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

[Writersright]

Another thing is that I dislike how much different roles each performer....well performs. It causes a lot of characters to float around without a performer around. Look at Steve...we finally got a great Link Hogthrob after about 20 years and he will have to be recast again...if he will be recast at all.

Older Muppet fans will remember how long Scooter and Rowlf have been relegated to cameo status after Jim Henson and Richard Hunt passed away. The troupe of performers we have now is extremely talented but think of the gaps we get when Bill Baretta or Matt Vogel quits or somehow aren't able to perform anymore.

 

[BlakeConor14]

It's half past 6 here and I'm still waiting

 

[muppetlover123]

Now I'm lost, I thought Steve was fired

He just said before they told him the news 9 months ago, that's what happened is they had a call talking about all the work they were gonna do.

 

[dwayne1115]

Another thing is that I dislike how much different roles each performer....well performs. It causes a lot of characters to float around without a performer around. Look at Steve...we finally got a great Link Hogthrob after about 20 years and he will have to be recast again...if he will be recast at all.

Older Muppet fans will remember how long Scooter and Rowlf have been relegated to cameo status after Jim Henson and Richard Hunt passed away. The troupe of performers we have now is extremely talented but think of the gaps we get when Bill Baretta or Matt Vogel quits or somehow aren't able to perform anymore.

Well I think Muppet Studios and Sesame both learned from these lessons.
Take the Kevin Clash issue, and look how quickly and almost flawlessly Ryan Dillon took over for Elmo. That's the reason they now have understudis in case something frog frobid dose happen.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Another thing is that I dislike how much different roles each performer....well performs. It causes a lot of characters to float around without a performer around. Look at Steve...we finally got a great Link Hogthrob after about 20 years and he will have to be recast again...if he will be recast at all.

Older Muppet fans will remember how long Scooter and Rowlf have been relegated to cameo status after Jim Henson and Richard Hunt passed away. The troupe of performers we have now is extremely talented but think of the gaps we get when Bill Baretta or Matt Vogel quits or somehow aren't able to perform anymore.

Yeah, but luckily they still have a lot of guys they can call on when they need extra performers.
What bothers me is the fact that, during the Muppet Show they came up with new characters every year. Even some from specials like Bean Bunny, or guys from JHH and Muppets Tonight have stuck around. And the performers were encouraged to keep coming up with new characters. But now, because the cast is so huge there's no room for the performers to really stretch their skills and experiment. All they can do is take on other people's characters.

 

[scooterfan360]

That's exactly what I've been saying for years.

and if anything, they should have fired the writers, and bring in some, who have knowledge on the Muppet characters, instead of blaming and firing Steve, for making Kermit seem bittier and depressed, and angry, they should have blamed the writers.

 

[galagr]

Of course...the first time I actually care about a thought of the week video and they delay it

 

[Muppetboy09]

Of course...the first time I actually care about a thought of the week video and they delay it

Wait, is it officially delayed again?

 

[galagr]

Wait, is it officially delayed again?

Not offically, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me the way that the news is blowing up.

 

[DARTH MUPPET]

Another interesting thing is that Disney offered him 'consolation prizes' like a Disney Legend award if he signed an NDA. (On a side note, this year's Disney Legends are a joke when you consider the 'Disney' part of it.)

Now, to your point...I think legacy Muppets are very hard to shape since the Muppets are part of the Muppeteer's own personality. Grover, Piggy and Fozzy are not just characters, they're part of Frank Oz.

Now when a performer 'inherits' a character, they can't 100% duplicate the character because they're obviously not the same person as the original performer. The character will then mostly be like it was with the original performer mixed with the style of the new performer. This way we have characters like the Jim-Kermit, Steve-Kermit, Frank-Grover & Eric-Grover. Honoring the characters and original performer as much as possible but adding a bit of the new performer to fill in "the gaps".

That being said, the roles can of course be recast but recasting does change the characters a bit so it's something that needs to be done as few as possible with the 'main' Muppets.

Steve isn't Kermit, but he's a big part of the current Kermit and a part of the current Kermit is Steve.

I don't know about them being a Joke this year, meaning the legends awards, Mark Hamill and Whoopi Goldberg are deserving!

But People die, Get Fired, Get Sick Move on, Recasting does and will happen Its sad but not the end of the world. There were fans who weren't happy with Whitmire's Kermit at first. His first few movies If you notice and TV shows Kermits Lines were limited because he didn't have his voice and Character down pat yet. So to say Whitmire was always or Is Kermit is just not True Jim Henson Is the real Kermit the others just follow In his footsteps. I have said this before, If Disney considered Firing All the Muppets Muppeteer's like Comedy Central was considering with Futurama's voice then I might consider walking away from the Fandom but thankfully that Is not the case!