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

[KrazyJoe]

I think they're going to pull the oldest trick in the book for releasing something with the least amount of press and controversy....I bet they drop the thought of the week late on Friday afternoon.

 

[me myself i]

The thing I just can't get out of my head is Brian saying he wanted to get rid of Steve since the mid-90s. I just ...... I don't get it?? If Steve were really as horrible as the Hensons make out, why did they keep him on?

Like if any other company had a toxic employee who was unprofessional, disrespectful to the bosses, made outrageous demands, blackballed new recruits, created a hostile work environment for years, and above all produced work that was determined to be sub-par - surely it'd behoove that company to fire the toxic individual. You'd think that, but no. Instead, they continue to hire him for 20 more years??

IDK, maybe they knew there would be an ugly scene and were just putting it off for another day, and another, and another....but for 20 years?? That's just so bizarre. I can't wrap my head around it.

Something just doesn't add up. The more answers we get, the more questions I have.

 

[SarahOnBway]

The thing I just can't get out of my head is Brian saying he wanted to get rid of Steve since the mid-90s. I just ...... I don't get it?? If Steve were really as horrible as the Hensons make out, why did they keep him on?

Like if any other company had a toxic employee who was unprofessional, disrespectful to the bosses, made outrageous demands, blackballed new recruits, created a hostile work environment for years, and above all produced work that was determined to be sub-par - surely it'd behoove that company to fire the toxic individual. You'd think that, but no. Instead, they continue to hire him for 20 more years??

IDK, maybe they knew there would be an ugly scene and were just putting it off for another day, and another, and another....but for 20 years?? That's just so bizarre. I can't wrap my head around it.

Something just doesn't add up. The more answers we get, the more questions I have.

Totally. And it's not like when Kermit wasn't the main role in whatever production that was as a punishment for Steve - because when Kermit wasn't, Rizzo almost always was.

 

[mbmfrog]

Whoopi, I can understand because of her part in Lion King. Mark Hamill and Stan Lee are legends in their own right but not Disney legends. They juust joined the Disney familiy a few years ago and in the grand scheme of Disney, they are just a blip on the radar.
It's clearly that they were just picked because they're big names.

It's an absolute joke that they went in before people like:

-Jim Cummings (voice of Pete for more than 25 years, a huge part of the Disney Afternoon with characters like Darkwing Duck., Monterey Jack and lot's of others.
-June Foray (voice of Magica de Spell for about 30 years, Granni Gummi, parts in the original Cinderella, Peter Pan and Mulan)
-Paul Winchell (voice of Tigger for a long time,Grumpy Gummy

And to keep it more on-topic. I don't see Jim Henson as a Disney Legend either, even if he got a beautiful induction. Thay being said, he did contribute more tha a lot of other inductees by virtue of the Disney World Special and Muppetvision 3D.



Now baqck on topic...hurry up with that video Disney. I'm curious not only to see the performance but also what the thought is and people will interpret it as relating to the current Whitmire situation.

Wasn't Paul Winchell already a Disney Legend ?

 

[ErinAardvark]

The thing I just can't get out of my head is Brian saying he wanted to get rid of Steve since the mid-90s. I just ...... I don't get it?? If Steve were really as horrible as the Hensons make out, why did they keep him on?

That's what I've been saying. Something doesn't add up here. I tell ya, I'm confused!

That's one! One confused aardvark! Ah-ah-ah-ah!
(sorry, I couldn't resist)

 

[Duke Remington]

Either way what I got from the video is we possibly have some new Muppet Projects on the way.. in the video Steve said they just had a conference call with all the puppeteers and them saying they all need to rest up for all the work they have coming up. So that's good

That's what I feel too. That Steve and his behavior were preventing The Muppets Studio from cranking out more product.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

The thing I just can't get out of my head is Brian saying he wanted to get rid of Steve since the mid-90s. I just ...... I don't get it?? If Steve were really as horrible as the Hensons make out, why did they keep him on?

Like if any other company had a toxic employee who was unprofessional, disrespectful to the bosses, made outrageous demands, blackballed new recruits, created a hostile work environment for years, and above all produced work that was determined to be sub-par - surely it'd behoove that company to fire the toxic individual. You'd think that, but no. Instead, they continue to hire him for 20 more years??

IDK, maybe they knew there would be an ugly scene and were just putting it off for another day, and another, and another....but for 20 years?? That's just so bizarre. I can't wrap my head around it.

Something just doesn't add up. The more answers we get, the more questions I have.

Well, over on the Tough Pigs forum, someone said something that made a lot of sense. The Muppets lost Jim at the very beginning of the 90s, and then Richard Hunt just two years later, and Frank Oz was performing less and less. They were effectively missing three of their most important players, and several key characters. If they had fired Steve, than Jerry Nelson and Dave Goelz would've been the only guys left that worked with Jim, and even more characters might've gone missing. Not to mention, i'm sure that would've been terrible for morale.

And, i'm just adding my two cents here, almost as soon as the 90s were over, the JHC was sold and was in really deep poop. They sold the Muppets to Disney, and during that transitional period i'm sure it would've been unimaginable not to have guys like Steve and Dave around to keep things afloat. And on top of that, they were hardly doing anything with the characters until about 2008.

 

[Muppet Master]

The thing I just can't get out of my head is Brian saying he wanted to get rid of Steve since the mid-90s. I just ...... I don't get it?? If Steve were really as horrible as the Hensons make out, why did they keep him on?

Like if any other company had a toxic employee who was unprofessional, disrespectful to the bosses, made outrageous demands, blackballed new recruits, created a hostile work environment for years, and above all produced work that was determined to be sub-par - surely it'd behoove that company to fire the toxic individual. You'd think that, but no. Instead, they continue to hire him for 20 more years??

IDK, maybe they knew there would be an ugly scene and were just putting it off for another day, and another, and another....but for 20 years?? That's just so bizarre. I can't wrap my head around it.

Something just doesn't add up. The more answers we get, the more questions I have.

YES! This is exactly why I can't take Brian's words seriously.

If it were the mid-90s and Steve was being a terrible, horrible person who was ruining the muppets and was an awful performer, why not replace him? It had only been a couple years, the internet wasn't around. How many people would actually realize he'd been replaced anyways? Only diehard muppet fans would and they wouldn't have anywhere to spread the news. Something's fishy about this.

 

[MuppetsRule]

YES! This is exactly why I can't take Brian's words seriously.

If it were the mid-90s and Steve was being a terrible, horrible person who was ruining the muppets and was an awful performer, why not replace him? It had only been a couple years, the internet wasn't around. How many people would actually realize he'd been replaced anyways? Only diehard muppet fans would and they wouldn't have anywhere to spread the news. Something's fishy about this.

It's possible that Steve's actions and/or behavior got worse. It may have been a minor problem in the 90s that was tolerated. As Steve felt more and more like he owned Kermit he may have gotten more insistent and more intolerable. Didn't he say say something along the lines of "I am Kermit and the Muppets don't exist without Kermit" in contract negotiations?

 

[D'Snowth]

One other thing I will add is that the Henson family said recasting Kermit was long overdue, and I see there's actually a small number of people here and there who agree with the sentiment.

Steve's been performing Kermit for 27 years . . . Jim performed him for 35 . . . Steve hasn't been performing Kermit quite as long as Jim: personality conflicts aside, how do they figure the recast is long overdue? I mean, on an unrelated note, Alan's been running Hooper's Store longer than anyone - even Mr. Hooper - does that mean Hooper's is long overdue for new management?