Steve Whitmire (Kermit the Frog and Ernie since 1990) no longer with the Muppets.

Here's Steve's Muppet Wiki page with his full biography and credits for those interested.

Steve Whitmire

 

Assuming there is some truth to what the Hensons say, I would guess the reasons they didn't are a combination of:
1. It's not easy to recast Kermit. It's not just a matter of being able to get the voice right (as with cartoon characters). You also need the puppetry skills and the ability to correctly improvise Kermit's personality in a variety of unscripted situations (interviews, public appearances, et al). They may not have felt Vogel was ready for this until now.
2. Despite Whitmire's alleged behavior, they probably felt some loyalty to him as a longtime employee who'd been hired by their dad.
3. They knew firing Whitmire would generate bad publicity, and wanted to avoid it if at all possible.

 

Okay, it's clear Whitmire was seen as a problem. But if he was a problem going back *more than 20 years*, then there's no way he would have been kept on that long. I'm guessing he was problematic, but they're emphasizing that to explain his firing.

I guess Brian Henson is kind of implying Whitmire had them over a barrel a bit and thought he could do whatever he wanted and act however he wanted. But again, outright insubordination for over 20 years? Not sure I'm buying that.

I think they have to just own up to kind of being wishy-washy about whether to keep Whitmire on for years, and about rating his performance. At least Brian Henson kind of owns up to that a bit.

What's confusing though is the characterization of how Kermit has been coming across for some time now. Does Steve Whitmire write the scrips/dialogue? I'm guessing no in most cases. So wouldn't a huge hunk of the "problems" with Kermit's character in more recent years have to do with the writing? Sure, Whitmire's performance can exude zeal or lack of energy, etc. That's surely a part of it. But if Kermit is saying words that make him more "square" or boring or whatever, that's on the writers.

I'd feel a bit better about them piling on Whitmire if they also made *any* mention of mediocre or problematic writing.

 

Steve performed Kermit as a "bitter, angry, depressed victim"??? Which Muppet movies did I miss?!?!

Whose side I take in all of this certainly doesn't matter, but I tend to side with the veteran performer than the child who would post something like this publicly.

 

Yeah, when I think of Steve's Kermit I don't think of him being written as bitter or angry (?!). I thought that was a weird comment for her to make.

I guess Steve is off The Hensons' Christmas Card list...

 

And now for no particular reason here's Kermit and Steve at Dragon Con 2015.

 

I'm a natural cynic, and while Brian Henson's comments now disturb me, I can't help but think that it's entirely possible that Brian would be asked by Disney to make such a statement to help them "save face". People often do whatever their wallet tells them they better do. It really sounds like they're blaming Steve for the failure of the Muppets TV show, and it's clear that the reasons for that failure lay on someone else's shoulders.

 

Part of the job of doing Kermit is improvising his character in unscripted situations. Perhaps they were unhappy with how Whitmire was handling that aspect of the job. Or it's possible Whitmire did have some input into script or character development, and they were unhappy with the direction he wanted to go with the character. Or as you say, it's possible Cheryl Henson was being disingenuous and blaming him for something that's not his fault.

 

Like I said upthread, I think it's plausible that the Hensons might agree to publicly back the firing decision even if they privately were ambivalent or even against it. But I don't think it's plausible that they would agree to trash Whitmire publicly to the degree they are doing, if they didn't truly believe what they were saying. Some of the comments, particularly Cheryl Henson's, suggest a level of personal animosity that far goes beyond what I think anyone would be willing to feign for business reasons.

Do we even know what level of financial interest the Henson retain in the Muppets?

 

Steve being hilarious improvising as Kermit on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Kermit the Frog - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Comedy Central

 

It's not easy being green...

 

And here's another editorial basically criticizing both sides for lashing out in public...

No One Looks Good in the Ugly Drama
Surrounding Kermit the Frog's Firing

http://io9.gizmodo.com/no-one-looks-good-in-the-ugly-drama-surrounding-kermit-1797013930

Howard Stern did a pretty funny satire this week with somebody imitating Kermit the Frog and telling Disney to go "F themselves" (among many other very colorful expressions).

There are some cartoon voice actors out there who are legendarily difficult to work with but have had very, very successful careers. Harry Shearer is one example, and I think in case 90% of his beef has been with the producers over money -- and I'm on his side.

A lot depends on how well-networked he is and how good (or indifferent) his agent is. I think he could take a year off, wait for things to die down, then make himself available as a voice actor and just make a very good living doing a half-dozen cable cartoon shows. There's a million of 'em out there, and he could do well just working for scale if he does enough of them every week. He won't make Kermit money, but he'll do OK if he's humble, contrite, and does what the producers ask of him.

 

I think this is going to hurt Steve more than Disney because Disney is... well.... Disney. Steve meanwhile is now unemployed and has limited job prospects.

