"Sesame Street" song is *WRONG!*

[Jackie]

I have just found out that these Letter people truly existed. I never in my life saw these Letter People. What exactly did they do?

 

[CaptCrouton]

I don't know the reference on S.S. but I do know the letter people pretty well.

The Letter People were cool characters used in Kindergarten to teach the sounds. Our class had vinyl inflatable characters that came to the room as we learned the sounds of each letter. Mr M came first, then Mr T, then Mr H.

Let me distinguish between old letter people and new letter people. The new ones frankly stink. What you might see currently produced by whatever company, has been politically corrected beyond recognition.

The REAL traditional letter people were highly imaginative fantasy characters. For instance, (no offense Byron) Mr C was made of Cotton Candy. Mr D made of Delicious Doughnuts. Mr T had tall teeth. My favorite was Mr H who had Horrible Hair, but I liked any of the guys made of food.

The new Mr D is a "dynamic dancer. " and Mr H has been turned into Happy Hair, or something much "nicer." Also, while the vowels were female and the consonants were male, (Miss E for example was for Exercise) it was decided that there should be an equal amount of females to males, and the feminine letters became Ms instead of Miss.

The letter people made out of food no longer exist. Cotton Candy and Doughnuts and Gooey Gum are not good for you, and so those letter people were dulled down into something else.

The good news is you can still find old letter people stuff on ebay. The new liberal sanitized Letter People have a website called www.letterpeople.com but you won't appreciate how gosh darn cool the letter people actually are if you go there. Somewhere there's a fan forum of the old letter people and I would look for that instead. I might hunt it up for you if I get a chance today.

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Originally posted by CaptCrouton
The Letter People were cool characters used in Kindergarten to teach the sounds. Our class had vinyl inflatable characters that came to the room as we learned the sounds of each letter. Mr M came first, then Mr T, then Mr H.

Oh YAY Kap'n, you know the Letter People!!!

But you're wrong.

Really!

You are!

LOL!

Mr. M was first, indeed followed by Mr. T, but next was Mr. F. I know this kause I have the "readiness reading" program, and Mr. F has always been my favorite Letter Person.

 

[CaptCrouton]

Yeah, you're right. Thanx for jarring my memory. He has great feet. They're psychedelic flowery things if I remember right.

But one thing I remember loving about Mr H was cutting the top off of those cafeteria milk cartons and covering them with construction paper to look like Mr H. Then we planted grass seed in the containers and watched as they grew into horrible hair.

Hooray for the Letter People!!


Hmm, I must've had a wonderful childhood because I have so many loving memories of silly things like this.

 

[CaptCrouton]

And since I always want to be a man of my word, here's a fan site of the REAL letter people. Specifically for Jackie, but for Muppet fans everywhere. I really had to dig for this one. It seems many of the links are gone.

http://www.geocities.com/letterfolks/


Does anyone remember any of the Letter People songs? I can recall the Mr M and Mr H songs with some clarity. But the further down the list of characters, the less I can recall about them.

 

[ssetta]

What's with all this Letter People business? Does it have anything at all to do with Sesame Street? If not, why was it posted on this board?

 

[CaptCrouton]

Sorry sseta,

Someone asked a question and I gave an overly complete answer. Guess I get it from my dad. You ask him what time it is, and he'll show you how to build a watch.

It isn't often that I get to share my knowledge of Letter People and when I do, I guess I get a little excited...

*walks way dejectedly*

 

[Jackie]

Originally posted by CaptCrouton
Sorry sseta,

Someone asked a question and I gave an overly complete answer. Guess I get it from my dad. You ask him what time it is, and he'll show you how to build a watch.

It isn't often that I get to share my knowledge of Letter People and when I do, I guess I get a little excited...

*walks way dejectedly*

Noo!! That was a wonderful answer!! Thank you so much for spending the time telling me more about them!! I'm checking out those web sites as we speak! I really missed out on those Letter People! *sigh* childhood gone by!

 

[TravellingMatt]

If anyone has seen "The Letter People" TV show (60 episodes, 15 minutes each, I have them!), it *was* a puppet show, with many Muppeteering aspects in them. Several of the Letter People were live-hands (and in Mr. F's case, live-feet) puppets, but most of them were hand-and-rod. And I was quick to catch which Letter Person was which kind of puppet. Also, the concept of "Anything Muppets" was also used as there were at least two or three puppets with interchangeable body features.

I also have a tape of the songs each Letter Person sang, if anyone's interested. They were a lot of fun...almost as fun as Sesame Street. But none of the Letter People ever tried their hand at being a waiter at a Mexican restaurant!

OLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLEOLE...*CRASH!!!!*

Although Mr. M did attempt to sing calypso...

*to the tune of the Harry Belafonte song "Matilda"*
Munching Mouth, Munching Mouth, Munching Mouth, I take me meatball and go down Mexico Way...ALL TOGETHER NOW!

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Originally posted by Jackie
I have just found out that these Letter people truly existed. I never in my life saw these Letter People. What exactly did they do?

I told you about 'em MONTHS ago.



Remember? When I had that "job" where I got to goof around and chat and post and make up crazy stuff to send you all day?

FRYMYHIDE!!!!