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

[YellowYahooey]

I viewed the Sesame Street recaps from the period of two letter sponsors between 1970 and 1995. I realize that there's a likelihood that all of the possible letter sponsor pairs have been used during that quarter-century period, but as per Muppet Wiki, I did notice tbat the letters D and O were used in a single episode only once. After checking the recap, it turns out the sponsors were actually A and D.

My question is, have there been any sponsored letter pairs never featured on Sesame Street between 1970 and 1995?

I believe one other sponsored letter pair that might not have been featured on a single episode are H and M. Unless I overlooked something.

 

[SkyeFan]

I'm not so sure about any possible letter combinations that had never been featured on the show, but I do know that certain seasons would follow through with a specific pattern of having the same two letters paired off together as the sponsors in some episodes. This was done in seasons 4 and 5, due to the fact that both seasons' premiere episodes had the letter D as a sponsored letter. The first Friday show of the season also had G and R as sponsors, as well. Of course the number 2 was seen in both premiere shows, since it was common then to start off the season with 2 as a sponsored number (especially since the number 1 was scarcely used as a sponsor back then), and then gradually have each of the following episodes feature the rest of the numbers with 12 as the limit, and then start back at 2 again. So I suppose seasons 4 and 5 had the same exact letter and number combinations sponsored per episode. Starting in season 8 and lasting through (I believe) season 12, the sponsored letters pairings of many episodes would include two letters that either look alike or even sound alike in order to help prevent confusion to children.

Those letter pairings were -
B/P
C/G
E/F
I/J
M/N
O/Q (I believe)
P/R
U/V
V/W (I believe)
X/Y

 

[YellowYahooey]

I'm not so sure about any possible letter combinations that had never been featured on the show, but I do know that certain seasons would follow through with a specific pattern of having the same two letters paired off together as the sponsors in some episodes. This was done in seasons 4 and 5, due to the fact that both seasons' premiere episodes had the letter D as a sponsored letter. The first Friday show of the season also had G and R as sponsors, as well. Of course the number 2 was seen in both premiere shows, since it was common then to start off the season with 2 as a sponsored number (especially since the number 1 was scarcely used as a sponsor back then), and then gradually have each of the following episodes feature the rest of the numbers with 12 as the limit, and then start back at 2 again. So I suppose seasons 4 and 5 had the same exact letter and number combinations sponsored per episode. Starting in season 8 and lasting through (I believe) season 12, the sponsored letters pairings of many episodes would include two letters that either look alike or even sound alike in order to help prevent confusion to children.

Those letter pairings were -
B/P
C/G
E/F
I/J
M/N
O/Q (I believe)
P/R
U/V
V/W (I believe)
X/Y

I realize, based on Muppet Wiki, that for at least two seasons, we would see the sponsor pairs in a fixed cycle. That could explain why we always saw Q and Y, M and Y, and then B and M, and even D and W followed by E and W quite frequently during those seasons.

It is possible that the letter pairs based on sounding alike/looking almost alike seemed to ease down by Season 14, though I do recall seeing a Season 15 episode from April 13, 1984 with the sponsors M, N and 4, so such sponsor letter pairs were not quite done yet by that point, but I don't recall hearing tell of any occurrences of M and N after Season 15, as Muppet Wiki doesn't show any evidence of M and N, unless I overlooked something.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I think V/W was seen quite frequently in the late 70s through at least Season 15. Muppet Wiki posted a recap of a March 1984 broadcast that has the sponsors V, W and 5. But I agree, such sponsor pairs must have started to ease down by Season 15.

H/I was seen quite frequently in the late 70s through at least the milestone Episode 2000 in January 1985, but I don't recall seeing such letter pair much after that, as per Muppet Wiki. I do know such pair did resurface in the 1990s, accompanied with, of all numbers, the number zero.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I also noticed something regarding the D and W sponsor pairings during the 1970s. At least three or four of those occurrences, those letters appeared with the sponsored number of 4. And what's even more interesting is, it has been extremely rare for there to be episodes in which the letter D and the number 4 appeared together on a single episode, throughout the series, so far.

