Where is Steve Whitmire Petition

[RockSTAR girl]

usually you can't see @replys on twitter on the web if you are not followed back, but if Jimmy is checking twitter from a cell phone application (like an iphone app) it will show up. so lets just hope he checks it through his phone.

 

[RockSTAR girl]

oh Also, Artie Esposito is on Myspace and Facebook. Maybe someone can send him a message, something like "hey man, are you doing Kermit from now on?" that may get us the answers we are looking for.

 

[Kynan Barker]

Artie is also a current member of both Muppet Central and Tough Pigs, and has visited both forums in the past few days. I'm sure if he was able to comment, he would have done so by now.

 

[muppetperson]

He is reading this right now. Artie, can you comment?

 

[muppetperson]

.......and he has gone! Artie was there a while, so he obviously has read everything and not able to comment.

 

[Luke]

Raising the publics awareness of this via the media is a great idea as has been suggested. I think that may be a great way of finding out whats going on.

 

[Super Scooter]

I don't want to hijack Ryan's thread, but I haven't signed the petition, not because I don't care about Steve, but because the reasons behind the recast don't change my feelings about it.

D.W., you're saying that if we knew why Kermit was different, then we could make a more informed judgment about his performance. And I think that's exactly wrong. The great majority of the audience doesn't care about what happens behind the scenes. Outside of our very small fan community, millions of viewers are never going to go back and reassess whether they liked AGT or not based on some extra nugget of information. They either liked it or they didn't.

What you're asking Disney for is not just an explanation, you want a justification. And then you want to be able to make up your mind on whether to "support" the recast or not, depending on whether you think the justification is good enough. That's just not how the audience-entertainer relationship works. You pays your money, and if you likes what you sees, you clap at the end.

Disney doesn't owe us an explanation, and I don't think we have the right to ask for one. But we do have the right to expect Muppets when Disney advertises them.

Again, I have no problem with Ryan's petition, and I totally respect your point of view, D.W. That's just not where I'm coming from, is all.

I basically agree with this. I signed the petition because I do want to know if everything's okay with Steve, but if I were to write a letter, it would include some of the following, I think:

If it was Mr. Whitmire's decision to end his career perfoming Kermit, I'll respect his decision. If he is ill, I wish him well. If this was some corporate decision to get rid of Mr. Whitmire, this is simply unaccaptable. However, no matter what the reason is, Kermit the Frog should be performed by a qualified puppeteer, not just anyone. Mr. Esposito is, in my opinion, very talented, but he is not Kermit. I do not feel he has the personality or voice of Kermit right, and his puppetry skills, while good, are not on the level of Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire, both of whom could be considered among "the best of the best." My reccomendation is that if Steve Whitmire is no longer able to perform Kermit, something I personally dread, that the new performer of Kermit be of equal quality to his predecessors.

... Or something like that.

 

[minor muppetz]

There's something that I thought of. Could it be possible that maybe Disney is considering making a new Muppet series, and wants Steve to have an understudy before it begins, in case anything happens to him while the show is on the air, so that a Kermit recast wouldn't be rushed?

After all, it seems like all Muppet performers who have died weren't currently performing on any show besides Sesame Street, which repeats it's sketches in many episodes, but all other Henson shows don't repeat scenes from episode to episode.

 

[tomahawk]

My fear right now is that if no one is commenting on it, it's probably in the "I'm dreading the answer to this question." zone. I mean if no one can talk about it?

 

[Drtooth]

.......and he has gone! Artie was there a while, so he obviously has read everything and not able to comment.

Or we scared him off.