 

I don't think it's going to hurt Disney at all. Muppets fans who are aware of Whitmire and are upset about this are just a small subset of the total amount of Muppets fans. And Muppets fans themselves are just a subset of the total potential audience for any future Muppets project. I really doubt any significant amount of Whitmire fans are going to boycott future Muppets projects to the extent it would have any measurable effect on the bottom line. The success of any future Muppets projects will ultimately come down to the quality of the product, not what people feel about Whitmire. Was Elmo's popularity damaged much by Kevin Clash having to resign from the role in disgrace? I don't think so. This will be similar.

Whitmire on the other hand is probably going to have a lot of trouble finding work because of the specific nature of his skills coupled with all the stories that are coming out. The article Vidiot just linked mentions that money was also an issue:
“People think he left Sesame Street to focus on The Muppets. He was actually fired for demanding too much money.” In the past, some of Whitmire’s demands have allegedly included higher pay than the other performers, first-class flights to and from his home in Atlanta, and a puppeteer’s salary for his wife who acts as his manager, according to one source.

One thing I'm really curious about is what does Frank Oz think about all this? I know he's unlikely to comment publicly, but I wonder what his opinion of Whitmire is?

 

I would also like to know Frank Oz's opinion. From what I've read, he doesn't like the direction the Muppets took after Jim Henson's death.

Kermit was Jim's alter-ego and probably should have been retired after his death.

 

There's no way that was going to happen. That would have been like retiring Mickey Mouse after Walt Disney couldn't do his voice anymore.

 

I know it doesn't make sense from a business perspective, but Kermit became a watered-down caricature. He truly died with Jim Henson, so they should have retired the character and focused on creating new Muppets. Kermit could have become their mascot/logo... kind of like Mickey Mouse. If Mick Jagger dies tomorrow, should they just hire an impersonator and keep rolling? A lot of people might say it's not the same thing, but why isn't it the same when a character is so intertwined with the personality of one singular visionary?

 

Well, he's 57 years old and performed as Kermit for almost half his life. He's not that far away from retirement, though bear in mind he could still possibly find voice actor work doing other characters. Kevin Clash, the former voice of Elmo (who was forced to step down after a sex scandal in 2012), had a much worse time at the age of 52. I know of voice actors who continued to work well into their 70s; I personally worked with Mel Blanc when he was 72, and he could still do a fairly good job at most of the WB voices.

This is an unusual case, because (as I said earlier) it's not that often that disputes between actors and Hollywood studios get this public and this contentious. I have seen some pretty horrendous situations with actors (both for and against the actor), but in a lot of cases, if the project turns out to be a huge success, often everything is forgiven and the actor eventually comes back and all the fences are mended. It doesn't help in Whitmire's case that the recent ABC Muppets show was a huge critical and ratings disaster. Rightly or wrongly, they can pin some of the blame on him, cut him loose, and walk away. That doesn't mean he can't come back by working for a completely different company doing different work.

Oz was very unhappy with the 2011 Muppets film written and starring Jason Segal, and felt that a lot of the elements (like the fart jokes and Fozzie Bear working at a strip club) were in bad taste and were not in keeping with the previous Muppets projects. I heard through the grapevine that he was also angry at not being considered to direct the film, but that's only a rumor. Oz has also been critical of the films and TV shows that followed...

Why The Muppets Failed, According To Frank Oz

 

Plus, there's always the risk of replacement. Example: Dragonball Z replaced the entire voice cast when they decided to replace The Ocean Group with local voice talent.

 

I'm curious where you read that? Oz continued to be involved with the Muppets throughout the 90s, doing voice work for all the films during that decade (though he did not do any puppetry for Muppet Treasure Island or Muppets From Space) so I would assume he did not disapprove much of what was going on at that time. He has expressed a mixed opinion about the two Muppets films of this decade, but is not wholly negative about either. About The Muppets he said: "I felt the movie was really sweet and fun, a little too safe, a little retro; I prefer more cutting edge with The Muppets." About Muppets Most Wanted he said "I think there were some very funny things individually. And the purity of certain characters stayed. I got to hand it to Disney—they tried. It’s very difficult." The only thing I've seen him totally slam is the TV series, saying he could only make it through 15 minutes of the first episode.

It is interesting that Whitmire did not take part in Oz's documentary Muppet Guys Talking. I wonder if that means he and Oz are not close?

 

The Vidiot wrote the following as part of a post:

Frank Welker (who is now 71 per Wikipedia) was the original voice of Fred on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? (which debuted in 1969). He has been the voice of Fred on all of the following shows (except for A Pup Named Scooby-Doo) and he has taken over the role of Scooby-Doo.

 

According to Whitmire they were asking him to do things that he felt the character would never do such as lie to his nephew as to why he broke up with Piggy, etc. he objected to those moments in the scripts he was given and he told the producers and writers it wasn't working.

 

If you want to talk longevity, there's also Stan Freberg, who was still doing cartoon voice work right up until his death at age 88. And probably nobody will ever top June (Rocky Squirrel) Foray, who's 99 and still working as far as I know.

 

IMDB shows her last work was voicing Rocky for a Rocky and Bullwinkle short of some kind in 2014.

Still, that's pretty damned impressive.

 

Purely anecdotal, but interesting as a sort of semi-objective, semi-insider perspective:

In Defense of Kermit | HuffPost