Kermit's Frog Form inspiration

[Kuriboh Man]

Having Kermit becoming a frog always gets me thinking. what inspired Jim Henson to have him a frog?

[Princeton]

I don't know why nobody replies to your threads, KM; for some reason, I consider you one of the coolest members on this forum.;) Anyway, if you look at the Sam & Friends version of Kermit, even without the collar and flippers, to me he looks almost like a frog! I guess Jim or someone else realized that too, and decided to just go for it 100% and make him a frog! :)

[Kuriboh Man]

Well I'm Glad you appreciate myContributions Princeton.;) your very cool too.:)

[Tim]

Jim never intended his characters to be anything. To him they wer all abstract beings. The press focused on the "Kermit" puppet calling hima frog or lizard-like creature. Jim finally gave in to public pressure as he many times did) and Kermit became a frog for "The Frog Prince" TV special.

[GelflingWaldo]

The Frog Prince was in 1971...however Kermit was a Frog before that. In Hey, Cinderella! (1970) he was a frog, and in the first season of Sesame Street (1969) he was a frog, in The Muppets On Puppets (1968) Kermit (then still flipper-less) was referred to as a frog two times and even before that he was known as a frog.

Here's a quote from Jim Henson (circa 1985) on the issue:
"When I started doing this little local television show, Kermit was more a lizard-like character. We frogafied him over a couple of televisions specials we did years ago, before Sesame Street. So he just slowly became a frog. I don't think there was a conscious move to do that... He's very primitive as a puppet goes because he's really like a glorified sock puppet. But he changed a little bit - a few years after I first made him because when I first made him, he was - all my characters in those days were abstract. And he was sort of a lizard-like character. And then after a few years, we changed and made more of a frog-like body for him and gave him flippers for feet."

Why a frog? Why not a lizard, a toad or gecko? Well, I don't know...I don't know if anyone (even Jim Henson, himself) would know for sure. :)

[minor muppetz]

It's ironic that Kermit was called a frog in The Muppets on Puppets and Hey Cinderella. Both productions were made in 1968 and both were first broadcast in 1970.

[Pork]

hmmm..all very interesting stuff.