When did Kermit become a frog?

In the early days of the Muppets, the character Kermit was not a frog. He was introduced in 1955 with roundish feet instead of flippers and no collar. As Jim Henson described: "all the characters in those days were abstract"; Kermit was simply a lizard-like creature, and was not a specific species.
Kermit didn't truly become a frog until the late 1960s. However, the process was a gradual one, and the exact moment of the transformation has been unclear. Whereas most official sources (including interviews with Jim Henson himself) list the 1971 TV special The Frog Prince, research shows it happened earlier.
==Timeline==
*1955: Kermit is introduced on Afternoon and Sam and Friends with rounded feet and no collar.
*1959: A reporter for the Christian Science Monitor describes Kermit as "frog-faced".Christian Science Monitor "Muppets Win Way" by Ursula Keller, Dec 15, 1959 via Jim Henson's Red Book 2/-/1955 – ‘Began working together. [Jane’]
*1960: In the September 13, 1960 episode of Sam and Friends, Kermit announces the incidental Olympic events from which the cast took home medals. Kermit himself won in the hundred-meter leapfrog event. He does not acknowledge being a frog himself, but claims to have many friends who are frogs.Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show page 462 In the December 7, 1960 episode, a large bird mistakes Kermit for a frog (and Harry the Hipster for a worm) and carries them off.Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson's First Television Show page 478
*1965: Kermit makes a cameo as a frog in the pilot for a proposed Cinderella TV series, recorded in October. The Muppets appear on The Tonight Show in December; Johnny Carson refers to the character as "Kermit the Frog."
*1966: The Muppets appear on The Mike Douglas Show. Florence Henderson is taken aback by Kermit's sudden appearance; in response, she remarks, "He scared me, I didn't expect a frog!" Some advertisements for the Ideal Toys Muppet puppets refer to Kermit as a "fanciful frog."
*1968: Kermit (still with rounded feet and no collar) is referred to as a frog in The Muppets On Puppets (taped in June) and The Wonderful Night of Hercules Brown. Hey Cinderella! is taped in OctoberJim Henson's Red Book 7/23/1968 – ‘Mike Douglas Show – “Sort of Cinderella”.’ (though it won't air until 1970); Kermit is referred to consistently as a frog and is redesigned with flippers and a collar.
*1969: Kermit appears in his fully-evolved form in Muppet Puppet Plays; Henson calls him a "frog-type Muppet." He is also a frog in in the pitch reel and first season of Sesame Street.
Even after Kermit's frogification, he was mistaken for a lizard by Neville in The Great Muppet Caper, addressed as a lizard by Ma Bear twice in A Muppet Family Christmas, and by Bunsen in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.
==Appearances of the Frog Prince rumor==
Jim Henson: The Works, mentions that Kermit first gained froghood for The Frog Prince. Jim Henson himself even said so in a 1982 interview:Jim Henson interview, Judy Harris. Interview conducted on September 21, 1982, and published on Harris' website.
:Jim Henson: ...back in those days you may have read somewhere, but I didn't call him a frog.
:Judy Harris: Right, he was just Kermit the thing.
:Jim Henson: Yeah, all the characters in those days were abstract because that was part of the principle that I was working under, that you wanted abstract things.
:Judy Harris: He didn't turn into a frog until you did The Frog Prince for a TV special.
:Jim Henson: Yeah, that's right.
:Judy Harris: That was the first time he got flippers and his little pointed collar?
:Jim Henson: Right.
Jim Henson (and Kermit) again reinforced the notion on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1990.
:Jim Henson: When [Kermit] was first made he was, all my characters were abstract, he wasn't really a frog. He was a lizard-like character. But he became a frog when we did a show called The Frog Prince.
:Regis Philbin: Oh, I see. Yeah. And he stuck right away? He hit?
:Kermit: Ah, yes. Once a frog, I just stayed a frog thereafter.
In one Ask Henson.com response, Henson Archivist Karen Falk provided the following quote on the issue made by Jim Henson in 1985:
==See also==
* Kermit's Birthday
* Kermit Through The Years
* Kermit the Frog's collar
* Was Kermit named after a childhood friend of Jim Henson?
==Sources==
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Rumors