Talk: Episode 502: Loretta Swit

Steve as Thog

• My pal Lara claims that Thog was performed by Steve Whitmire in this episode, but I'm reluctant to add it because I've never seen the episode myself. (Jerry is the regular performer of Thog, yes?) Flattheseventh 07:13, 28 Dec 2005 (UTC)

• While Jerry Nelson was the regular performer, and he was the only one to perform him whenever he spoke, I have read a few things on some message boards that have claimed that Steve Whitmire performed Thog in this epsiode. I have also once read an interview with Steve Whitmire where he said that he performed Thog in the School's Out For Summer number in the Alice Cooper episode. I'm not sure if there is any official confirmation available to the public that says Steve performed Thog in this epsidoe. Maybe somebody met Steve Whitmire and he mentioend this, maybe someone who worked for the muppets said this on a message board (I know that some people involved with the muppets have posted on message boards), maybe it was mentioned in Of Muppets and Men (either the special or book, or both). Also, I know that Jerry Nelson gave up performing Mr. Snuffleupagus because he hurt his back playing the character, and that was in the late 1970s. This epsiode is from 1980, so maybe Jerry though his back would be hurt from playing Thog. -- Minor Muppetz

• Yeah, there are pictures in the Of Muppets and Men book of the crew working on this number. I think one of the pictures has Steve inside the Thog costume. (I don't have the book on me, but I could check it later.) It was pretty common for performers on the show to play other people's puppets in non-speaking roles. It's possible that Jerry wasn't on the set that day for one reason or another, or maybe they wanted to give Steve (the new boy) some more to do. For the purposes of this wiki, we're only counting speaking parts on the performer credits, because otherwise we'd be swamped with all the instances when a puppet was lip-synched or in the background. So Steve playing Thog would be a trivia note for this episode, but Steve wouldn't be listed as a performer on Thog's page. -- Toughpigs 17:43, 28 Dec 2005 (UTC)
• Wonderful. Thanks, guys. I know she has that book, so I'm guessing that's where the information came from. By "performed," I didn't know if that meant just in the costume or he actually did the voice for whatever reason. Thought it was worth mentioning, at least.
• Thog didn't actually talk in that number. --Minor muppetz 04:57, 29 Dec 2005 (UTC)