# Kermit the Frog
**Kermit the Frog** is a Muppet puppet character created in 1955 by [Jim Henson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jim-henson), a green frog who serves as the soft-spoken showrunner of *The Muppet Show* and a regular guest on *Sesame Street*.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| First appearance | 1955 on *Sam and Friends*, Henson's twice-daily five-minute show on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.[1](https://www.henson.com/our-founders/) |
| Original construction | Built from green felt of a coat discarded by Henson's mother, with ping-pong ball halves for eyes; the first Kermit was lizard-like and lacked the signature collar[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/) |
| Signature song | "Bein' Green," written by Joe Raposo for *Sesame Street* and performed by Kermit in 1970[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf) • [4](https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/ballinst_catalogues/13) |
| *The Muppet Show* run | 1976 to 1981; Kermit was host and, per one critical study, straight man to most of the show's jokes[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/) • [5](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Kermit-Culture-%3A-Critical-Perspectives-on-Jim-Henson%27s-Muppets/oclc/867931533) |
| Reach | The series reached 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries and won three Emmys during its five-year run[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/) |
| Museum holdings | The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History first loaned a Kermit puppet in 1979, made it a gift in 1994, and accepted the original 1955 Kermit among ten *Sam and Friends* characters in 2010[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/) |
| Later performers | Steve Whitmire played Kermit from Henson's death in 1990 until 2016; Matt Vogel succeeded him in 2017.[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf) • [16](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced/story?id=48556859) |
## Creation on Sam and Friends
Kermit began as one character among several on *Sam and Friends*, the program Henson produced as a University of Maryland freshman in 1955 with his assistant and future wife Jane Nebel[1](https://www.henson.com/our-founders/). The Henson Company's account of the show's puppets describes the first Kermit as more of a lizard-like creature, assembled from ping-pong ball eyes and green felt cut from a coat Henson's mother had discarded; this version lacks the frilled collar and has rounded feet[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/). Other accounts agree that Henson established the character as a frog only after a few television appearances, with the green frilled collar added later to hide the seams between head and neck[6](https://www.visitperth.com/-/media/Project/COP/COP/COP/Documents-and-Forms/Visit-Perth/Documents/Getting-Around/Citiplace-Community-Centre/Citiplace-Community-Centre-Monthly-Newsletter/Citiplace-Newsletters-2025/Citiplace-Newsletter-July-2025.pdf).
The show established the Muppets' approach to television, eliminating the puppet stage and using the television frame itself as the proscenium[1](https://www.henson.com/our-founders/). A Smithsonian account of the collection notes that a later Kermit, in a brighter green, was made after 1963 when color television became more popular[7](https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/meet-muppets).
## Sesame Street
When *Sesame Street* premiered in 1969, Kermit was already an established character; a scholarly account notes he was unique among the show's Muppets in having been made well before the program existed[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf). He appeared mostly in inserts, teaching letters and numbers, and was described in an early Children's Television Workshop paper as an important member of the show's repertory company[8](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED033768.pdf). His notable *Sesame Street* songs include "Bein' Green," "This Frog," "I Love My Elbows," and "Caribbean Amphibian"[9](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog_on_Sesame_Street).
Kermit's pre-existing career produced a conflict in the show's second season. He had taped a special in Canada (*Hey Cinderella!*) before the show launched, and when it aired in 1970, with Kermit leading into commercials, viewers objected that a *Sesame Street* character should not endorse products[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf). A 1970 *TIME* cover story reported that Kermit was being phased out for commercialism and would be replaced by Muppets such as Lecturer Herbert Birdsfoot and Sherlock Hemlock[10](https://time.com/6258549/sesame-street-time-cover-1970/). The producers struggled to create a replacement, and Kermit returned as a recurring character in 1971[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf). Henson recorded *Sesame Street* skits until his death in 1990; Kermit's appearances on [Sesame Street](https://www.edgepedia.org/sesame-street) did not end with Disney's purchase of the Muppets in 2004[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf) • [16](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced/story?id=48556859). He still makes guest appearances, including the first episode of the show's 40th season in 2009[11](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/kermit-the-frog/).
## The Muppet Show and the movies
The first episode of *The Muppet Show* premiered in the United Kingdom on September 5, 1976[12](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/kermit-the-frog-was-just-trying-to-put-on-a-variety-show-fifty-years-later-the-muppets-are-some-of-the-biggest-stars-in-television-history-180989451/). Kermit was the show's host, charged with wrangling a chaotic crew as they attempted to put on a weekly variety show, a role that has been compared to Henson managing his own creative team[12](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/kermit-the-frog-was-just-trying-to-put-on-a-variety-show-fifty-years-later-the-muppets-are-some-of-the-biggest-stars-in-television-history-180989451/). Guest stars ranged from [Gene Kelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-kelly) and Rudolph Nureyev to [Steve Martin](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-martin) and [John Cleese](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-cleese), with musical accompaniment from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band[1](https://www.henson.com/our-founders/). Less than two years after debut, the *New York Times* called it "possibly the most popular contemporary television program in the world"[12](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/kermit-the-frog-was-just-trying-to-put-on-a-variety-show-fifty-years-later-the-muppets-are-some-of-the-biggest-stars-in-television-history-180989451/).
[The Muppets](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-muppets) moved to film with *The Muppet Movie* (1979), followed by *The Great Muppet Caper* and *The Muppets Take Manhattan*[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/). A 2009 collection of critical essays, *Kermit Culture*, describes how the series turned its cast into multimedia celebrities, with Kermit functioning as straight man to most of the jokes[5](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Kermit-Culture-%3A-Critical-Perspectives-on-Jim-Henson%27s-Muppets/oclc/867931533).
