My Favorite Characters-Kermit, The Frog

So let's move on from the world of sitcoms to another genre. One of the greatest characters I've loved for ages isn't a man or woman. He started out as a puppet made from an old raincoat. A green raincoat. How can a puppet mange to be one of the best characters ever? Let's talk about...

Kermit The Frog

Kermit is "just a frog", as he himself would put it, but he's really so much more. Now to be fair, the his early days on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show his characters wasn't as defined. In those days he was pretty much the straight man in a world of insanity. Trying desperately to keep it under control. Of course you go further back to when he got started, he doesn't even resemble the character we know today.

That perception of Kermit started to change, in my opinion, in a little film called "The Muppet Movie". From the first time we see Kermit playing his banjo, his character was cemented. He's a dreamer, but even more than that he is someone who will do what it takes to go after his dream. And it goes even further than that. Because he truly believes in his dreams, he makes the people around him also believe that there dreams come true. There is just something about his positive attitude and the way he refuses to give up which is infectious to those around him.

I've talked about the TV movie that everyone forgets, "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie", before. And while that is far from a flawless production (it's no Muppet Wizard of Oz either!!) it really does a great job of summing up Kermit's character. When he does give up hope for once, an angel has to show just how important he is. Without him to convince his friends to follow their dreams, they all have empty lives. We see this also in "The Muppets", where we see Kermit is discouraged (try to watch the "Pictures in my mind" scene and not cry) until Walter reminds him there is always hope.

Kermit is not a perfect frog, he has flaws. His biggest is probably his complete fear of commitment to Miss Piggy. He also tends to lose his patience kinda quick, especially back in his old Sesame Street days when the chaos got a little overhelmong,and can be a tad too trusting at times. But flaws aside, he is a great character also because of just how kind he is. One can tell how genune he is and it's no wonder he ended up with the group of friends he did. It's also why I hated that god awful ABC show a few years back that made Kermit into a negative grouch.

Kermit is 65 this year, and I should mention that his success is all due to his creator and original voice performer, the famous Jim Henson who passed away thirty years ago next month. A real tribite maybe in order for that one!