Learn-the-alphabet videos
In 1988, I was in kindergarten at Middle Smithfield Elementary School in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and the curriculum included videos to help kids learn the alphabet. The characters were anthropomorphic letters of the alphabet that definitely had faces and may or may not have had arms, legs, and clothes. The only one I remember was M, so I think the legs of the M might have formed his legs, but other letters probably had to have additional appendages. The shape of the letter formed the entire body of the character - it wasn't a person with an M written on his chest or anything. They were definitely not the Letter People, although they might also have been referred to as "Mr. M," "Mr. C," etc.
The letters were puppetlike, not animated like a cartoon show. They looked to have the same texture and consistency as one of the Muppets, sort of fuzzy and squeezable. In each segment, a letter came out and danced/moved/talked on a black background - probably to the accompaniment of some song about the sound the letter makes, etc.
Since it was 1988, and I remember watching the videos on a small TV screen, I think they were VHS tapes and not laserdiscs, though I could be wrong about that.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Edit: SOLVED! I sent a letter to the current principal and assistant principal of my elementary school, and got this back:
I had an opportunity to speak with a Kindergarten teacher regarding your inquiry. She recognized them as "Letter People". We do not have the videos any longer.
There is a web site; www.letterpeople.com and a distributor, Abrams and Company that we were able to locate for you.
kabdrivr first recognized them as the original Letter People, who look significantly different from their more modern incarnation at the link above. That's probably a good part of the reason I didn't recognize them.
The letters were puppetlike, not animated like a cartoon show. They looked to have the same texture and consistency as one of the Muppets, sort of fuzzy and squeezable. In each segment, a letter came out and danced/moved/talked on a black background - probably to the accompaniment of some song about the sound the letter makes, etc.
Since it was 1988, and I remember watching the videos on a small TV screen, I think they were VHS tapes and not laserdiscs, though I could be wrong about that.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Edit: SOLVED! I sent a letter to the current principal and assistant principal of my elementary school, and got this back:
I had an opportunity to speak with a Kindergarten teacher regarding your inquiry. She recognized them as "Letter People". We do not have the videos any longer.
There is a web site; www.letterpeople.com and a distributor, Abrams and Company that we were able to locate for you.
kabdrivr first recognized them as the original Letter People, who look significantly different from their more modern incarnation at the link above. That's probably a good part of the reason I didn't recognize them.