Steve Whitmire has left the Muppets, Matt Vogel to continue as Kermit

D'Snowth

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So Steve gets fired for being a little bossy but when Richard hunt bad-mouthed a guest star to a tabloid paper he keeps his job
Jim never had the heart to fire people, even when others like David Lazer thought he should; he couldn't face them again afterward if he did. Apparently the only employee Jim actually fired himself was Diana Birkenfield, because she often drug him into heated arguments over things she felt were a waste of his time and talent.
 

CensoredAlso

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Yeah, it didn't. But it was well known that Richard Hunt was difficult, and often bullied younger performers. Henson never fired him for it.
Ehhh, well being a bit of a hard a** teacher is not the same as being difficult in contract negotiations. That's a whole other animal and companies ultimately care about that more.
 

D'Snowth

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At least Stephen Colbert is having fun with all of this:

Even Seth Meyers managed to get off a hilarious zinger regarding Steve's termination over his business conduct: "Apparently, and this is shocking, he put his hand up a co-worker's butt. . . . Not Kermit's."
 
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me myself i

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I'd like to know what the other performers think, especially Dave, but I doubt we'll ever know. Talk about being in a tough spot either way.

I really wish Henson had gone with a simple 'split due to creative differences' and left it at that. Maybe boring and cryptic but at least there would have been some dignity. Taking a swipe at Steve with that 'unacceptable business practices' comment was just asking for trouble, imo. Of course, it was going to get ugly. How could they not see that coming?

I used to watch behind the scene stuff with the Muppets and thought it looked like such fun, a real dream job. And how Jim Henson said he created Fraggle Rock to promote world peace was so admirable, but now to find out that they all secretly hated each other is just so sad.

I wish I could go back to not knowing any of this. I have a horrible feeling it's always going to color how I see the Muppets from now on. Such a bummer.
 

HJL1

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At least Stephen Colbert is having fun with all of this:

Even Seth Meyers managed to get off a hilarious zinger regarding Steve's termination over his business conduct: "Apparently, and this is shocking, he put his hand up a co-worker's butt. . . . Not Kermit's."
Who is performing Kermit here ?
 
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