http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/longtime-kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced-27-years-1019780
Jim Henson can never be topped but Steve Whitmire did a damn good job of filling his shoes, hopefully the next Kermit is just as great.
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Kermit the Frog performer Steve Whitmire leaves the Muppets after 27 years
- Thread starter Camjo-Z
- Start date
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/longtime-kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced-27-years-1019780
Jim Henson can never be topped but Steve Whitmire did a damn good job of filling his shoes, hopefully the next Kermit is just as great.
disappeared
Banned
Damn.
He did a great job carrying on the legacy.
He did a great job carrying on the legacy.
Graphics Horse
Member
That role fitted him like a glove
lightskintwin
Banned
It looks like they're going to hand it over to somebody else now.
sixteen-bit
Member
Chained Prometheus
Member
I only realized this as an adult, but most of my exposure to Kermit and The Muppets in general as a kid where from Whitmore's run as the character. Dude had a pretty good run.
No Muppet! No Muppet!
Matt Vogel is most "well known" to be the performer taking over Big Bird & Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street for the past few years as the initial performer of Big Bird & Oscar has been slowly stepping back into retirement as note. So Matt Vogel has a lot of big name characters to make his own of late.
As for Steve you may know him as the sole performer of these characters (he has been with the Muppets since The Muppet Show with his own characters):
Rizzo:
Wembley Fraggle:
Steve Whitemire has been Ernie for the past 27 since Henson's passing as well.
As for Steve you may know him as the sole performer of these characters (he has been with the Muppets since The Muppet Show with his own characters):
Rizzo:
Wembley Fraggle:
Steve Whitemire has been Ernie for the past 27 since Henson's passing as well.
Thought this deserved a bump after it turns out he didn't leave of his own accord.
https://stevewhitmire-muppetpundit.com/2017/07/11/its-time-to-get-things-started/
Guessing there must have been some serious behind the scenes drama for Disney to take such drastic action, but not sure what he could have done to deserve being straight up fired with no warning or chance to address their complaints.
https://stevewhitmire-muppetpundit.com/2017/07/11/its-time-to-get-things-started/
Guessing there must have been some serious behind the scenes drama for Disney to take such drastic action, but not sure what he could have done to deserve being straight up fired with no warning or chance to address their complaints.
Well now I just feel bad.
paragonpro
Banned
Sad, but timely, i dont think we are going to see anything new muppet related for a while anyway until it gets a new reboot, that last movie and that weird tv show didnt seem to catch on the way disney hoped it would have. That 2011 movie though was fucking excellent
The Shadow
Member
I predict some kind of scandal will break soon. Disney is remarkably family friendly and they'll bend over backwards to maintain that view.
Dreams-Visions
Member
What a hero. I look forward to the full story.
NealMcCauley
Member
Anyone know what the two issues were?
NOLA_Gaffer
Banned
Wow, fuck Disney if true. I was afraid shit like this was going to go down once they got their hands on The Muppets, but I'm surprised it took this long.
When the last major film flopped with the TV show not long behind, I figured the chopping block would be showing up soon.
KeyBladerXIII
Member
Ouch, I'm going to miss him. I'm still not used to Mickey Mouse's current VA.
Smiles and Cries
Member
so he did not retire, he just left?
Baron von Loathsome
Member
He's a muppet of a man.
He was fired.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
He got fired.
People are now wondering what he got fired for.
I wonder if it's just as simple as "He wasn't very good at sounding like Kermit the Frog"
His statements about "letting Kermit down" seem to point in that direction, but that "multiple remedies to their two stated issues" thing is what has people wondering. What were the two stated issues, were the stated issues just pretexts to shitcanning him, were the stated issues BIG issues?
so on and so forth.
Choppasmith
Member
Man, fuck the executives who forced him to leave. I liked his Kermit, sure, but his Rizzo is the best!
Ugh, there must be some kind of reboot/rebranding going on and the execs must want something completely new.
Funny that it's Matt Vogel replacing him. He did Kermit's doppelganger, Constantine in Muppets Most Wanted.
Ugh, there must be some kind of reboot/rebranding going on and the execs must want something completely new.
Funny that it's Matt Vogel replacing him. He did Kermit's doppelganger, Constantine in Muppets Most Wanted.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Odd.
Perhaps Disney are recasting in an attempt to make the Muppets more appealing to a modern audience?
Edit: wait, is he fired from the Muppets completely or just no longer cast as Kermit?
Perhaps Disney are recasting in an attempt to make the Muppets more appealing to a modern audience?
Edit: wait, is he fired from the Muppets completely or just no longer cast as Kermit?
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
They're recasting with one of their other veteran performers.
It's something to do with Whitmire specifically.
Mammoth Jones
Member
"What should I do?"
"Quit"
"Quit"
NealMcCauley
Member
Why even mention "a new business representative"? Was the old one part of the problem?
