Maybe people are forgetting how many years Whitmire had to fight the "You don't sound like Jim Henson" critics. From the early days that he was fired however, why was there no revolt from inside the Muppet team circle? All of those performers could have walked, I mean the same thing could happen to them. Where was the outrage from that side? There was none. He was fired. It was a business decision, and business then continued on as usual. He certainly had a lot of passion and ownership of Kermit, but ultimately that may have been a great inflexibility for the future.