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

[rocketdave]

Wow, there's some real vitriol in this thread. I don't get the people who are angry at the Hensons for "abandoning" the Muppets by selling them to Disney. I mean, wasn't that their dad's plan before he died?

 

[BlakeConor14]

They abandoned the Muppets in fact the whole company to EM-TV in 2001

Wow, there's some real vitriol in this thread. I don't get the people who are angry at the Hensons for "abandoning" the Muppets by selling them to Disney. I mean, wasn't that their dad's plan before he died?

 

[beaker]

This Youtube Vlogger pretty much nails what many of us are thinking. So on point, on everything. Kudos to this guy, he articulated in half an hour what many of us are wondering.

 

[Beth C]

If you have the time, listen to this guy. He's not a die-hard fan, but he is knowledgeable of Muppet history and gives a pretty fair analysis of the situation.

This was well worth the listen. Everyone should have to watch this. It makes a lot of things clear.

I sure hope this eventually gets solved in a way that stops all the hurting going around. Jim would not have wanted all this mud-slinging and pain.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I reiterate: Jim was an excellent judge of character and talent.

But like I said earlier, Jim's kids were only teenagers in 1978. As adults in charge of a company, they may not have seen what Jim saw in Steve, or understood how to handle him. They probably saw him as more of a peer, since he was very young himself. And people do change. I'm sure Steve was very easy to get along with as a youngster working under Jim. But when you're a 50 year old worried about job security (such as being asked to train understudies who could, in theory, take over from you) things can get ugly. We've all been there.

Guys, you're...you're not seeing these people as human beings who have lived many years on this earth. You're treating them like fictional characters with personalities that must never waver or vary from their one sentence character bios.

 

[DarthGonzo]

Guys, you're...you're not seeing these people as human beings who have lived many years on this earth. You're treating them like fictional characters with personalities that must never waver or vary from their character bios.

That's been a huge problem across the board on this forum and I think that's a very big reason why so many people are blindly defending Steve or savagely damning the Disney Company, Henson's kids or anyone else on the dreaded "anti-Whitmere" train.

I'm going to speak honestly here. First and foremost on this forum, the loyalty here has always been to the Muppet characters, and people are very protective of them. People these last couple of weeks don't seem willing to look at this situation logically and realistically as much as just being up in arms about anything threatening to hurt the Muppets and anything else in their small fandom bubble. So Steve, who is so important to the modern incarnation of the Muppets, is being elevated while Disney and Henson's kids are being labeled as the bad guys. And no one seems willing to look at these people as real human beings with real pros and cons and understand that's there's sooooo much that goes on behind the scenes that we'd never know about.

And that said, if Disney themselves, three of Henson's kids and a few others have said their peace, don't you think that has to count for quite a bit. Life isn't a cartoon, all these people don't get together and suddenly decide to end Steve Whitmere's career and slander him for spits and giggles. That's not how the world works. But you'd think so with the way members here are turning against Henson's children's so angrily.

 

[CBPuppets]

Cheryl, to me, seemed to take all of this far more personally than Lisa and Brian did - I know Steve's comment in particular, "I am Kermit, Kermit is me," really set her off, but still, she did seem to come off as rather harsh in her response; Lisa and Brian were a little more tactful.

That Quote "I am Kermit and Kermit is me" reminds me of a quote from Frank Oz about Bert and Ernie.

"Bert is not me, Ernie is Not Jim, but there's an aspect of Jim in Ernie and an Aspect of Bert in Me"

 

[DarthGonzo]

That Quote "I am Kermit and Kermit is me" reminds me of a quote from Frank Oz about Bert and Ernie.

"Bert is not me, Ernie is Not Jim, but there's an aspect of Jim in Ernie and an Aspect of Bert in Me"

But even if Oz had said that he WAS Bert and Jim WAS Ernie, he would have had every right to say it, considering him and Jim created those characters and their personalities. Much different than Whitmere, who inherited Jim's signature character 35 years after he'd been created.

 

[CBPuppets]

I sure hope things will get better

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

If people will just chill out and let the storm weather itself out, surely we will see that all the drama isn't really necessary. Besides this, I cannot say anything nobody else has already said, so I'll continue to lurk in the shadows, hoping for the best for Whitmire and Vogel.