Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host of the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show and a featured role on Sesame Street. He has appeared in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He also served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects until 2004, when the character was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.
Kermit performed the hit singles "Bein' Green" in 1970 for Sesame Street and "Rainbow Connection" in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the first feature-length film featuring the Muppets. Kermit's original performance of "Rainbow Connection" reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry in 2021. Henson performed Kermit until his death in 1990, after which Steve Whitmire performed Kermit from that time until his dismissal in 2016; Kermit has been performed by Matt Vogel since 2017. He was also voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects, and is voiced by Matt Danner in the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Kermit has remained as a recognizable character in popular culture worldwide for over half a century, starring in several television series and films, and receiving dozens of honors and awards by various organizations. In 2006, the character was credited as the author of Before You Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, an "autobiography" told from the perspective of the character himself.
History and development
Kermit the Frog first appeared on local programs and commercials broadcast on WRC-TV, most notably Sam and Friends. This prototype Kermit was created from a discarded turquoise spring coat belonging to Jim Henson's mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes.
Initially, Kermit was a vague lizard-like creature. He subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established in the television special Hey, Cinderella! in 1969. His triangular-pointed collar was added at the time to make him seem more frog-like and to conceal the seam between his head and body. According to Michael K. Frith, the relatively simple construction of the Kermit puppet allows the performer's arm and hand to produce a wide range of expression and gestures.
Naming The origin of Kermit's name is a subject of some debate. It is often claimed that Kermit was named after Henson's childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. However, Karen Falk, head archivist and board of directors member for the Jim Henson Legacy organization, denies this claim, stating that Henson merely liked how the named sounded:
Joy DiMenna, the only daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen, who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Henson's time with Sam and Friends, recalls that the puppet was named after her father. According to Cohen's obituary, as well as DiMenna and Lenny Levin, a colleague of Cohen's at WBAL:
Another common belief is that Kermit was named for Kermit Love, who worked with Henson in designing and constructing Muppets, particularly on Sesame Street. However, Love's association with Henson did not begin until well after Kermit's creation and naming, and he always denied any connection between his name and that of the character.
As Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo (sapo means "toad"). In Brazil, his name is similar to his name in Portugal: Caco, o Sapo. In most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René (René the Frog), while in Spain, he is named Gustavo. In the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means "perfect". In Hungary, he is called Breki (onomatopoetic).
Characterization and performers Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his local television series, Sam and Friends. Jim Henson described Kermit as "kind of easy-going, very likable...sometimes slightly a wiseguy." Frank Oz remarked that Kermit possesses a natural sense of leadership within the Muppets, explaining that "he has all these zany characters and a world around him and he tries to be the center and hold everything together...sometimes he gets too much and blows his top, but essentially he kind of goes with the flow." Brian Henson described his father's performance as Kermit as "coming out of his own personality—was a wry intelligence, a little bit of a naughtiness, but Kermit always loved everyone around and also loved a good prank."
Kermit has often been referred to as Jim Henson's "soft-spoken alter-ego." Many of Jim Henson's colleagues have confirmed how close and inseparable he and Kermit's personalities were. Jim Henson's agent Bernie Brillstein has stated straightforwardly that "Kermit was Jim". Author Brian Jay Jones described the relationship accordingly: "The more Jim performed Kermit, the more the two of them seemed to become intertwined…it was becoming harder to tell where the frog ended and Jim began." Jim Henson continued to perform the character until his death in 1990. His last performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Jim Henson died twelve days after that appearance.
Following his death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermit's new performer. Whitmire claims that Jim Henson had seemingly intended to pass on the role to him before he died, though it was Jane Henson and son Brian who had selected him. Whitmire's first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson in 1990. Whitmire explained that his main intent when he inherited Kermit "was to make sure the character stayed the same and consistent, but didn't become stale and just a copy."
Kermit's personality during Whitmire's tenure was widely described as more wholesome, lighthearted, and Pollyanna-ish than Jim Henson's. Several critics of Whitmire's portrayal have come from the Henson family. Brian Henson stated that while Whitmire's performance was "sometimes excellent, and always pretty good", he also elaborated that "Kermit has, as a character, flattened out over time and has become too square and not as vital as it should have been." Cheryl Henson stated that Whitmire performed the character as a "bitter, angry, depressed, victim". She also stated; "He's not Kermit — he's a performer who was hired to do Kermit. There's a difference." Whitmire remained Kermit's principal performer until October 2016, when he was dismissed by The Muppets Studio and its parent company Disney, which own the rights to Kermit. Disney cited "unacceptable business conduct" as reason for the dismissal, while Whitmire claims the decision was made due to creative disagreements over Kermit's characterization and prolonged labor union negotiations that delayed his involvement in Muppet productions.
