

Steve Burns: and wait it's the same for all the songs too we just got a letter.....

Jabba: wooooh!!! Steve Burns from Blue's Clues, thank you rock and roll please stick around, come and have a seat on the couch, we'll watch these guys play. unbelievable. come and lounge it up, that was superb, wow

Steve Burns: that was a dream come true huh?

Jabba: oh man! look out Paul you're in trouble, a blues clues cover could be out! steve, stick around. now if you want to speak to steve blues clues call 1902 220 330 we're giving away blue's clues videos and cds. you should be watching blue's clues all this week 12.30pm on nick jr and join in blue's treasure hunt, there's big prizes to win. stick around here on the joint......

goes to rocket science playing...

Jabba: with us from blue's clues steve burns, he's still here, which is such a good thing just .. and I'm loving it, we have someone on the phone who wants to talk to you Michelle is on the line from port Augusta, Michelle are you there?

Michelle: yeah

Jabba: how are you?

Michelle: good thanks

Jabba: do you watch blues clues?

Michelle: yep, I got 2 little kids who love the show yeah

Jabba: how old are your kids?

Michelle: um, 18 months and 3 um

Jabba: what do you like about the show?

Michelle: it's whole originality, different to every other show. pretty much

Steve Burns: that's great

Michelle: it's great, colorful, bright, happy

Jabba: is it kinda a weird situation to have a good kids tv show that kids aren't meant to be watching tv?

Steve Burns: it is weird, it's kinda like uh kinda weird. cause what were trying to do on blue's clues, we're trying to get them to play tv, we're trying to get them to actively participate in their viewing as opposed to just sitting there like this.... draws a blank look yeah and at the same time as she'll attest to, you know the kids that watch the show get kinda addicted to it, so in a way we're addicting them to tv, but we're really addicting the to really kinda aggressive tv as opposed to passive tv.

Jabba: Michelle do you find that? do your kids join in?

Michelle: yeah yeah

Steve Burns: I always say it's kinda like the rocky horror children's show

Jabba: and do you join in yourself Michelle?

Michelle: yeah I sit down and have a watch

Jabba: excellent, we're going to send you out a video, Play Along With Blues Clues and Blue's big treasure, which Oscar kinda listens to and he looks around at the tv "where's the pictures?" he spins out hard. thanks for ringing Michelle, Joanne is on the line, Joanne?

Jo: hi

Jabba: how are you

Jo: good thank you how are you?

Jabba: good. are you a blue's clues fan at all ?

Jo: I'm not but my niece is she just loves it. really yeah

Jabba: how old is she?

Jo: she's nearly two nearly two.

Jabba: that's cool. what age do you kinda recommend people watching the show?

Jo: I think any age , young kids they love it. it's nice and simple, it's really easy to follow

Steve Burns: yeah, that's when we get them, we get them around, from 1 to 5 . yeah that's when we steal their brains

Jo: yeah definitely

Jabba: so ah, what other kinda kids shows do you watch Joanne?

Jo: um, well I don't but she like shows like hi5, anything with music in it, she loves it

Jabba: they're a danger hi5, and what about you, who were you're kinda childhood heroes when you were a kid? childhood tv heroes?

Jo: oh god, hr puffnstuff?

Steve Burns: hr puffnstuff? sid and marty croft? me too! that was my favorite show when I was really little

Jo: yeah I loved it, and my niece loves it now too.

Steve Burns: it went of the air when I turned like 6 , in the states, so I just have these weird kinda primordial memories of this magic flute and this weird kinda dragon thing that jumped around, Sigmund and the sea monster and all those things.

Jabba: it's on nickelodeon here

Steve Burns: yeah I know. it's accessible now

Jabba: oh, puff n stuff what were they kinda puffin on? thanks Joanne, we'll send you blues cd and video. puff n stuff indeed. thanks bye, oh. Blue's clues fans across Australia, now we're kinda waiting... have you ever heard of frenzal rhomb?

Steve Burns: no,

Jabba: they're a massive punk rock band here, massive they've had 5 albums here in Australia. they can't get bigger. you've heard of NOFX?

Steve Burns: yeah

Jabba: heard of Green day?

Steve Burns: oh yeah

Jabba: forget about them. frenzal rhomb, they're just massive and they've got a new album coming out. .......so take a look their comics, cartoons. are you a cartoons fan?

Steve Burns: I am a cartoons fan

Jabba: I think we should go and watch cartoons after the show, thanks for coming, nice to meet you Steve Burns!

Steve Burns: Absolutely, hey my pleasure. Thanks for letting me play guitar.

Jabba: Thanks Paul from rocket science, um thanks so much, go and have a rest in your thinking chair here is one of our favorite cartoons.....