The Letter People is the name of a children's literacy program and the television series based on that program. The term also refers to the various characters depicted in the program and television show.

Original program

Elayne Reiss-Weimann and Rita Friedman created The Letter People in 1974. They sold their idea to educational publisher AlphaTime (later AlphaOne), and illustrator Elizabeth Callen was hired to design the look of the series and its characters.

The program's basic concept was simple: Each letter of the English alphabet was represented by a unique character with traits derived from its letter. The consonants were male, and the vowels were female (the "Letter Girls"). Reiss-Weimann, Friedman and Callen also wrote two series of books about the characters, Fables from the Letter People and Read-to-Me . Each Letter Person also had an accompanying song (available on 8-track and vinyl record), and inflatable vinyl effigies in two sizes (12-14 inches or 30-inch "life-size") known as a "Huggables". Other merchandise included film strips and flash cards. Educators who adopted the program were trained in its implementation, and The Letter People was soon picked up by hundreds of schools across the United States.

Television series

While thousands of children were learning about the Letter People in school, thousands of others were being exposed to them through the television series based on the program. The show was produced by PBS affiliate KETC in St. Louis, Missouri, and the first episode aired in 1974. The show was extremely popular with children, and it quickly spread to other PBS stations across the country.

The Letter People consists of 60 episodes. In each 15-minute installment, the Letter People (relatively primitive puppets) undertake various adventures in Letter People Land , a dark, featureless place populated by strange people and creatures. Episodes usually focus on introducing new Letter People or new sounds formed by combining two Letter People together (such as /CH/ or /OU/). Other episodes take the Letter People to more exotic (though still featureless) locales such as outer space, while a few highlight the characters' conflicts over various sounds (such as Mr. C fighting Mr. K and Mr. S for his sound). Another common feature of the show is "The Catching Game ", a sort of game show hosted by Monty Swell where the Letter People must form words by positioning themselves correctly side-by-side.

The show has aired almost continuously since 1974.

Revised and updated

In 1990, Abrams & Co. Publishers Inc. of Waterbury, Connecticut bought the rights to The Letter People from the previous owner, Norwalk, Connecticut-based Dimensions in Education, Inc. . The company gave the program a major facelift, updating and revising it. They first of all changed the look of the characters and the associated materials. For example, lowercase letters were added to the back of each Letter Person (previously they had been placed on each character somewhat randomly). Abrams also made sweeping changes to over half of the Letter People themselves, most obviously equalizing the proportion of male to female characters (vowels are now distinguished by their ability to light up via "LetterLights"). The women also changed from "Miss" to "Ms.", and all references to "junk food" were deleted (Mr. D 's "delicious donuts" were exchanged for "dazzling dance", for example). In addition, any Letter People that Abrams deemed as expressing negative images were changed to be more positive (Mr. H 's horrible hair became happy instead, while Mr. X is no longer mixed up, he's "different"). The Letter People storybooks were rewritten with an eye toward teaching conflict resolution and problem solving skills.

The current program is divided into three levels with increasing emphasis on phonics: Let's Begin with the Letter People for preschool, Land of the Letter People for kindergarten, and Lives of the Letter People for first grade. The program is currently taught to about 30 million children.

Though the program is generally well received by educators, some have criticized its strong focus on phonics at the expense of other literacy-building techniques. Others object to the new program more from a sense of nostalgia; those raised on the original version often complain that the new Letter People are too concerned with being politically correct to be fun.

List of Letter People

• Note: The characteristics of Miss I and Miss O changed after The Letter People television series entered production. Therefore, they are known by the names in parentheses on that program.

External links

• Songs from the original The Letter People and an episode guide to the television series

• Abrams & Co.'s official The Letter People website