Pepe should not have been in the Weezer video for "Keep Fishin'" either, if they were trying to re-enact The Muppet Show. HE DID NOT EXIST YET. Other than that, though, and Kermit instructing Fozzie to "hold down the fort" (wasn't that Scooter's job?), I don't think the video was a horribly inaccurate representation...
Scooter was yet to be recast at that point. And I do not see how Pepe shouldn't have been in that music video, considering that he was a popular character at the time, and Bill wasn't quite adapt at Rowlf or Dr. Teeth yet. It would have been a shame for him to sit on the sidelines and just silently perform yet to be recast officially. Plus, I always feel that the Muppets are still around at their theater still performing shows... just without the celebrity guests. After all, that's what VMX was about.
As for Muppet Show posters, they have the ugly early 00's Miss Piggy head photoshopped in there, so I find that a lot more disturbing.
No matter what, Pepe is not nor never will be near the all-eclipsing Elmo route. The Muppet Studios folk seem to understand better than the producers at Sesame Workshop that characters are best when they’re rotated out and it doesn’t work at all unless they’re paired with at least one other character. We’ll never have a Pepe’s World where he talks to camera and to himself. Pepe’s part of the gang and it’s almost like he’s always been there. I hope that there’s more of an even assortment of featured characters now that Scooter and the rest have been recast. I still want to see my Pepe a lot too. He’s injected so much life back into the brand. We should be thankful for him.
Another thing, Pepe is barely on any merchandise, considering. Sure, we had a couple action figures on the Palisades line, that push puppet that used a similar sculpt, a Jack in the Box kids meal premium (a regional chain to boot) and unwinnable carny plush from Nanco that no one managed to actually have available. If anything, the connection between Elmo and Animal is apt, considering that Animal is ALWAYS on merchandise. Maybe moreso than Kermit.
I agree with that statement about Elmo. Of course, MS, unlike SW, cares quite a bit more about their adult fan base and doesn't have to cater to younger demographics that have hundreds of other (read: bad) kid shows stealing their spotlight. I no way has any Muppet project to date been half as Pepecentric as SS is Elmocentric. You do see a LOT of Beakers, Chefs, and Animals... but Pepe is used semi-regularly. Even in the comic book series, the TMS Comic Book never used MT characters (except for Andy and Randy that one time) and Pepe had pretty minor roles in the Classics line so far... and even then, I don't think anyone really had a handle on him until Muppet King Arthur, and especially Muppet Snow White.