New and very interesting post from Steve Whitmire

[antsamthompson9]

Bill Barretta

Huh…I will never deny or question what someone believes in their heart, because that’s who they are. But there’s a lot of assumption, misinformation and a big part of the story missing in here that...

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[Grumpo]

Bill Barretta

Huh…I will never deny or question what someone believes in their heart, because that’s who they are. But there’s a lot of assumption, misinformation and a big part of the story missing in here that...

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@antsamthompson9, as always, thank you for your very informative inputs!

Speaking for myself, i found that the following reply to Bill's post resonates with me the most:

Rick Burkhardt
I was born in 1970 and grew up with the Muppets, and I have really REALLY strong feelings and opinions about them. (Of course I do — they taught me to read and count!) I don't know any of the top-tier Muppet performers personally, but it makes a huge amount of sense to me that Steve (and others) who have inhabited the world of Muppets would also have really strong feelings and opinions about them. You are all WILDLY GREAT ARTISTS, some of the very best in the world. It's (sadly) normal for great artists to have major disagreements, sometimes in public, about where their art should go (or where it's already gone). (How many great rock bands have spent decades suing each other...) I respect Steve's feelings here. I respect Bill's too. I hope it can all get worked out ultimately, however slowly, in the personal world, if not the professional world. The professional (art/film/tv) world famously can be hard and mean — which is so NOT the Muppet world... I'm sure it's very hard, and sometimes painful, for the humans who've brought us so many decades of Muppet happiness to try to inhabit both.
Grace, as Frank O'Hara wrote, to "live as variously as possible."

P.S. I tend to rant when excited, and almost started on another one of those long posts nobody likes to read, about an artist' right to have strong values and strong opinions of his own (this is even a necessity, to be a good one) -- even if that can occasionally get the best of him; about each artist having their own heightened perception and specific creative process for the depth of their characters (quoting Frank Oz creating fictional biographies for his own, or David Suchet’s rigorous preparation process for Poirot); the subtle difference between debating a principle and denigrating the person, all but forgotten these days; or that the best way to win an argument is by citing words the other guy never said (e.g. half of the web now thinks that "whitmore wants muppets to die with original performer", totally untrue); some measure of recognition for man's talent and his years of service; etc...

But this brief message exchange with Bill in comments section of his post is better than a 1000 words of mine:

Jim Hemstead
Thank you, Bill Barretta ! I'm a fan of Steves, but I never understood this stance.

Author
Bill Barretta
I’m a fan of his too. Truly.