The Muppets

The new Muppet Babies are here to make your dreams come true once more. Following their initial 2016 announcement, Disney Junior has released a first look at the revamped children’s classic, including a new penguin character named Summer, and one fan-favorite we won’t see very much of.

Matt Vogel made his first appearance as the beloved Muppet in a new YouTube video - plus compare his voice to the previous Kermits.

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.