Bob Newhart and Kermit
Bob Newhart (1929-2024) was a comedian and actor who starred on such sitcoms as The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart.
In 1992, Newhart hosted Holiday Greetings from the Ed Sullivan Show, a Christmas special that featured guest appearances by Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and other Muppets. Newhart tells Miss Piggy that he admires her karate chops, and Piggy offers a demonstration, using Kermit as a target. Kermit ducks for the final move, however, and Piggy hits Newhart instead.
Newhart first became known from his routines, which tended to emphasize one-sided telephone calls, used on albums and stand-up, and voiced Bernard in Disney's animated features The Rescuers and Rescuers Down Under. Decades later, he recurred on The Big Bang Theory (and spin-off Young Sheldon) as TV science host Professor Proton. He played Judson in The Librarians TV movies and franchise (with Noah Wyle) and one of his shorter-lived series was George & Leo (with Judd Hirsch and Jason Bateman). Guest appearances include The Simpsons, ER, Murphy Brown, and Desperate Housewives.
His more sporadic films included Catch-22 (with Alan Arkin), the Norman Lear movie Cold Turkey (with Dick Van Dyke), Elf (as Papa Elf, who adopts and raises Will Ferrell), and In & Out (directed by Frank Oz).