Seems like he's teasing something but is reluctant to go into detail.
Seems like he's teasing something but is reluctant to go into detail.
Is it because of that time he pinched Sarah Silverman's ass? https://youtu.be/4ksuRs5mE8I (2:45)
From the looks of it, Steve doesn't normally touch the business side of things. "Talk to my agent." That's exceedingly common in Hollywood.
Steve's agent decided to play chicken with Disney. He made at least two demands that Disney thought were dealbreakers. He thought Disney would blink first (because Steve is obviously very important to them), but Disney didn't blink. Dealbreakers are dealbreakers, so Disney fired Steve.
After being fired, Steve learned why he was fired, so he freaked out and fired his agent and took it upon himself to address Disney's specific complaints.
Disney's response "But we already fired you." It would be bad business for Disney to let Steve's agent play Bad Cop and make take-it-or-leave-it ultimatums, and then after they make the hard decision to reject those ultimatums, Steve steps back in with a new Good Cop agent to request a do-over on the negotiations.
Basically, blame Steve's agent for getting him fired.
Edit: Just to be clear, the above post was me speculating.
Generalpsyduck
Banned
That would be weird. Steve has been doing it so long when people think of Kermit's voice they think of Steve's version not Henson's.
although I was born well after Henson had passed so I never really heard his version so it might just be me.
Kor of Memory
Member
I can't seem to understand what is happening here. Here scream seems genuine, so I thought that their seats were connected and maybe he was repositioning underneath or something, but when the lights came up, they were totally disconnected by like 6 inches of space.
I wouldn't say it's just you, i would think there's a generation or two of people who are right there with you. For me, he never sounded quite right.
But even saying that, I feel he did as well as anyone possibly could have and it's a real shame to see him go.
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
As someone who grew up with Henson as Kermit on Sesame Street, then on to The Muppet Show and the first few Muppet movies, I still think of Kermit with Henson's voice. Even after 27 years, it's still jarring to me to hear Steve doing it. Just never sounded "right" to me.
But "not doing Kermit well" is a poor excuse for dismissal after 27 years. There's got to be far more to it than that.
That was over 15 years ago. And Disney bought the Muppets around a decade ago and they employed Whitemire the entire time till now.
peppermints
Member
Man, he's played Kermit for almost as long as I've been alive.
=( This is not cool. There are so few old guard muppeteers left.
I wonder if it really was contract stuff that fucking messed this all up.
At least there's nothing stopping him from still working with the Henson company on like, Fraggle stuff that might be coming up.
This just makes me wonder how much longer Dave Goelz will bother to stick around. This puts Vogel is a very weird position.
I wonder if it really was contract stuff that fucking messed this all up.
At least there's nothing stopping him from still working with the Henson company on like, Fraggle stuff that might be coming up.
This just makes me wonder how much longer Dave Goelz will bother to stick around. This puts Vogel is a very weird position.
I wonder if we will ever know what really happended behind the scenes, but the theory that his agent got him fired seem like it could be what happened.
Interesting Kermit facts from Germany - Kermit had a different voice on the Muppet Show and Sesame Street. This was very jarring for me as a kid.
The voice actor who did his Sesame Street voice took over for the later movies once the Muppet Show voice actor had died. In May this year he passed away too (he was also the voice actor who did the voice for German dubbed David Hasselhof).
Interesting Kermit facts from Germany - Kermit had a different voice on the Muppet Show and Sesame Street. This was very jarring for me as a kid.
The voice actor who did his Sesame Street voice took over for the later movies once the Muppet Show voice actor had died. In May this year he passed away too (he was also the voice actor who did the voice for German dubbed David Hasselhof).
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
MomoPufflet
Member
It was a gag. She waited for the exact moment Kilborn was in front of them to obstruct the audience's view, because it was physically impossible for kermit to touch her and the joke wouldn't have made sense otherwise. It's like when the power goes out and it's pitch black and someone says "Whose hands are on my tits?" She's just being Sarah Silverman.
Cut and print, we're done here."What should I do?"
"Quit"
Chained Prometheus
Member
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Such a shame
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Wait, is that what actually happened or is that just spec?
I mean, it's really plausible sounding spec, but I just wanna clarify as to whether that's insider shit being spread around or if it's just a guess.
(It's a damn good guess)
I mean, it's really plausible sounding spec, but I just wanna clarify as to whether that's insider shit being spread around or if it's just a guess.
(It's a damn good guess)
Finale Fireworker
Member
Why Can't Americans Get a Raise?
Pure speculation. Just a guess. I have no inside sources.
I only just realized that saying "From the looks of it" at the start of my post made it look like I was looking at something exclusive.
Dr. Zoidberg
Member
Good, because with your theoretical explanation it's harder to get really angry at an executive or corporation and we really enjoy doing that in these situations. Only having the performer's statement to go on makes it easier to grab the torches and pitchforks.