The Man from Alphabet

The Man from Alphabet was a series of four five-minute film segments made for the Sesame Street Pilot Episodes in July of1969. Created by David Connell, each episode starred the Man from Alphabet (played by Gary Owens, a bumbling spy in a trenchcoat who, with the help of a young paperboy (H.B.), tried to catch the villains Digby Dropout and his henchman Dunce using clues needed to catch them in H.B.'s "Alphabet Book".

While Connell spent much time creating these films, they failed to teach children. Man from Alphabet's constant screw-ups as he was on assignment confused kids, and the lessons never came across. It also didn't help much that H.B. had a thick lisp that was difficult to comprehend. To make matters worse, Man from Alphabet always walked through the window of his door to enter his office, a violent movement that may have enticed children to imitate.

The segments have never aired during the regular series, and were once dubbed as "Connell's Folly". However, elements of the segments do appear in Sesame's current Jane Tuesday segments.