Kermit actor fired for ‘unacceptable’ conduct

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Muppet Kermit the Frog and his operator Steve Whitmire take questions from the audience at Barnes & Noble Lincoln Triangle on November 14, 2003,in New York City.

The Muppets Studio is blaming “unacceptable business conduct” for its dismissal of Steve Whitmire as the longtime performer of Kermit the Frog.

This explanation, issued Monday, follows Whitmire’s emotional blog post last week after his firing was made public. He said he learned last October that the role of Kermit would be recast.

Whitmire had been with the Muppets since 1978, and took over as Kermit after the untimely death of Muppets founder Jim Henson in 1990.

The Muppets Studio did not detail the nature of Whitmire’s “repeated unacceptable business conduct,” but said it spanned “a period of many years,” adding that “he consistently failed to address” his employers’ feedback.

Whitmire could not immediately be reached for comment, but in an interview Monday with The Hollywood Reporter he said the studio felt he had been too outspoken in expressing how the Kermit character should be portrayed on the ABC prime-time Muppets mockumentary series that aired in 2015-16. Whitmire said he had only been trying to help keep the show “on track.”