Sarah Farless – It’s one of the most talked about and famous relationships of all time, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. Their history goes back thirty-five years, to when Piggy started out as a chorus girl and Kermit was the leader trying to get a bunch of crazies to put on a show.
Piggy would always try to find ways to get the green frog to fall in love with her, whether it was trying to make him jealous, tricking him into marriage, or putting false stories about them in the newspapers–which made Kermit so mad at one point that he fired her. But you can’t help but admire Piggy’s determination and relentlessness in her pursuit of amphibian affection.
Piggy’s background, according to a 1979 People magazine article, was less than glamorous. Frank Oz stated that her father chased after other sows and her mother had so many piglets she never found time to develop her mind. Refusing to live such a life Piggy ran away and moved to the big city. Taking any job she could find, she walked a sandwich board for a barbecue stand. In an interview done in 1993 with Larry King Live, she said she grew up in a small town, her father died in a tractor accident when she was young and her mother wasn’t very nice to her. Apparently, she had never told to Kermit any of this, as he was surprised to hear such revelations. In a recent interview promoting Muppets Most Wanted, Piggy again stated that her mother wasn’t very nice to her. Maybe that’s why she longs for love.
As for Kermit, during the early days of The Muppet Show, it’s clear that he wanted nothing to do with the diva pig. However it is also clear that he came to care for Piggy and even have feelings to a degree. You would see him get jealous of male guest stars, particularly Christopher Reeve and Avery Schreiber. I’ve always said Kermit doesn’t seem to want to be with her, but he doesn’t want another man to be with her either.
After The Muppet Show, their relationship was still a bit of a mystery. The first three movies, while maybe not “canon,” did give a mirror into their relationship. The Muppet Movie tells how everything approximately happened—including, we can assume, the love-at-first-sight meeting between the frog and the pig, and their subsequent difficulties. In The Great Muppet Caper, Kermit is trying to win Piggy‘s affection. And after The Muppets Take Manhattan it was definitely obvious they were together as evidenced by Jim Henson’s last appearance with Kermit on The Arsenio Hall Show. Kermit indicated there was trouble in their relationship and Arsenio remarked how his answers were so much different then the last time he was on the show.
After Jim passed away in 1990, it seemed the banter started all over again. The 1990s and early 2000s were an emotional transition for The Muppets. Steve Whitmire would take on Kermit the Frog and Frank Oz would move on to other projects, with Eric Jacobson taking over as Miss Piggy. During that time it seemed everything needed to be reset, with Kermit and Piggy having to find their way also.
The films released during that time didn’t really focus on their status as a couple. In 2008 Kermit and Piggy appeared together on “The Morning Show” to promote A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa and Kermit admitted they had kissed once in public but added that they were trying to be discreet about it. But this still didn’t put their relationship on solid ground because even after that Kermit still at times would go back to saying their relationship was just professional or they were good friends.
In 2011 when Disney released The Muppets, we got to see the troubles and insecurities Kermit and Piggy had in regards to each other. Piggy’s insecurities lay with not knowing if Kermit really wanted to be with her. Kermit, as ever, had trouble expressing his feelings. He did in the end finally admit to Piggy that he needed and missed her. I can’t help but feel, despite this moment taking place in a film, that it was a reflection of their true feelings.
Which brings us to Muppets Most Wanted. I loved this film for many reasons but I particularly enjoyed it because it developed their relationship even more. You really could feel Kermit wanting to fight for Piggy towards the end during the helicopter scene.
So my final thought on this is that Kermit and Piggy will always be one of the most talked about couples. Why? Because they are simply great together. Oh and as for that famous wedding that I forgot to talk about, well… I’ll leave that one for you all to decide.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com
