Where is Steve Whitmire Petition

[Luke]

Artie did a terrific job for his first live appearance as Kermit, and in time will blossom into the Muppet family just beautifully. He has Jim's tone, and that's all you need to craft Kermit into the calm and collective sole that he really is.

No offence to Artie, and its a great honour he has been chosen to do Kermit, but i really don't see any of Jims tone in the performances we have seen so far. Obviously some puppeteers, no matter how bad or good they are can "get" certain characters and others can't. When the Muppeteer auditions happened numerous people who were there mentioned there were people attending who could "do" many of the main characters perfectly so i'm a little confused why we are seeing very stiff and vocally off performances at the moment. It's not Jims Kermit, its not Steves Kermit .. its not ANY Kermit.

Of course if you do have other video of Artie doing Kermit and are willing to post it like you have said then i'm sure we would all love to see it and can then comment on how wrong we were but you haven't so far, and however well anyone else can "do" Kermit the feeling is very much that if Steve is indeed gone then after nearly twenty years as the frog the Disney company ought to at least acknowledge his service with the Muppets since in puppetry its obviously a great tradition that puppeteers stick with their characters and they are not easily handed around from one hand to another.

 

[Hat Sharpener]

Can anyone re-tell the story of Eric Jacobson's arrival on the scene? If memory serves, he started on Sesame Street first, then phased into the Muppets after Frank dubbed his lines for Muppets in Space over other puppeteer(s). Did Eric do small public appearances like these before the Very Merry... Movie?

It was pretty controversial as well, but somewhat less-so because Eric is really good (IMHO) and, well.. because it wasn't Kermit.

I'm just thinking, that if Artie is indeed Kermit's Timothy Dalton*, what would the process be? Since there is no Sesame Street to warm up on, this could be it...

If so, Eric has improved a lot. Hopefully Artie would too...

- Derek

*Lazenby doesn't count, or at least he doesn't work in my metaphor.

 

[Drtooth]

It was pretty controversial as well, but somewhat less-so because Eric is really good (IMHO) and, well.. because it wasn't Kermit.

I think you really summed it up there nicely. I mean, sure... when I heard Eric's Grover for the first time, all I could think was "What happened to Frank? Is he alright?" And if you watch those earlier Eric segments, he seems sort of halted and trying too hard to sound like Frank did... and it was a little awkward. Flash Forward to the last few years of SS... he's almost indistinguishable some of the time. And why? Not because he tried harder to sound like Frank, but because he grew into the characters, and he relaxed into the roles. He's comfortable with them now, and he's more like Frank's Grover, Fozzie, Bert and whatever because of it.

As for Kermit... well... he holds everything together. it took forever for them to really get him back into the spotlight, even with Steve... which is why he had minor roles (or more minor than the previous films) in MCC and MTI, and why Clifford is the host of Muppets Tonight. Now, whatever reason, emergency recast, understudy, alternate... we have someone else doing Kermit, and he doesn't quite have the experience some of the other puppeteers have, and he's got the role of the most important and popular character. I also think that once he gets further used to the role and gets comfortable with it, he can easily perform Kermit the way Eric eventually did with Frank's characters. Seems to me his performance was stiff because it was his first time doing it in public. Maybe, just maybe he was trying too hard, and he was nervous. I'm sure Muppet Insider saw better off the cuff, not really that important bits Artie did that were much looser, and more Kermit like.

I'm just thinking, that if Artie is indeed Kermit's Timothy Dalton*, what would the process be? Since there is no Sesame Street to warm up on, this could be it...

Well, I heard of Joe, William, Jack and Averell Dalton... but not Timothy (Crap... I wish I wasn't the only one that got that joke )

 

[frogboy4]

I'm just thinking, that if Artie is indeed Kermit's Timothy Dalton*, what would the process be? Since there is no Sesame Street to warm up on, this could be it...

If so, Eric has improved a lot. Hopefully Artie would too...

- Derek

*Lazenby doesn't count, or at least he doesn't work in my metaphor.

Ooooh, I was going to say that I hope Artie is just Kermit's George Lazenby. Either that or if Artie has really been given Kermit then the approach should be very different. It's still coming off as an impression or impersonation of Kermit.

 

[Oscarfan]

Something just occurred to me, if one thinks Steve is leaving, he clearly was around to shoot the new Muppet YouTube videos Beaker will be in.

 

[rexcrk]

I finally heard the "new" Kermit voice.... it was... decent... good enough that the casual fans won't really notice, but us hard core fans will definitely notice the difference in voice and puppeteering.

I just hope Steve's OK, he's been my Kermit more than Jim has believe it or not (I was born in 1988).

 

[dwmckim]

Artie's performances have been good. Servicable. As i said upthread i see a lot of potential...but that's all i've seen: potential. Good (i could even go so far as saying "great" as far as recasts go)...but Steve was "superior" and even though one wouldn't expect a recast to also be "superior" at first, i would at the very least expect "excellent'.

My thoughts on the quality of Kermit's performances - like my opinions on everything else Muppet-related (people pretty much know by now that i'm very honest about praising something that deserves it but also don't hold back about what i find lacking) isn't going to change based on the reason why it's happening. I can judge the quality of a performance regardless of how come a change happened (but i will also be honest that i think there are a number of fans whose opinions are a bit colored by their feelings...even if it's purely subconscious). But what i was saying earlier is that by knowing why, that allows us to accept the change. If we know that this is something happening with Steve's blessing and not something dirty on the part of Disney, we can at least watch a new Kermit performance rooting for Artie to succeed; he would have more support. When we watch Kermit, we're given some freedom to sit back and enjoy the show instead of having our thoughts clouded by "what IS this?".

