Sponsored Letter Pairs never seen on classic "Sesame Street"?

[YellowYahooey]

I am thinking the eight episodes in a row that featured the letter X, many of them may have been repeats,. In fact, there was a string of four episodes in a row in January 1983 during Season 14, Tuesday through Friday, that had the letter X as a sponsored letter - they were all repeats.

I get a feeling the producers select the episodes based on ratings from the initial broadcast, and sort them from lower-rated, saving the highest rated of the episodes for last, before going back to first-run again through the season finale.

 

[ISNorden]

I am thinking the eight episodes in a row that featured the letter X, many of them may have been repeats,. In fact, there was a string of four episodes in a row in January 1983 during Season 14, Tuesday through Friday, that had the letter X as a sponsored letter - they were all repeats.

I get a feeling the producers select the episodes based on ratings from the initial broadcast, and sort them from lower-rated, saving the highest rated of the episodes for last, before going back to first-run again through the season finale.

Sounds as if you caught half of the X-episode marathon that hit our PBS station, all right; that string of eight aired when I was in my early teens, when I remember waiting till nobody else was home before I watched Sesame Street (can't embarrass my folks with a "baby show" on TV, after all).

 

[YellowYahooey]

Sounds as if you caught half of the X-episode marathon that hit our PBS station, all right; that string of eight aired when I was in my early teens, when I remember waiting till nobody else was home before I watched Sesame Street (can't embarrass my folks with a "baby show" on TV, after all).

I did the same too, only I wasn't a teen, but pretty close. I would sneak the show and even locked my parents out of the room. Little did I know that they had a "master key" and I ended up getting caught in the act in due time. Thankfully, I am living by myself now,, but I do watch skits if only on weekends at night.

 

[YellowYahooey]

At this point, Muppet Wiki revealed that, so far in its development, the D and O pair was never used. Unless it was used in at least one episode during Seasons 16 through 19, which does not have a recap on as yet.

I did read on another thread about the possibility of a math equation being used to determine the featured number of the day. Someone did post a math equation that determines the number of the day, but unless I miscalculated, the result of the equation was not right. But I am wondering if there was a formula to determine the two sponsored letters of the day?

 

[ISNorden]

At this point, Muppet Wiki revealed that, so far in its development, the D and O pair was never used. Unless it was used in at least one episode during Seasons 16 through 19, which does not have a recap on as yet.

I did read on another thread about the possibility of a math equation being used to determine the featured number of the day. Someone did post a math equation that determines the number of the day, but unless I miscalculated, the result of the equation was not right. But I am wondering if there was a formula to determine the two sponsored letters of the day?

From Seasons 3-8 at least, CTW had a scrambled-alphabet pattern that cycled predictably through the season (which is why so many premieres in the Old School sets included the letter D as one Thing of the Day). When episodes focused on two letters, the general rules went like this:

1. Check the previous two days' letters against CTW's scrambled list.
2. Whichever letter appeared on both episodes is replaced with the next one in the pattern (the "new" letter, which gets more airtime).
3. Whichever letter appeared only on the ptrvious episode (so far) gets carried forward as the "old" letter on the current episode -- less airtime today, replaced tomorrow.
4. Today's "new" letter becomes tomorrow's "old" one, which isn't seen again that season until the whole list has been covered. (Back when a season was 130 shows long, this meant that each letter got covered 5 times between the debut and thr finale.)

 

[YellowYahooey]

I noticed that pattern during Season 10 as well, but the "new becoming old" wasn't as extensive as in Seasons 3 through 8.

During Seasons 11 through at least 14, there were clusters of episodes with the "new becoming old" letters format, sometimes skipping a number due to the so-called formula which is supposedly used to determine the number of the day. It implies that during Seasons 3 through 8, episodes were aired in production order, while Seasons 9 through at least 14 likely did have the "new becoming old" letter format in production order, but the episodes were likely no longer aired in production order. The snow arc episodes from Season 13 did not have the "new replacing old" format, implying they may not have been taped consecutively, but sporadically.

It's also observed that a March 1983 episode (episode 1790, to be exact) was likely taped way back in November 1982, and not aired until March 1983, since Mr. Hooper appeared in the first street scene. It may very well have been Mr. Hooper's final appearance on the show, or one of his last appearances. The featured letters were D and K, and "D" had lesser airtime than "K" did. The number of the day was 8, but to the best of my knowledge, if the episode followed the "new replacing old" format in production order, episode 1714 may have been the next taped episode (aired months before Episode 1790) since "K" had the lesser airtime, and the new letter was "Q", and had more airtime, and the number of the day was 9. Only two episodes that season had the letter K appear with the number 9, and initially I had thought episode 1789 was the only one (which was paired with "H").

During the Camp Echo Rock week of episodes (first week of Season 14), footage was taped at the camp from August 16 to 20, 1982, and in the studio during October 7 and 8, 1982. The first episode of that week had the letter D as the lone letter, and two pairs of letters each had the letters Y and V (new, then old, but non-consecutively aired). However, the letter C (which had less airtime) was used in the earlier V episode. It makes me wonder if they used C because the letter D was used in two consecutive episodes, if you include the Season 13 finale.

I do know that, by Season 9, there have been episodes with letter pairs in which both letters sounded or looked almost similar (B vs. P, M vs. N, X vs. Y, etc.), as was mentioned by another user earlier in this thread. However, I did notice that H and I were common pairings during the late 70s and early 80s, and I don't see any similarities in sound nor appearance. The first many weeks of Seasons 11 and 16 had episodes with pairs of consecutive letters, which made these seasons boring at first, as I am not a fan of pairs of consecutive letters, and Season 16 relied on consecutive letter pairings for many, many weeks (not including the four weeks of reruns), and because of that, I had lost interest in the show by February 1985.

I did an observation with the number of the day for Season 13, and I noticed the number 5 was used the least number of episodes that season.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I wonder if the scrambled alphabet for determining the order of "fresh" letters per day was generated via computer, even though computers were such low-tech early in the Season 3-8 range? I can see why there was a fixed cycle of letters during Season 3 - it was probably because the CTW had no computer back then that would generate a scrambled alphabet cycle. Then again, they did have computers that would generate Scanimate effects for certain segments, but maybe they didn't have a program that would generate a scrambled alphabet until at least Season 4 or 5.

I rarely use the adjectives "old" and "new" to describe letters with more airtime vs. less airtime in an episode. I use the terms "majority letter" for the letter with the most airtime, and "minority letter" for the letter with the least airtime.

During Seasons 13 through 15, the majority letter would usually get three to five segments (six, on very rare occasions), and the minority letter would usually get one or two segments (but rarely, three). Very rarely would you see an equal number of segments for each letter, but it did happen from time to time (Episode 1724 is a good example, as the featured letters were H and L, and there were three segments for each letter).

On an average episode, there would be one letter segment involving Muppets and/or cast members, usually with the majority letter, but rarely with the minority letter (and very rarely would you see two letter segments involving Muppets and/or cast members, though I know it did happen in at least Episode 1705, the Season 13 finale, and with the same letter at that!).