On the 25th anniversary of the popular Nick Jr. television show Blue’s Clues, beloved American actor Steve Burns has returned to explain his sudden departure years after leaving.

Back in his iconic striped green shirt and khaki pants, Nick Jr. shared a heartwarming two-minute video on Tuesday (September 7) for older fans of the kids’ show. 

“Hi, you got a second? Okay,” he began.

“You remember how when we were younger run around and hang out with Blue and find clues and talk to Mr Salt and freak out about the mail and do all the fun stuff and then one day I was like ‘Oh hey, guess what? Big news…I’m leaving. This is my brother Joe, he’s your new best friend’ and then I got on a bus and I left and we didn’t see each other for like a really long time. Can we just talk about that?” Burns continued.

Burns left the children’s show, which aired from 1996 to 2006, in 2002, according to a report from CBS News.

Acknowledging his exit from the show was “kind of abrupt”, Burns told the now-grown millennials that were once his fans that he went to college. 

Paying homage to the catchy theme song, Burns added that his college experience was great “because I got to use my mind and take a step at a time and now I literally am doing many of things that I wanted to do.”

In true Steve fashion, he then turns the attention to the listening older audience, marvelling at how grown everyone has gotten as the years went on and the realities of adulthood set in. 

“It’s just so amazing right? I mean, we started out with clues and now it’s what? Student loans and jobs and families and some of it has been kind of hard, you know?” he said.

“I know you know and I wanted to tell you that I really couldn’t have all of that without your help. And in fact, all the help that you helped me with when we were younger is still helping me today. Right now. And that’s super cool,” the

Burns’ touching message was simple: “After all these years, I never forgot you…ever. And I’m super glad we’re still friends.”

“Thanks for listening. You look great by the way! Whatever it is you’re doing it’s working!” he exclaimed. 

The video has received over 28 million views on Nick Jr.’s Facebook page, and another 21.5 million views on Twitter since it was uploaded, with thousands of older fans showering the show and former host Burns with praise for making their collective childhoods memorable. 

Watch the video in full below: