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

[Muppetboy09]

Take this as you will, but "muppetmaker" on Reddit (who has been identified as Dan Becker of "Getting Felt Up Puppetry Podcast") said the following about this statement:

Take this with a huge bowl of salty saltings until someone proves that it's really him who is writing this article. From what I know the contents of this letter seem fishy fish. (but i could be wrong)

 

[gravy]

Anyone else having trouble posting on Steve's new blog? I keep trying to post a nice comment, but I keep getting taken to a coding error page.

Yep. No matter, though.

 

[Oscarfan]

I'd like to think that it's Steve, but fans 'round these parts are not the most sound people sometimes (no offense).

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems like I can't get to Tough Pigs now. Hopefully whatever's going on will resolve soon and I can read it.

I just realized: Matt's first public performance as Kermit will be in an online video, and the first time we heard Matt as The Count was in an online video.

I keep joking in my head that Matt has taken over 65 percent of all recent (current?) recasts.... But then again, you could say that Jerry Nelson (who he's primarily taken over characters of) performed 65 percent or more of the Muppets.

It's also interesting that this news came out on Jerry Nelson's birthday.

 

[Mo Frackle]

It seems like I can't get to Tough Pigs now. Hopefully whatever's going on will resolve soon and I can read it.

Too much traffic, I'm guessing. Looks like ToughPigs has unintentionally moved away from being a simple little fan site this week!

 

[minor muppetz]

Too much traffic, I'm guessing. Looks like ToughPigs has unintentionally moved away from being a simple little fan site this week!

Well I have been able to read it now.

 

[dwayne1115]

Well I have been able to read it now.

Here go here:
https://stevewhitmire-muppetpundit.com/2017/07/11/its-time-to-get-things-started/

 

[minor muppetz]

While I thought it was odd that Whitmire would retire, last night I thought of a quote from Frank Oz on why he's distanced himself from the Muppets to direct, where he said something like "when you've done the same thing for over 30 years, eventually you want to do something else", and started wondering if that was the case with Whitmire. But then I saw the blog post and now know that he was forced out of the Muppets.

I wonder if any of the other performers thought about leaving. I'm glad that they didn't, and I can't decide whether it's odd that they have stayed despite it (to be loyal) or not (they might need the work, but then again, many of them are currently active with Sesame Street as well).

 

[minor muppetz]

Okay, I'd mentioned that I recently saw a video a few weeks ago with Kermit talking about the beginning of Summer, with Whitmire as Kermit, and thought it was new, and was surprised that nobody'd mentioned that online, but now I decided to watch it again and saw that it was posted in 2015 (I guess I saw it posted on Facebook and thought it was new, must have either missed it when it debuted or forgot about it).

 

[rexcrk]

Wasn't Steve performing Link in those new Pigs in Space videos? Unless of course they were recorded before October 2016.

That's really a bummer though. I'm curious to know what reasons they have to be unhappy with Steve's performances. And was it just with Kermit? Or as a performer in general? I mean, I don't know how comfortable they all would've been if Steve got fired as just Kermit but stuck around as at least Rizzo.