Disney announced that Matt Vogel would become Kermit's new performer on July 10, 2017. His first official appearance as Kermit was in a "Muppet Thought of the Week" video released on YouTube in August 2017.
John Kennedy performed Kermit for Muppets Ahoy!, a 2006 Disney Cruise Line stage show (though Whitmire performed Kermit for the first few shows). Muppet performer Artie Esposito briefly performed Kermit in 2009 for a few personal appearances (an appearance on America's Got Talent, the MTV Video Music Awards, and at the D23 Expo). Voice actor Frank Welker provided the voice of Baby Kermit on the animated series Muppet Babies. He also provided the voice of an adult Kermit for a short-lived spin-off, Little Muppet Monsters. Brian Cummings voiced Kermit in a 1995 CBS promotion. Wally Wingert provided the voice of Baby Kermit in a Muppet Babies CD-ROM. Matt Danner voices Baby Kermit on the 2018 reboot of Muppet Babies.
Fictional biography
A biography has been developed for Kermit the Frog as if he were an actual living performer rather than a puppet character. According to this fictional biography, he was born in Leland, Mississippi, alongside approximately 2,353 siblings; however, a 2011 "interview" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show has him state that he was from the swamps of Louisiana.
As portrayed in the 2002 film Kermit's Swamp Years, at the age of 12, he was the first of his siblings to leave the swamp and one of the first frogs to talk to humans. He is shown in the film encountering a 12-year-old Jim Henson (played by Christian Kebbel) for the first time.As depicted on Kermit's Swamp Years (2002).
According to The Muppet Movie, Kermit returned to the swamp, where a passing agent noted he had talent. Thus inspired, Kermit headed to Hollywood, encountering the rest of the Muppets along the way. Together, they were given a standard "rich and famous" contract by Lew Lord of Wide World Studios and began their showbiz careers. In Before You Leap, Kermit again references encountering Jim Henson sometime after the events depicted in the course of The Muppet Movie and details their friendship and their partnership in the entertainment industry, crediting Henson as being the individual to whom he owes his fame. At some point after the events of The Muppet Movie, Kermit and the other Muppets begin The Muppet Show, and the characters remain together as a group, before starring in the other Muppet films and Muppets Tonight, with Kermit usually at the core of the stories as the lead protagonist. Kermit is shown in The Muppet Movie as stating that the events of the film are "approximately how it happened" when asked by his nephew Robin about how the Muppets got started.
Fozzie Bear is portrayed as Kermit's best friend—a fact reiterated by Kermit in Before You Leap—and the two were frequently seen together during sketches on The Muppet Show and in other Muppet-related media and merchandise.
On August 4, 2015, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy "announced" that they had ended their romantic relationship. On September 2, 2015, Kermit was stated to have found a new girlfriend, a pig named Denise, but around February 2016, Denise supposedly broke up with Kermit after almost six months together.
Career Kermit has been featured prominently on both The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and is the only Muppet to do so in that capacity. However, he had a prominent career before Sesame Streets debut in 1969, as he starred in Sam and Friends, and numerous Muppets made guest appearances on Today from 1961 and The Ed Sullivan Show from 1966.
Sesame Street
Kermit was one of the original main Muppet characters on Sesame Street. Closely identified with the show, Kermit usually appeared as a lecturer on simple topics, a straight man to another Muppet foil (usually Grover, Herry Monster or Cookie Monster), or a news reporter interviewing storybook characters for Sesame Street News. He sang many songs on the show, including "Bein' Green", and was the focus of the 1998 video The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street.
Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, Kermit was never the property of Sesame Workshop and has only occasionally been a part of the show's merchandise. When Sesame Workshop bought full ownership of its characters from Henson for $180 million, Kermit was excluded from the deal. The character now belongs to The Muppets Studio, a division of Disney.
Kermit made his first Sesame Street appearance under Disney's ownership with a cameo in "Elmo's World: Frogs" on the season 40 premiere episode in 2009. His most recent appearance was on the Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2019, where he performed "Bein' Green" with Elvis Costello.
With the Muppets