The Trying Game

The Trying Game is the 11th episode of Blue's Clues from the first season and the tenth to be released.

Summary

"Blue wants to practice, but practice what? In addition to finding Blue's Clues, we practice telling time with Tickety Tock, and we figure out what Baby Bear wants to be when she grows up. Then we predict what tadpoles, caterpillars, and a spider will look like when they grow up."

Elements

Question: What does Blue want to try to do?
Clues:
- 1. A Horn
- 2. A Basket
- 3. A Wheel
Answer to Blue's Clues: Ride a bicycle
Wrong Answer: Put the wheel in the basket, and honk the horn
Living room picture: A block tower
Skidoo location: Storybook Forest
Felt Frame picture: Felt Friends playing Jump ropes together

Recap

Steve invites the viewers inside the house to try their best in the hopes of learning something or getting even better at something we already know how to do. With Blue's encouragement, Steve takes up juggling, he starts with one ball, then two and three. We help Tickety Tock to tell what time it is by associating times with familiar objects and rituals. In Storybook Forest, we find Baby Bear. We also help young animals find their parents, noting that some animals change forms as they grow up.

Video Releases

Season One (3 Disc Set, DVD, 2014)
Nick Jr's Imagine That (VHS, 2001)

Characters

Blue
Steve (North America)
Kevin (United Kingdom)
Duarte (Portugal)
HyunShup Shim (South Korea)
Sidetable Drawer
Mailbox
Tickety Tock
Mr. Salt (play blue's clues sequence only)
Mrs. Pepper (play blue's clues sequence only)
Felt Friends
- Freddy
- Fifi
Snail
Baby Bear
Pigs
Worm
A tadpole and a frog
Newt
Fish
Spider
Ladybug
Grasshopper
Mosquito
Yellow Bird
Butterfly
Dragonfly

Locations

Objects

Blocks
Handy dandy notebook
Juggling balls
Easel
Paintbrush

Gallery

Watch Episode

This episode is available for streaming on Paramount Global's video streaming service Paramount+.

Trivia

In this episode, Cecilia Gonzalez is credited as one of Steve's friends, who's a relative of future senior animator Dayna Gonzalez. Animator Seth Zeichner is also one of Steve’s friends.
This is the first episode to air in 1997.
This is the second episode where Steve and Blue Skidoo to Storybook Forest.
- The first time was in Blue's Story Time.
The felt frame has felt friends trying to jump rope.
This is the first episode where Steve and Blue Skidoo outside.
This episode features a Noggin Blue Ball logo.
This was the second time a clue was found when Steve Skidooed into something, but this time Steve Skidoos into Storybook Forest and finds the second clue on a basket.
- The first is Blue's Favorite Song. Usually, it is the third clue found.
Blue does something similar to riding something in What's New, Blue?, but instead of riding a bike, she tries to ride roller skates.
Steve dances like Elvis at the beginning of the Mailtime song.
A basket is kind of like the second clue of the Season 5 premiere episode Can You Help?.
This is the second episode where a basket is a clue. The first is Blue Goes to the Beach. The only difference between the two is in that episode, the basket was the first clue, whereas in this episode and Can You Help?, the basket is the second clue.
The letter is small like in the next aired episode.
In the UK version, Kevin's balls didn't drop unlike Steve's (where his dropped) in the first clue.
In the UK version, Mailbox and Tickety Tock appeared during the theme song, but not in the US version.
When Steve says, "The mail's here!", he uses his voice pitch from Snack Time in his voice from the previous episode and the next aired episode Pretend Time.
Steve dances like in the movie Saturday Night Fever at the beginning of "We Just Figured Out Blue's Clues".
When Steve says "Yes! Yes!" after getting rid of the pawprint, his voice was taken from the episode Blue's Favorite Song, but it is low-pitched.
This is the third episode where two clues are found outside with only one clue found inside.
- This is the first time where both of the last two clues are found outside.
This is also the third episode where the children don't sing The So Long Song. Two other episodes of season one were What Time Is It for Blue? and Blue's Story Time. This is also the last episode to do that until Blue's Senses from Season 2, which was put to almost permanent use. However, they did in the UK version.
The last credit slide was unusually long as the credits were intended to be shorter. It needed a major update thanks to a deleted scene. The credit music was re-recorded, and the last credit slide was put back to the duration from A Snowy Day.
At the end of the episode, Steve does not say, "Thank you so much for all your help today". Instead, he says, "So am I".

Goofs

When Steve heads toward the kitchen to his right from the thinking chair with the 2 juggling balls, he reappears coming from the left of the thinking chair.
After Steve draws the third clue (a wheel), the pawprint is still seen on the wheel.
Steve skidoos to the book in this episode slower than usual.
- This also happened in Tickety's Favorite Nursery Rhyme and The Big Book About Us.

Blue's Clues Season 1