Kermit's Swamp is one of Kermit the Frog's homes. It was first shown in The Muppet Movie, and has since made several subsequent appearances. Although The Muppet Movie does not specify the Swamp's location, many reviews of the film, including that of Vincent Canby for The New York Times[1] and an August 1978 article in Time magazine, referred to it as a "Georgia swamp." A 1978 draft of the script referred to the Swamp simply as "a swamp in the deep south."[2]
Some evidence suggests that the Swamp is actually Okefenokee Swamp, a large wetland that straddles the border between Georgia and Florida. For example, the comic strip Pogo, which is said to have "influenced Jim Henson's development of Muppet characters,"[3] was set in and around Okefenokee Swamp. Furthermore, in The Muppet Show episode 509, Kermit's nephew Robin appears as a member of the Precision Drill Team from the Okefenokee Pack 12 of the Frog Scouts of America. Finally, one installment of The Muppets comic strip shows Kermit and Miss Piggy visiting Okefenokee Swamp to meet Kermit's relatives. In the distance, another frog waves to Kermit and Piggy in apparent recognition.
Nevertheless, other plausible locations of Kermit's Swamp remain. For example, in The Muppets at Walt Disney World, Kermit brings the Muppet gang to visit his aunts and uncles in Paradise Swamp, Florida (adjacent to Walt Disney World), and says that this swamp is where he "grew up." In contrast, Kermit's Swamp Years has the swamp situated in Mississippi, just outside of Leland (which is backed up in The Muppets Character Encyclopedia as Kermit's birthplace).
According to a 2012 statement by Kermit, Frogtown Hollow is right upstream from his swamp; making Kermit and Emmet Otter neighbors.[4]
When hosting The Tonight Show, Kermit said he doesn't think that his mother would be watching, as he wasn't sure if they had a TV back in the swamp.
The swamp was the main setting for the picture book Kermit, Save the Swamp!, and it appears as a race track in Muppet RaceMania.
Residents of the Swamp
In addition to various frogs and alligators, individual swamp residents include:
- Kermit the Frog
- Kermit's Mom
- Arnie the Alligator (The Muppet Movie and Kermit's Swamp Years)
- Goggles (Kermit's Swamp Years)
- Croaker (Kermit's Swamp Years)
- Blotch (Kermit's Swamp Years)
- Horace D' Fly (Kermit's Swamp Years)
- Harry, Mary, Larry, Terry, Gary, Perry, and Lou (The Muppets at Walt Disney World)
- Fergus (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
- Lulu (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
- Nemo (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
- Alice (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
- Garnett and her children (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
- Tennyson (Kermit, Save the Swamp!)
Sources
- ↑ Canby, Vincent "The Screen: Muppets Go to Hollywood; Roadiest Road Picture" The New York Times, June 22, 1979, Section: The Weekend, Page C19.
- ↑ ToughPigs.com "The Road to Hollywood, Chapter 2: A Frog is Born"
- ↑ Inches, Alison Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles; New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001, p. 13.
- ↑ xfinity: Five Questions with The Muppets Star Kermit the Frog March 20, 2012