TORONTO — Two decades ago, “Blue’s Clues” stormed children’s television with something colorless, low-tech and ordinary: silence.

Last winter, on the Toronto set of “Blue’s Clues & You!” — a reboot premiering Nov. 11 on Nickelodeon — silence was still the star, even though the host was new and (relatively) loud. Joshua Dela Cruz, 30, bounced around an empty stage in a striped shirt (blue, not the original host’s signature green), strumming his handy dandy guitar. His co-star was a dot made by a laser pointer, a stand-in for his “best friend,” Blue, the waggy puppy who would be added later by animators, with a subtle 3-D revamp to increase her cuddle factor.

Dela Cruz sang about how smart and hardworking you, the imagined viewer, are, then leaned close to the camera to ask a question: “What’s your superpower?” Then came the silence: one, two, three, four beats long, an eon in TV time. Finally, Dela Cruz’s pie-eyed face lit up as if you’d responded brilliantly, and he gushed, “Great job!”

“Blue’s Clues,” which debuted in 1996 and ran for six seasons, followed by a spinoff called “Blue’s Room,” was the first children’s cable show built entirely around direct address, inviting preschoolers to play along with games and solve mini-mysteries (like “What snack does Blue want?”). The show was interactive before interactivity became mundane; those built-in silences left open for child participation.