Hand puppet:Blue Hand Puppet

Nickelodeon, the cable-television channel with programming directed at children, broadcast the first episode of its "Blue's Clues" in 1996. The show combined the principles of early-childhood learning with innovative techniques of animation and production to create a series that empowered, challenged, and built the self-esteem of preschoolers while also entertaining them. The show ran on the Viacom network for 10 years and became Nickelodeon's most popular show. Each episode featured a puzzle for viewers to solve. In the show, Blue, the animated dog and the host (Steve Burns and, later, Donovan Patton) presented clues to help viewers discover the puzzle's solution. Show creators developed increasingly challenging and developmentally appropriate problems for viewers to address. Perhaps because it relied so heavily on research, for example, testing each episode three times with about a hundred children before it aired, it earned a number of awards for programming, educational software, and licensing, and it received nine Emmy nominations. The show's producers also met regularly with the manufacturers of Blue's Clues merchandise and products to ensure that the quality and educational value of toys and other goods matched that of the show itself