This phrase is from Sesame Street, a children's show created in 1969 that teaches literacy, counting, simple logic, and social skills through a
kaleidoscopic mix of
puppetry, animation and short films. In a radical departure for the time, it was designed to deliberately mimic the fast pace and style of TV advertising in order to 'sell' learning to kids: An Aesop-friendly story featuring the recurring characters on the Street would be intercut with rapid-fire 'commercials' for
that day's 'sponsors' ("Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters A and S, and the number 7...").
"Today's episode of
Sesame Street has been brought to you by the letters A and S, and the
number 7."
In an homage to Sesame Street, which is sponsored every day by two letters and a number, one episode of The Simpsons was sponsored by one symbol and one number that looks like a letter: “Tonight’s Simpsons episode was brought to you by the symbol
umlaut, and the number e. Not the letter e, but the number, whose exponential function is the derivative of itself.”
