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

Mel Blanc did so many voices for Warner Brothers that it would be easier to list the voices he didn't do. There was a movie (I think it was Space Jam) where it took a dozen voice actors to do the voices that Blanc did.

The multiple voice actor rule sounds like a good idea for the above reason. I could also see them implementing a limitation on the number of voices a voice actor can do on a single show. As an example, in Dragonball Z there is one voice actor (Christopher Sabat) who does so many voices on the show (per Wikipedia more than 13) that in some scenes with three or four characters he is the one who is doing all of the voices. Like losing a voice actor who has become the only voice of a character, losing one voice actor who does so many voices could also create a significant problem.

 

Given that Henson's daughter was publically taking Disney's side, I somehow doubt it.

 

Sesame Street's producers discovered that their audience had shifted younger (3-4) than it was originally targeted for (5-6), and they adjusted the content accordingly. Mainly by making it the Elmo show. Also, budgetary concerns have led to lower production values, with lots of blue screen and less innovative animation.

 

But Noel Blanc hasn't done very many voices for Warner, even from the beginning (or has he)? I know Mel was promoting him as his own choice to take over the voices, but the first post-Mel cartoon ("Box Office Bunny") had Jeff Bergman doing the voices. I only remember a couple times Noel Blanc did character voices for WB after his dad passed.

 

I wonder what happened to Kermit's Muppet thought of the Week video we were supposed to see this week.

 

He had a human in his throat and had to postpone it.

 

Vidiot wrote that comment before the Hensons had started publicly criticizing Whitmore. Yeah, now we know that he's had difficulty with the Hensons as well as Disney. And according to this article, he's also burned his bridges with Sesame Workshop, so that won't be an option either:
One source told Gizmodo over Skype. “People think he left Sesame Street to focus on The Muppets. He was actually fired for demanding too much money.”

 

All this dude had to do was show up, make the frog voice, and collect paychecks.

 

Yeah, but the character (and The Muppets as a whole) were/are obviously very important to him. You have to be dedicated to the job to really do it well because it's so time-consuming and at times physically demanding (lots of crouching and stretching and bending to get you and the puppet in just the right spot for the camera).

Say what you want about Steve but he didn't half-ass it.

 

Did it not happen?

 

I remember reading somewhere that Noel Blanc didn't want to be a full-time voice actor like his father.

 

What I said is still true. The studios don't want just one person to be given the sole responsibility to do the voice for a classic character.

Howard Stern has been running some bits where "Kermit" has been loudly complaining about him losing his job.

I think they're going to eventually be facing this problem on The Simpsons, since several cast members are already well into their 60s, and Harry Shearer is 73.

 

Video wrote the following as part of a post:

I think a factor in this is what type of voice the person is doing. As an example, one of the reasons it was more difficult to replace George O'Hanlon as George Jetson is that O'Hanlon used his natural speaking voice for George Jetson rather than coming up with a character voice. In the same way, on Family Guy Seth McFarland uses his natural speaking/singing voice for Brian, while coming up with character voices for the other characters. With that in mind, I think that it will more difficult to replace Marge (Julie Kavner) and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) for the same reason.

 

I think they're all pretty much irreplaceable, and I would bet the fans would strongly urge Fox to shut down the show if any of the regular actors were killed or incapacitated. The Simpsons is a pretty unique show in that regard. Besides, they have more than 600 episodes, so it's not like there's any shortage of episodes or any need to make new ones at this point.

 

They'll never stop The Simpsons.



"Sorry for the clip show...".

The cast threatened to walk unless they got a pay raise and Fox caved in, but that said if/when one of them dies I can almost guarantee you they will replace them because the purpose of the show still being on Fox is that it keeps the show in people's consciousness and keeps the merchandise selling.

 

There are so many characters on The Simpsons, that they could kill off all of Shearer's characters and the audience might not even notice. They could probably do half a season featuring only characters voiced by Hank Azaria.

 

Now I want to see an episode where Homer dies and Apu moves in to become the kids' new father.

Hell, I'm surprised they haven't done that yet and then retconned it with "It was all a dream" or done it as a Halloween episode.

 

I dunno. All things come to an end.

 

It's not like Fox cares if the show is good or not. It just has to exist.

 

So here's the first look at Matt Vogel's interpretation of Kermit.

 

Hmm. Sounds more like the original Jim version to me. Pretty good. It was a really short clip though.

dan c

 

Yeah, I agree he sounds a lot like Jim. Not bad for a very short clip. We'll have to give him time. Steve took time to get really adjusted too, remember.

 

He's already more spot on than Steve was...and he'll get better!

Ed

 

I think the voice was damn near flawless. But there's also the puppeteer's inflection, his movements, and all of that... so there's a lot to a puppet performance.

 

Agreed totally. Kermit isn't all voice, as you said. He's the scrunched-up nose when he gets frustrated. He's the jerky movements he makes when he gets excited. He's the way he shakes his head when he's making a point. That's all what makes him friendly and approachable. Matt has that down cold.

Ed