The Letter People is the name of a children's literacy program and the television series based on that program. The term also refers to the various characters depicted in the program and television show. Elayne Reiss-Weimann and Rita Friedman created The Letter People in 1972. Prior to this, Letter People educational products were copyrighted in 1968 and published by New Dimensions in Education, Inc. . They sold their idea to educational publisher AlphaTime , and illustrator Elizabeth Callen was hired to design the look of the series and its characters. The program's basic concept was simple:... Each letter of the English alphabet was represented by a unique character with traits derived from its letter. The consonants were male, and the vowels were female . Reiss-Weimann, Friedman and Callen also wrote two series of books about the characters, Fables from the Letter People and Read-to-Me. Each Letter Person also had an accompanying song , and inflatable vinyl effigies in two sizes known as a "Huggables".
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