The only known pairings that had D and 4, besides with W, are with Q in January 1989, and I in March 1990. Other than that, it was in 2002, 2003 and 2005 when D and 4 appeared as the sole sponsors. I realize there are a lot of episodes from Seasons 16 through 18 that do not have episode guides yet. Maybe there were episodes with D and 4 as sponsors paired with another letter.

 

[ISNorden]

I realize, based on Muppet Wiki, that for at least two seasons, we would see the sponsor pairs in a fixed cycle. That could explain why we always saw Q and Y, M and Y, and then B and M, and even D and W followed by E and W quite frequently during those seasons.

It is possible that the letter pairs based on sounding alike/looking almost alike seemed to ease down by Season 14, though I do recall seeing a Season 15 episode from April 13, 1984 with the sponsors M, N and 4, so such sponsor letter pairs were not quite done yet by that point, but I don't recall hearing tell of any occurrences of M and N after Season 15, as Muppet Wiki doesn't show any evidence of M and N, unless I overlooked something.

During most of the "two letters/one number per episode" seasons, these seem to be the general rules:

1. Keep the "newer" of the two letters taught on the previous episode, as defined by CTW's re-scrambled list.
2. Replace the "older" letter by the next one in line {not sure how duplicates were avoided).
3. Add 1 to the number taught on the previous episode; if this would equal a number above the "sponsor limit", reset the day's number to the lowest permitted.
4. Repeat throughout the season until all episodes have sponsors selected.
5. Reset the entire cycle at each season premiere.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I know those rules for the most part prevailed during the 1970s, but by the early 1980s, some episodes had jumping around of sponsored numbers, and there have been occurrences of two, maybe more, consecutive episodes each with two completely different sponsored letters.

An interesting twist: I recall, early in April 1983, three consecutive episodes that only had three sponsored letters - D, H and K - shared among the three days. Wednesday had D and H, Thursday had H and K, and Friday had D and K. The number sponsors were 8, 9 and 10 respectively.

Also, I discovered on Muppet Wiki that there were four straight episodes in April 1994 with the letter A as a sponsor (though at least one of them was a repeat). Only the Friday episode that week did not involve the letter A.

 

[ISNorden]

I know those rules for the most part prevailed during the 1970s, but by the early 1980s, some episodes had jumping around of sponsored numbers, and there have been occurrences of two, maybe more, consecutive episodes each with two completely different sponsored letters.

An interesting twist: I recall, early in April 1983, three consecutive episodes that only had three sponsored letters - D, H and K - shared among the three days. Wednesday had D and H, Thursday had H and K, and Friday had D and K. The number sponsors were 8, 9 and 10 respectively.

Also, I discovered on Muppet Wiki that there were four straight episodes in April 1994 with the letter A as a sponsor (though at least one of them was a repeat). Only the Friday episode that week did not involve the letter A.

During the mid-1980s, I lived in a city where the PBS station aired a string of eight consecutive episodes with the letter X as a common sponsor. I suspect they were not in chronological order, since no such string exists on Muppet Wiki -- and since the CTW educational advisors would have protested, "That's almost two whole weeks! No one letter is important enough to teach every day for two weeks; kids will get so bored they'll ask their parents to change the channel."

 

[YellowYahooey]

Plus, the letter X is not overly important as, say, the letter D or the letter S.

 

[ISNorden]

Plus, the letter X is not overly important as, say, the letter D or the letter S.

Exactly why I was puzzled about that eight-in-a-row sequence...were the guys at Channel 42 dusting off their master-tape collection and thinking, "We have these stacked together, better show these one last time before they get trashed"? It's that incident that got me wondering how CTW decided on the Things of the Day for each episode; a long time ago someone actually listed the "scrambled alphabet" pattern in full on a different discussion forum (I forget whose).