Original program

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

A program's basic construct was elementary: Both letter of the English alphabet was represented by a unique character by having traits from either its letter. A consonants were male, and a vowels were female (the "Letter Girls"). Reiss-Weimann, Friedman & Callen besides wrote ii series of books about the characters, Fables from the Letter People and Read-to-Me. From each one Letter Individual likewise experienced an incidental song (available in 8-track and vinyl record), and inflatable vinyl effigies in 2 sizes (12-14 inches or even Thirty-inch "life-size") called the "Huggables". More product involved film strips and flash cards. Pedagogue world health organization adopted a program were trained inside its implementation, & A Letter Humans was shortly picked higher by hundreds of schools across the United States.

Television series

When hundreds to hundreds to thousands of kids were researching a Letter Population within school, thousands of others were existence studied to the two through the television series based on the program. A indicate was by PBS affiliate KETC in St. Louis, Missouri, and the first episode aired in 1974. A indicate was pleasantly popular heavy, & it quickly spread to more PBS stations across the nation.

A Letter Humans consists of Lx episodes. Around every Xv-microscopic installment, a Letter Population (comparatively primitive puppets) undertake various adventures around Letter People Land, a dark, featureless place populated by unknown humans & animals. Episodes ordinarily focus in introducing freshly Letter Humans or even even freshly sounds formed by combining ii Letter Population together (like /CH/ or /OU/). further episodes choose a Letter Population to more exotic (though however featureless) locus like outer space, while two or three highlight a characters' conflicts on top various sounds (such as Mr. C fighting Mr. K and Mr. S for his sound). An additional most common feature of the indicate is "The Catching Game", a kind of game show hosted by Monty Swell where the Letter Population must form words by positioning themselves right side-by-side.

A indicate has aired about day and night since 1974.

Revised and updated

Inside 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 a program a major facelift, updating & revising it. It first off changed a look of a characters & the associated materials. For instance, lowercase letters were added to the back of every Letter Individual (antecedently it experienced been situated in each character somewhat every which way). Abrams as well processed sweeping changes to all over half of a Letter Humans themselves, virtually all plain equalizing the proportion of male to female characters (vowels come okay, distinguished by their ability to weak higher via "LetterLights"). A women likewise changed from either "Miss" to "Ms.", & tons information to "junk food" were deleted (Mr. D's "delicious donuts" were exchanged for "dazzling dance", for example). Additionally, any Letter Population that Abrams deemed when expressing veto images were changed to become further caring (Mr. H's horrible hair became happy instead, while Mr. X is no longer mixed up, he's "different"). A Letter Population storybooks were rewritten by having an eye toward teaching conflict resolution and problem solving skills.

A todays program is divided into terniin levels using 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. A program is presently taught to astir 30 million tikes.

Though a program is usually swell received by pedagog, a bit of develop criticized its heavy center phonics at a expense of more literacy-building techniques. Others object to the fresh program other from either the feel of nostalgia; those raised on a original version typically complain that the freshly Letter Population come as well caring sustaining existence politically correct to be fun.

List of Letter People

Original Program (1974)	Characteristic	Revised Program (1990)	Characteristic
Miss A	The'choo	Ms. A	The'choo
Mr. B	Beautiful Buttons	Mr. B	Beautiful Buttons
Mr. C	Cotton gauze Candy	Mr. C	Stupendous Cap
Mr. D	Delicious Doughnuts	Mr. D	Dazzling Dance
Miss E	Exercise	Ms. E	Exercise Energy
Mr. F	Funny Feet	Ms. F	Funny Feet
Mr. G	Icky Gum	Mr. G	Icky Gum
Mr. H	Atrocious Hair	Mr. H	Happy Hair
Miss I*	(Itchy Itch); Unbelievable Inventor	Mr. I	Impossible Inches
Mr. J	Topsy-turvy Junk	Ms. J	Jingle Jingle Jacket
Mr. K	Kicking	Ms. K	Kaboom Kick
Mr. L	Lemon Lollipops	Ms. L	Yearn Laugh
Mr. M	Munching Mouth	Mr. M	Munching Mouth
Mr. N	Loud Nose	Mr. N	Loud Nose
Miss O*	(Unregenerate); Optimist	Mr. O	Opposite
Mr. P	Pointy Patches	Ms. P	Pointy Patches
Mr. Q	Quiet	Mr. Q	Quiet Questions
Mr. R	Ripping Rubberbands	Mr. R	Rainbow Ribbons
Mr. S	Extremely Socks	Ms. S	Extremely Socks
Mr. T	Tall Teeth	Ms. T	Tall Teeth
Miss U	Umbrella	Ms. U	Unusual Umbrella
Mr. V	Velvet Vest	Ms. V	Vegetable Vest
Mr. W	Winking	Ms. W	Marvellous Words
Mr. X	Mixed Up	Mr. X	Different
Mr. Y	Yawning	Ms. Y	Yodeling Yawn
Mr. Z	Zipping Zippers	Mr. Z	Zipping Zippers

Note: A characteristics of Miss We & Miss O changed when A Letter Humans television series entered production. So, it is known per list within parentheses thereon program.