Kermit vs. Sesame merchandise...?

[Tim]

I had heard this rumor/story years ago and still don't know if it's totoally true or not, but..

Although Jon Stone wanted Jim henson to bring Rowlf into the Muppet cast in order to drum up publicity for the show, PBS officials were afraid that having him on the show would confuse the issue between commercial and non-comercial televison, possibly even getting the government involved and questioning funding for the show. They allowed Kermit to appear because he was the less famous of Jim's characters at the time, but only in the puppet segments and not on the street. Also, he was NEVER allowed to be licensed along with the show's other characters, and only appeared in a few books, drawn into larger crowd scenes.

This still stands even today, as the Kermit and Big Bird balloons cannot fly together in the Macy's Parade.

Fact or fiction?

 

[Pug Lover]

It's probably true Tim.I've only ever seen Kermit in Classic Muppets merchandise.Which I myself found hard to understand since he had been a SS regular long before TMS debuted.The story you revealed would explain why.

 

[Barry Lee]

In the 30th Anniversry of Sesame Street, they actually released a Kermit "Carribean Amphibean" pulsh. That was the only "Sesame" brand Kermit doll.

 

[SwedishChefCook]

Although the agreement may have been made that Kermit was allowed to only be shown in puppet segments and not in street scenes, he still was occasionally shown out on the street with the SS humans and other street Muppets. I have been told that there was a few street scenes involving him back in the 1970's. One of them can even be seen on Noggin in a 1971 episode when him and Susan play 3 of these things in the arbor area. Iv'e heard from SS fans who watched the show religously in the 70's that Kermit was used on the street a few more times. There was a storyling about him being sick, and Susan who was a nurse at the time, put him on her window cill so he could lay down. I also heard he played some sort of game with Grover in front of the steps of the 123 building, sometime in the early 70's. So apparently they did break the rule every now and then and put Kermit in a street scene. But probably only a handful of times altogether.

 

[ISNorden]

Nowadays, it seems that Disney has tightened the rules further: I haven't seen Kermit in any Muppet sketches, except when he's one puppet in a crowd ("Do de Rubber Duck"). Any word on the restrictions changing?