Steve Burns of 'Blue's Clues' on why he left the beloved show: 'I was going bald'

There was one big clue leading up to Steve's departure "for college": His hairline!

Steve Burns, the beloved host of Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues" from 1996 to 2002, is most recognizable in a green striped rugby shirt and khaki pants. This week, fifteen years after he gave up his seat in the Thinking Chair, he opened up to the Daily Mail about why he really left the show -- and you've gotta respect the rationale.

Nickelodeon

"I was going bald and I kind of looked around and I'm like -- the people who decided that I should wear these pants are not going to choose a wig with any dignity for me," Burns said with a laugh. "It's just not going to happen."

Now 43, Burns is happy to talk about his time on the children's program: It "feels like several lifetimes ago for me, and the fact that it's still relevant at all or that there are still children who watch it -- or that there are young adults who remember it so fondly -- is a real honor, and really really nice."

His outfit aside, Burns has nothing but praise for "Blue's Clues." "It was an incredibly made show," he said. But after seven years as the only live-action character, the commitment was starting to weigh on Burns, who says his real career was as a voiceover artist.

'To be honest with you, I was just really burned out," he said. "I was in every take of every show every day for all those years on a blue screen ... I just didn't have any more performance left in the show-business land."

Fully aware that the internet took his disappearance from Hollywood and ran with it, Burns now pokes fun at his transformation from TV star to, well, bald normal guy. Instead of individually shutting down hoax rumors about his death via car wreck or heroin overdose, his Instagram bio clarifies in one simple word. "Steve Burns," it reads. "Alive."

Burns is the proud owner of the original Thinking Chair, the big red armchair where he and animated Blue would ponder the day's mysterious clues. Producers gave him the prop for his 25th birthday. His own dog, Mickey, now loves to sit on it (and maybe do some thinking -- who knows?).

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