For many of us, Steve IS Kermit now. When Steve goes missing and no one knows why, the frog goes missing as well even if someone has his hand in the puppet and is saying his lines with his best Kermit voice. Just as we have a strong emotional connection to Kermit - practically consider him a member of our families - the same feelings extend towards Steve. We want to know that he's being treated with respect and that the change is not something basically being done behind his back. The person on the throne needs to be an heir and not an usurper.

It's not like we even need every little detail. If something is going on with Steve's family for example, all Disney has to say is Steve is taking some personal time off to deal with a family crisis as he all hope he'll be back as Kermit soon. No personal details revealed about him or his family, but at least a general reason and an affirmation of his rightful place as the official performer. The silence is really deafening. No one is talking on or off the record - anonymously - and that is not a good sign. If there's a perfectly logical and fine explanation (Steve is recovering from voice loss, Steve is ill, Steve is taking a vacation to celebrate his 50th birthday, Steve had schedule conflicts), then why is it so difficult or taboo to say so. Again, just the barest most general statement is fine - huge details not needed - it shows that Disney is sympathetic towards the fans and not hostile towards them.

Regardless of the reason, we'll still critique Artie with the same microscope Steve was subjected to - commenting on the good, the bad, or the ugly - and we'll also be a little curious why someone pretty low on the Muppeteer totem pole was given this task - but we can at least be free to support him. We can accept him - accepting and liking are two different things. But as long as no one knows why Steve isn't doing Kermit, that's all we think about when we see Kermit. Our minds by nature won't be as focused on the performance as they are thinking of stuff outside of it. It was like how the opening sketch with Rudy Giulani on Saturday Night Live gave the audience the affirmation it needed that it was okay to laugh and enjoy the show again after 9/11. (The audience may have then thought SNL was either a triumphant comeback or another year of "Saturday Night Dead" but at least we had that emotional freedom to watch the show and hopefully allow ourselves to be entertained...though it still didn't free the performers to give lackluster performances or be called on the carpet if they did).

 

[ferrell]

I seem to remember a few months back Disney was saying that they are looking for New muppet voice actors for promotional uses and various small projects..it was somewhere on this board , I find it hard to think that people have already forgotten about it,I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Steve was not fired and isn't Ill (or isn't deathly ill) and that we would have heard something from either Steve,his family,Disney,the henson company,or one of the muppeters if he had been,and the fact that we haven't heard anything from any of them means that he wasn't fired or is deathly sick..now again I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Steve is probably real busy right now working on various projects,remember we have Fraggle Rock movie,a muppet movie, dark crystal 2 and he may still be doing stuff here and there for sesame street and maybe even more stuff that we don't know about for the Henson company,we know that there are muppeters that come to this board and since no one has said anything of a negative nature chances are we are all blowing this out of porportion,why doesn't Artie say anything it's simple it could simply be a claus in his contract which says he can't say certain things..also chances are Steve probably approved of who would carry on the voice of Kermit or who would be his understudy,so let's give Artie a break,I read this thread first before hearing his kermit and was expecting someone horrible like someone you would hear on Dr Demento but when I heard it I was surprised at how much he sounded like Jim,sure he has some stuff to work on but IF he was approved by Steve let's give him a chance to work on the character,I trust Steve's judgement..after all Steve can't be 2 places at once and the Muppets NEED promotion and it's good that Disney is promoting them..

 

[beaker]

It's true and happened back in the early 2000's. That's just one incident that happened with David Rudman, who at the time was working on a show idea. This is from the mouth of Rudman himself, I just know what I heard.
But let's stick to the topic which is Steve. Steve has a personal and private life as well, and it's really no ones business what happened to Steve Whitmire. I assure you all he is alive and well, but sometimes things come up just like with anyone else.
Artie did a terrific job for his first live appearance as Kermit, and in time will blossom into the Muppet family just beautifully. He has Jim's tone, and that's all you need to craft Kermit into the calm and collective sole that he really is.

Well, who here can argue that 1990-1991 Steve Whitmire as Kermit wasnt a bit rough at first?

I'm aware of a number of rather unfortunate backroom politics
(usually regarding Sesame Street) and egos that would make most fans wince.

And I feel people should NOT be shocked if Steve Whitmire
has passed the Kermit torch on. We can't expect a character to be performed forever by the same person. Not every character is as lucky to have a Dave Goelz, and look at Eric Jacobsson. My goodness that guy IS Fozzie and Piggy. I don't even second guess it, he's filled the shoes of Oz in ways I never imagined.

You all knew some decisions would happen that wouldnt sit well or would be challenging to accept. Shouldnt we all be estatic that as many of us predicted a few years back, Disney is making 2010 its coming out party for the Muppets to return to prominence and the spotlight?

 

[beaker]

I also wanted to add:

Hypothetically, if for whatever reason(Steves decision or not)
Kermit will no longer be performed by Whitmire(which I agree with all of you, IS Kermit) ...

What will the implications mean to you? Many of us were not happy that Disney bought the Muppets. Now, 5 and a half years later I think it was the Muppets only hope.

If Steve is no longer Kermit, will some of you stop being Muppet fans? When Elmo pretty much took over Sesame Street, I admit to backing away from being as large a fan.

Someone said that Steve recently taped sketches as Beaker, but I also know out of the blue situations can dramatically change
a situation. I think Whitmire, after over three decades of service of Muppet performing should deserve our respect for his privacy.

I suspect, be if this is short term or permanent, it being more Whitmire's decision than some backroom underhanded politics.
I have hardly seen any actual voice acting on the part of the "new/replacement" Kermit so I'll reserve judgement.

But I wonder to many of you, does the future of the Muppets in your mind depend on Whitmire continuing or hanging it up?