Hey Cinderella ! Hey Cinderella ! is a one - hour special which tells a cracked version of the classic fairy tale , " Cinderella " . It debuted on the Canadian network CBC on March 16 , 1969 . It was broadcast in the United States of America a year later , debuting on ABC on April 10 , 1970 . King Goshposh decides to hold a masked ball so that his son , Prince Arthur Charming , can choose a girl to marry . The Prince dislikes the idea because he feels that all the girls he knows are snobs , and he takes a walk in the garden ( which he ' s not very adept at maintaining ) , where he discusses the problem with Kermit the Frog . ( Kermit ' s advice : forget gardening , stick to being a prince ) Cinderella , whose cruel Stepmother has ordered her to perform an unpleasant chore , meets the Prince and mistakes him for a gardener . The Prince is delighted that Cinderella doesn ' t recognize him ; he withholds his true identity from her and tells her that his name is just Arthur . Manipulating Goshposh to allow for commoners to attend the ball as well ( under the king ' s condition of " No Frogs " to keep Kermit out ) , Arthur secures Cinderella a means to come as well . But although her stepmother tries to prevent her from attending , Cinderella ' s Fairy Godmother comes to the rescue and prepares her for the event . After a bit of coaxing , Kermit becomes the footman for Cinderella and brings along his friend , a monster named Splurge , to help escort Cinderella to the ball . Yet it is there where a case of mistaken identity threatens to keep the young lovers apart - - the Prince is still smitten with the servant girl whom he met in the garden , and Cinderella pines for the gardener Arthur ( without mentioning all the other chaos going on around them with the ball itself ) . History . Writers Jon Stone and Tom Whedon originally conceived the project in 1965 as a television series based on Snow White . A pilot script was commissioned by CBS , and Jim Henson signed on to create and perform Muppet characters for the show . Although CBS eventually passed on producing the pilot , it was taken to ABC , who approved it on the condition that it be based on a different fairy tale . The half - hour pilot , changed to center around Cinderella , was Henson ' s first collaboration with Jon Stone and composer Joe Raposo . The series again was not picked up and the pilot went unaired . However , Henson expanded the concept to an hour - long special , retitled " Hey Cinderella ! " , which reunited much of the original creative team ; including Stone , Raposo , and Muppet performers Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson . Filmed in Toronto , Canada in the fall of 1968 , the special featured Kermit as a frog for the first time , redesigned with a fringed collar and flippers . While " Hey Cinderella ! " was shot less than a year before " Sesame Street " went into production , Kermit was already recognized as a frog by the time the special was broadcast on ABC in April 1970 , several months after " Sesame " ' s debut . In effect , the initial U . S . airing of " Hey Cinderella ! " , which was sponsored by R . J . Reynolds Tobacco Company , drew some criticism , particularly with Kermit providing commercial lead - ins . Because of this , various news sources ( namely " Look " and " Time Magazine " ) cited that Kermit would be dropped from " Sesame Street " come the second season , but ultimately , he returned for future appearances . Cast . Human Cast : Muppet Performers :