Sesame Seeds (Episode 10): Kermit the Frog

 

Hi everyone, and welcome back to Sesame Seeds, the series where we look at the progression of a Sesame Street character from humble beginnings from the present day.

This time, we’re looking at the most popular muppet creation known to mankind, aside from Elmo: The one and only Kermit the Frog.

As we all know, Kermit is the face of the Muppet franchise, host of the Muppet show, and practically has his own celebrity status, but he did have a history on that small town street. What is that history? Let’s hop to it, and find out.

So, Kermit was the first puppet that Jim Henson ever made, from his mother’s old coat and a sliced ping pong ball. He also was not a frog at first, being described more as a lizard creature. He would be featured in many of Jim’s early muppet projects, including his first ever television show, Sam & Friends.

He would gain his frog identity in 1965, and continued to be Jim’s most popular muppet.

Then, when Jim was brought on to contribute to Sesame Street, along with the characters he created for the show, Kermit would also be featured as a major player.

He first appeared, with his Muppet Show Co-Star, Rowlf the Dog in the pitch reel, where they would go over the basic ideas of the show and come up with the name. He would then go on to star in a few of the sketches/segments for the test pilots and first season, and even appeared on the street in the first episode.

During the first season, Kermit took on a straight man/teaching role. His segments were about him trying to give lectures about certain things and concepts to the audience, before one of the many monsters they were using at the time would mess things up. It’s also worth noting that Kermit was noticeably grumpier than he would later go on to be. Granted, monsters causing chaos are bound to make anyone sour, but sometimes he would just lose it.

But even so, Kermit did have his moments of positivity. Particularly the time he got to sing a song about self acceptance, which quickly became a fan favorite.

Yep, things were looking up for our fine amphibian friend… Until in 1970, he was kicked off for being too commercial.

Yes, since Kermit was the only main muppet on the show that was appearing on other muppet productions, he was accused of opting out. So, he disappeared for season 2, and was replaced by a guy named Herbert Birdsfoot. And while Herbert was nice, he just couldn’t hold a candle to the frog who had came before him.

So starting with season 3, Kermit came back, and was now having bigger roles. He got to interact with each of the main muppet characters (Grover and Cookie Monster especially), a few of the human cast members, and a ton of kids.

He also got to sing more songs, which ranged from topics like elbows and hopping, to listening and the African alphabet.

But probably the biggest thing he got to do was become a news reporter for Sesame Street news. In the middle of most episodes, he would appear in his trench coat to interview a character, or characters from a popular fairytale story.

For the next few years, Kermit was tying himself very close to Sesame, until in 1976, he got the gig of becoming host of the Muppet Show, and would co-star alongside Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo, Animal, and many others.

But just because he had a new home, didn’t mean he was done with his old one. Kermit would still appear in segments and specials for Sesame Street, and his Sesame pals would make a few appearances on his new show. They even made it to his and Miss Piggy’s wedding in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Kermit continued to appear on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street all throughout the 80s, On a few special occasions (Christmas and the 30th anniversary of muppets in general) the two muppet universes would collide.

But then as most of you know, the man behind the frog, Jim Henson, died as soon as the 90s began. And while Kermit himself wasn’t present at his funeral, Big Bird did appear to sing the first song Kermit ever sang on the street.

Then, in the Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, it was revealed that Kermit had gotten a new voice in Steve Whitmire, who provided an excellent voice for him that was all his own, which he would go on to do for Ernie three years later.

Then the 2000s came, and Kermit would make two appearances in both the 31st and 32nd seasons, and his segments would still be aired in between.

But then in 2004, The regular Muppets were bought by The Walt Disney Company. And you know how Disney is, they’re very particular about their products mingling with products from other companies, so season 32 would be Kermit’s last appearance on the show.

For a sizable period of time, Kermit was not around for any new Sesame Street material. No sketches, no songs, no street stories, no nothing. But he still would make appearances on DVDs that featured his material. And then something cool happened.

In the first and only new episode of Elmo’s World of season 40, debuting in the first episode of said season, Kermit made a cameo, when Elmo tries to find out where frogs live, to show off his swanky pad. (And by pad, I mean apartment.)

It wasn’t that much, but it was still nice to see our favorite frog again, after all of these years. Though, it would be another few years before we got anything else Sesame Street related from him.

From there, Kermit would continue to stay in his regular muppet lane. Then, in 2016, Mr. Whitmire had to stop doing Kermit, and the frog was passed on to Matt Vogel, who did his best with the important character he was given.

And here’s something else exciting I want to talk about. In 2018, Bret McKenzie got to interview Kermit and Ernie, at the same time. Now, when the show first started, Ernie and Kermit were both puppeteered by Jim Henson, so they rarely shared screen time together, and it was the same thing when Steve Whitmire took over for them, but now Kermit had Vogel, and Ernie had another puppeteer of his own, which now gave the two characters opportunities to interact with one another, like the interview I mentioned earlier.

Then Sesame Street hit its 50th anniversary, and in the primetime special, Kermit made a very special appearance, where he sang his first SS song on the stoop, with Elvis Costello.

And that’s the last Sesame Street related thing Kermit has been featured in so far. It is sad that Disney is so particular about what franchises he and the rest of the muppets can interact and when they can do it. Especially considering that they haven’t done that much with them in the past few years.

When I was growing up, I hadn’t grasped the concept of company ownership, so I thought it was a little weird that he was a part of both the regular muppets and Sesame Street, but I still thought he was pretty fun.

But anyway, onto Kermit himself, he is to the Muppets what Mickey Mouse is to Disney and SpongeBob is to Nickelodeon. He’s the mascot, the most known and most marketed character relating to the franchise. But, like the other two, it’s his heart, charm and commitment that make him such an enjoyable character.

Most of it is definitely because Jim Henson put so much of himself into Kermit, and Jim himself was such a likeable guy, that Kermit in turn was likable to the audience. (Steve and Matt definitely made their contributions in the later years.)

As for his role on Sesame Street, I think he put it best himself near the end of the Muppet Movie:

“I’ve got a dream, too. But it’s about singing and dancing and making people happy. That’s the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with.”

On Sesame Street, Kermit sang, danced and made tons of people happy, including his co-stars. Heck, it’s what he’s been doing ever since his creation. So, in a way, you could say he’s always been living the dream.

You could also say that working with Sesame Street cast gave Kermit the training he needed to become host of the Muppet Show. Because Kermit spent most of his time putting up with the antics of Grover, Cookie Monster and the Count, he gained the knowledge and ability to most of the time put up with the Swedish Chef, Bunsen and Beaker, and even Miss Piggy herself.

Kermit has been leading weirdos, entertaining masses and putting light into this word and that’s why he’s such a great muppet. Warts and all.

Well, that concludes another episode, so let me leave you with this pearl of wisdom: You’re you. And it’ll do fine. It’s beautiful, and you’ll soon realize that it’s what you wanna be.