You’re welcome! Thank you for asking me to do it, Gina!

I joined the company in 1978 during season 3 of The Muppet Show. I was 19 years old and had met Jim after meeting Carrol Spinney at a Puppetry Festival. It was Carrol who encouraged me to contact Jim for an audition. I started out doing background characters, and often standing in for Frank with Fozzie. Piggy had become a major character and someone had to puppeteer Fozzie while Frank did Piggy. My very first episode of the series was the Alice Cooper show, and I was inside of Thog as he made a brief cross holding a sparkler. My favorite job during that time, and probably ever, was working with Jim performing Rowlf’s hands on the piano. I would spend hours learning every nuance of a pre-recorded piano track so that I had every note memorized. It was so much fun!

During the Muppet Show, all us background puppeteers were encouraged to grab whatever puppet we wanted (aside from main characters) for the background of the backstage scenes of the show. One day I was rummaging through a box of old puppets in storage and I came across some old rat puppets built by Don Sahlin for the Musicians of Bremen television special Jim had done several years earlier. They were crude puppets built with bodies made from quart-sized bleach bottles and mounted on two foot long sticks. They mostly just bounced around when you wiggled them, but I really loved them, and sneaked one into the backstage scenes, having it dance insanely. Jim loved it, and soon it was decided to work my rat into the family.

I went about designing an easy-to-use control for the rat. It was built by the shop and put into a new rat puppet that I designed and built certain pieces of. So, I didn’t really "invent’ him; more like RE-invented him. His name was Frank’s idea, from the Dustin Hoffman character in "Midnight Cowboy".

My favorite to work on was probably the first film, The Muppet Movie, because I was so new to it all. I actually prefer television to film work because of how much quicker we’re able to see the result of our hard work.

Well, not a whole lot, actually ... let’s see. We did the Muppet tribute show to Jim in 1990. We finished the Muppetvision 3D film for Walt Disney World, which was the last film Jim directed. We started Dinosaurs ... a few things.

Most of our sets are between three and four feet off the ground and we cheat the character’s heights all the time. It would never work otherwise. If a character like Rizzo only appeared at his true height next to a human actor, you’d only see the human actor’s feet when you saw Rizzo. That’s an extreme example, but the idea is true for most of the characters. Even so, we do know the relative heights of the characters to each other and make an effort to keep that in mind.

I can remember the Muppets since I was about seven years old, or so. Some of my favorite Muppet television shows were the "Muppetland" specials Jim did back around the time Sesame Street started, "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen" being my favorite. Of all the characters, Rowlf the Dog is the one I remember for the longest from seeing him back on his days as a regular part of the Jimmy Dean Show. I suppose my favorite character has always been Kermit, and he became even more of a favorite after I met Jim and discovered how much a part of Jim Kermit is. Of the characters I have performed, my favorite is Rizzo the Rat.

I have a large display of Muppet items that I have received from Henson over the years in one room of my house. It’s a lot like a museum, but at the same time, it serves as something of a "yearbook" since it is a reminder of all the various stuff I’ve been a part of.

When I was a kid, I had an early (I think it was done by Hasbro) Rowlf the Dog from the Jimmy Dean days. I loved that puppet and would love to find one, if anybody out there has one.

I am an animal lover and my wife and I have eight cats. Plus I help out any way that I can at an animal preserve for big cats in Los Angeles called the Shambala Preserve. It is a refuge for many species of big cats, lions, tigers, cougars, cheetah, etc. to live out their lives in the event they are rejected by zoos, animal parks, circuses, etc. It is run by actress and conservationist Tippi Hedren, most well-known for her roles in the Hitchcock films "The Birds" and "Marnie". It is by far my favorite charity. They do outstanding work and are one of the only places like this in existence.

I have often said that if I weren’t a puppeteer, I’d probably do something in construction. I enjoy very much carpentry and renovating houses.

There WAS an official Muppet fan club back during the Muppet Show days and it even published a newsletter, but that was a long time ago. I don’t think anything like that exists now, and I’m not aware of plans to start one. The closest thing to that might be the Henson web pages.

I think we do quality work with great attention to detail most of the time. It’s rare in show business for money not to dictate the bottom line and JHC still retains some of Jim’s work ethic. As the company grows, I hope and pray that remains, because it is one of the big things that has made the Muppets unique in an industry presently inundated by puppets on television.

The most fun thing is being able to do good work with the people who are the best at what they do in the world, and it’s an ever-growing group of people. Not just with The Jim Henson Company, but the celebrities we work with are first rate professionals. It’s a rare honor to work with true friends, and I’ve had the good fortune to do it now for twenty years.

Probably achieving a balance between being at home and traveling. I love my home and my life at home and traveling is always an interruption of that. Still, it’s nice to see the world, and it’s great to see the effects of our work on millions of people. Without the travel, I wouldn’t be a part of that, so I try to take it in stride. I sort of take home with me in my heart, and most of my closest friends are people who can take up where we left off.

I’m not sure of the exact number ... maybe 15 or 20? We’ve recorded new ones every year for several years now, and there are twenty something years of Jim doing Ernie that is still in use.

It’s an unavoidable situation, isn’t it? What’s not good about it is that Jim isn’t performing Kermit anymore. There’s nothing anyone can do about that. What’s good about it is that it’s no longer a copy of Jim’s character, although I believe it to be truthful and faithful to who Kermit was from within Jim. Kermit comes from me, from my heart, rather than simply my recollection of Jim’s performance, although I usually have Jim in mind as I perform Kermit. That’s important if Kermit is to be anything more than a corporate icon, like Mickey Mouse. It will always be my tribute to Jim and all that he taught me. I’m constantly thrilled and rewarded when I meet people, children and adults, who love Kermit and I get the gratification of seeing the elation on their faces as they meet him.

The last time I saw Jim, about a month before his death, my wife and I had dinner with him in Florida. At that dinner he told me he was frustrated that I really didn’t have any major characters other than Rizzo in the main Muppet family of characters, since I was one of his main performers. We hadn’t really done anything that gave me the opportunity to develop any other roles. He said that when he returned to New York one of his first priorities was going to be to find a major character for me ... I suppose he did.

You’re very welcome, Gina!

INTERVIEW WITH STEVE WHITMIRE

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Well, I don’t want to give away the ending entirely, but ... well ... kind of.

Will he be referred to as an "alien" instead of a "whatever" in all his other appearances?

I don’t know - we haven’t talked about it yet.

Good question - I expect it’s meant to be Gonzo’s real life story.

Hmm? ... I think it’s all 70’s cover tunes, lots of "Funk" stuff, very "Muppety" music.

There are plans for many Muppet movies in the future. There is early talk about the next one being shot within the next year or so. There is no script yet, but one early direction for the film is to do "Muppet Haunted House" - but we don’t know exactly what that will mean yet.

Kermit will be the "spokesfrog" for the US Mint’s 50 State Quarter campaign, in which the Mint will introduce 50 new quarters - one for each state - over the next 10 years. Check their website:

Probably not - I expect I’ll be working during that time - Either way, I have to keep the time clear - just in case!

Interviews copyrighted 1998-1999. Reproduction in any media is expressly prohibited without written permission from the copyright holder.