## Interpretation and cultural significance
Academic work has read Kermit in several registers. Paulette Richards, writing in the *Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays* collection (2019), places Kermit in a lineage of frog characters descended from blackface minstrelsy's swamp figures and the "jazzy frog" of early twentieth-century film and cartoons; she argues Henson repurposed the trope to express his "vision of tolerance for difference and creative collaboration," a re-humanization that includes Kermit's 1970 performance of "Bein' Green" and Henson's 1978 *Muppet Show* collaboration with [Harry Belafonte](https://www.edgepedia.org/harry-belafonte)[4](https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/ballinst_catalogues/13).
Jordan Schildcrout of Ohio University, in a 2008 article in *The Journal of Popular Culture*, analyzed *The Muppet Show* as a program that emphasized and encouraged nonconformity, presenting what he describes as a progressive value system on ethnicity, gender, and sexuality during its 1976 to 1981 run[13](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00551.x/abstract). Observers of the character have also noted how Kermit's personality shifts across contexts: mild-mannered on *Sesame Street*, frazzled and frustrated as the variety show's producer, and alternating between visionary and melancholy in the films[14](https://frogoflamancha.blog/2019/03/11/muppet-heresy-many-facets-of-kermit/).
## Ownership, performers, and later history
After Henson's death in 1990, [Steve Whitmire](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-whitmire) took over Kermit and performed him until 2016; Matt Vogel succeeded him in 2017[3](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf) • [16](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced/story?id=48556859). A *Los Angeles Times* account records that the Disney executive in charge of the Muppets envisions Kermit and [Miss Piggy](https://www.edgepedia.org/miss-piggy) as "evergreen" characters, akin to [Mickey Mouse](https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-mouse) and Winnie the Pooh[11](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/kermit-the-frog/).
The physical puppets themselves have entered museum collections. The Kermit first loaned to the Smithsonian in 1979 for *Sesame Street*'s tenth anniversary became a permanent gift in 1994, and in August 2010 [Jane Henson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-henson) donated ten *Sam and Friends* characters, including the original 1955 Kermit, to the [National Museum of American History](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-museum-of-american-history)[2](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/). The character has also been reimagined in new media, including the CGI-animated toddler versions in *[Muppet Babies](https://www.edgepedia.org/muppet-babies-2018-tv-series)* revivals, where a de-aged puppet representation prompted commentary on the character's celebrity status[15](https://blog.animationstudies.org/some-thoughts-on-animated-embodiment-in-muppet-babies-play-date/).
## References
1. [Our Founders – Jim Henson, The Jim Henson Company](https://www.henson.com/our-founders/)
2. [Kermit the Frog Comes Home to Washington, The Jim Henson Company (August 25, 2010)](https://www.henson.com/kermit-the-frog-comes-home-to-washington/)
3. [Alexa Appel, paper on Kermit the Frog and Sesame Street](https://alexaappel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/the-final-paper.pdf)
4. [Paulette Richards, "It's Not Easy Bein' Green": Greenface and the Jazzy Frog Trope, Living Objects: African American Puppetry Essays (2019)](https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/ballinst_catalogues/13)
5. [Kermit Culture: Critical Perspectives on Jim Henson's Muppets, Garlen and Graham, McFarland (2009), WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/title/Kermit-Culture-%3A-Critical-Perspectives-on-Jim-Henson%27s-Muppets/oclc/867931533)
6. [Citiplace Community Centre Newsletter, July 2025, Visit Perth](https://www.visitperth.com/-/media/Project/COP/COP/COP/Documents-and-Forms/Visit-Perth/Documents/Getting-Around/Citiplace-Community-Centre/Citiplace-Community-Centre-Monthly-Newsletter/Citiplace-Newsletters-2025/Citiplace-Newsletter-July-2025.pdf)
7. [Meet the Muppets, National Museum of American History](https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/meet-muppets)
8. [Children's Television Workshop formative research paper (ERIC ED033768)](https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED033768.pdf)
9. [Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street, Muppet Wiki](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Kermit_the_Frog_on_Sesame_Street)
10. [Who's Afraid of Big, Bad TV? TIME cover story on Sesame Street, November 23, 1970](https://time.com/6258549/sesame-street-time-cover-1970/)
11. [Kermit the Frog, Hollywood Star Walk, Los Angeles Times](https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/kermit-the-frog/)
12. [Ellen Wexler, Kermit the Frog Was Just Trying to Put on a Variety Show, Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/kermit-the-frog-was-just-trying-to-put-on-a-variety-show-fifty-years-later-the-muppets-are-some-of-the-biggest-stars-in-television-history-180989451/)
13. [Jordan Schildcrout, The Performance of Nonconformity on The Muppet Show, The Journal of Popular Culture 41(5): 823–835 (2008)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00551.x/abstract)
14. [Muppet Heresy: The Many Facets of Kermit, Frog of La Mancha (2019)](https://frogoflamancha.blog/2019/03/11/muppet-heresy-many-facets-of-kermit/)
15. [Some Thoughts on Animated Embodiment in Muppet Babies: Play Date, Animation Studies 2.0](https://blog.animationstudies.org/some-thoughts-on-animated-embodiment-in-muppet-babies-play-date/)
16. [abcnews.com](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/kermit-frog-voice-actor-replaced/story?id=48556859)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Film characters and fictional worlds › Animated television characters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license