The Muppets

The Muppets have been mired in a sort of scandal recently, started by the firing of Steve Whitmore, who had been the voice and hands of Kermit the Frog since the untimely death of Jim Henson in 1990. Now, Henson’s son Brian Henson has offered some more insight into the matter.

Cheryl Henson, president of the Jim Henson Foundation, called Kermit the Frog puppeteer Steve Whitmire’s version of his firing “ridiculously self serving.”

Steve Whitmire played Kermit the Frog for almost 30 years following the death of Jim Henson. Why was he let go now?

Even as a sizable portion of Kermit the Frog’s current popularity stems from voiceless internet memes, there’s no mistaking one of The Muppets‘ most froggy tones. Well, we may need to re-tune our years, as Kermit voice Steve Whitmire will step down after twenty-seven years for mysterious reasons.

The new “adult” Muppets series didn’t exactly pan out for ABC, so the franchise might need a bit of rehab with by returning to youngest generation. Enter a new Muppet Babies TV series in the works for 2018, the first photo of which feel much more familiar that the last series ever could.

Despite an attempt to turn things around with a new showrunner in the middle of the first season, The Muppets hasn’t really caught on with audiences the way ABC had hoped. What once seemed like a surefire hit (it’s the Muppets!) turned into a bizarre experiment (it’s a meta-fake-documentary series!) before ultimately becoming an interesting failure (shrug emoji), at best. The short version: ABC has cancelled The Muppets after just one season.

A little inside-baseball saw ABC recently shifting leadership from former boss Paul Lee to Channing Dungey, and as such, little time was wasted issuing 15 renewals across the network. Not only will the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. return for a fourth season, so too will everything from black-ish to Quantico to Dancing With the Stars will get additional runs. That said, who was left off of the list?

Despite looking like an early smash, ABC’s The Muppets hasn’t quite caught fire in the manner originally hoped, boasting modest ratings amid some critical derision. Nothing felt can stay, it seems, as showrunner Bob Kushell has left the series amid rumors of conflict, leaving The Muppets likely to change focus in 2016.

Even as the pool of network pilots make smaller and smaller splashed each year, one wouldn’t expect The Muppets to be one-and-done. As such, ABC has officially granted a full-season order to the mockumentary take on our beloved felt classics, though a full season in this case has a slightly altered meaning.

The sudden development and greenlight of ABC’s upcoming Muppets series left it vaguely unclear how the gang would function in a regular mockumentary format, but Kermit and Miss Piggy dropped by TCA to offer a clue. The series will revolve around the behind-the-scenes workings of Piggy’s own late-night talk show, complete with real guests the likes of Imagine Dragons or Reese Witherspoon.