Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego (game show)

The Chief

The Chief was played by actress Lynne Thigpen as a comically no-nonsense figure with a strong sense of justice who spoke with dialogue that was riddled with puns, alliteration and other forms of word play. The Chief also has a great-grandmother, Agnes Acme, who is the founder of ACME. Agnes Acme was also played by Thigpen herself and is apparently deceased, though that didn't stop her from providing clues. The Chief proved popular and became a part of subsequent editions of the computer games. Thigpen reprised her role in the Time game show.

Greg Lee

Although Greg Lee was referred to by his real name, he adopted a goofy yet amiable persona. On the show, it was explained that he was a Special/Senior Agent in charge of training new recruits, but the show's continuity was very loose and the fourth wall was frequently (and intentionally) broken.

Featured crooks

Opening

In the program's opening, the three gumshoes are introduced, followed by Greg's entrance into the office where he meets the gumshoes for the first time. The Chief briefed the gumshoes on the crime and who committed it, often offering the crook's reasoning at the end of the briefing (examples: Vic the Slick steals Carmen Island as a gift for Carmen's birthday, Patty Larceny steals the Lascaux cave paintings so she can turn them in as her school art project and Wonder Rat steals the Kenyatta Conference Center so that he can make it the centerpiece of his resort, "Rat-lantic City".).

Round One

Each gumshoe was given 50 "ACME Crime Bucks" to begin the round. Various live action, celebrity, musical, animated, and costumed comedy sketches were performed, each providing clues to a geographical location of the day's crook. Parodies of pop hits performed by Rockapella were also used as clues. After each clue was provided, a map with three possible locations was shown to the gumshoes, and each one chose an answer. 10 Crime Bucks were added to the gumshoe's score for each correct answer.

Lightning Round / Chief's Office

Partway through the round, a lightning effect played in the office signaling the start of the Lightning Round. Three questions, each with three choices, were asked to the gumshoes, all related to the area mentioned in the previous question. Buzzing in with the correct answer was worth 5 Crime Bucks. After the Lightning Round, Greg was called into the Chief's office for a brief conversation. This was used as a comedy break, during which the Chief and Greg would either announce that the gumshoe who captures Carmen would win a grand-prize trip (Seasons 1 and 2) or describe a home viewer contest in which viewers submitted the names and locations of the items stolen in four episodes for a chance to win a Carmen Sandiego T-shirt (Seasons 3-5).

The chief would often end this segment by telling Greg, (or anyone else in her office at the time) to "go away".

Training Exercise/Phone tap

For the fifth and final season only, after Greg left the Chief's office, he conducted a Training Exercise with the gumshoes in the alley outside the office. In this game, the gumshoes each opened a trash can in front of them and sifted through it to find a card. On each of the cards was a flag of the location in front and a clue on the back, and after all three clues were read, the first gumshoe that got their card and the lid back on their trash can got the first chance to answer. Whoever got the correct answer was given 10 Crime Bucks, and play moved back into the office afterwards.

In all seasons, as soon as play moved back into the office (either from the Chief's office or from the training exercise), the gumshoes were shown an animated scene where Carmen and the day's crook were talking to each other on the phone about the crime referred to as a Phone Tap. The clue in this case was based on the conversation between Carmen and her henchman, and was worth 10 Crime Bucks per usual.

The Chase/Final Clue

Beginning in Season 2, there was a series of five questions known as "The Chase", introduced with a chase scene performed by Rockapella and/or various studio guests, and on rare occasions with the Chief (or even Greg). The Chase provided clues about locations that followed a path, indicating that the gumshoes were close on the trail. This round was played similar to the Lightning Round, where the gumshoes received 5 Crime Bucks for buzzing in and giving the correct answer. However if an incorrect answer was given, Greg would give the right answer himself.

For the final skit of the round, Greg showed the gumshoes the three locations before the clue was given. After that, the gumshoes were given some time to wager 0-50 Crime Bucks (in increments of 10) on the clue, then were given the clue. If the gumshoe answered correctly, their wager was added to their score. Otherwise, the amount of the wager was deducted from the score. The two highest scoring gumshoes continued on and followed the crook to the correct destination. In case of a tie for second place, Greg read clues related to a famous person or place. The first gumshoe to guess correctly earned 5 ACME crime bucks, and moved on to the next round. In case of a three-way tie, Greg read two questions before moving on.

Rockapella would sing "How much you gonna risk?" while the gumshoes made their wagers.

Round Two: Jailtime Challenge

Before the second round began, the Chief briefed the two remaining gumshoes where she described various landmarks in their final destination from the first round, in what was called a "Photo Recon".

Fifteen landmarks, including those shown during the Chief's briefing, were displayed on the board, and hidden behind three of them were the day's loot, an Arrest warrant to arrest the crook, and the crook him/herself. Behind the other 12 were shoe prints, which indicated nothing was there. Finding these ended a player's turn while finding the loot, warrant, or crook at any time enabled the player to continue choosing. However, the loot, warrant, and crook had to be found in that exact order in one turn in order for the crook to be captured. The highest scoring gumshoe from round one chose first—or the winner of a coin toss if they tied—and both of them continued taking turns until one found all three items in the right order, at which point the gumshoe won the game and threw the crook in jail. (In earlier episodes the gumshoe on the right side chose first.)

As each player located an item, Rockapella would 'sing' its name. Depending on what the loot was, as well as how many times it was called up, the band would sometimes use different humorous metaphors for each appearance. Primarily in the first season, they would simply say "The Loot". "The Warrant" was always sung as is, and for each crook the band had a special way of singing their name. For example, Patty Larceny was always sung as "P-P-P-Patty". Rockapella would also 'sing' humorous jingles for wrong answers.

If a gumshoe was able to find the loot, warrant, and crook in the right order on their first turn, he/she earned a chance to find a $100 savings bond hidden behind one of the 12 remaining landmarks. Gumshoe Ali Haider was the only one to do this, doing so early in the first season, but did not find the savings bond after five picks from the board.

The winning gumshoe would pull a ring on a rope, activating a foghorn, in order to put the crook in prison.

Bonus Round: Carmen's World Map

In the bonus round, the winning gumshoe was given a chance to capture Carmen Sandiego. At the end of the second round, the gumshoe wrote down a destination in the continental United States (season 1) or North America (all subsequent seasons) in a portfolio. Afterwards, the gumshoe received a phone call from the apprehended crook, who told the gumshoe where in the world to find Carmen. The Chief gave the gumshoe a list of 13 locations to which Carmen may have traveled. Sometimes during that round Greg would tell the gumshoe what to do in all Season 1 episodes. However that doesn't happen in some from Seasons 2-5, but from Season 3 and beyond Greg would instruct the gumshoe with his introductory phrase; "Let me explain it for those who may not know."

Afterwards, play moved to a giant map that covered the studio floor—either Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, or the United States. In Season 3, the U.S. map was replaced with North America. The map often contained small circles to represent cities. Beginning in Season 3 for North and South America and in Season 4 for all others, each map also featured arrows for bodies of water. (In addition, the North America map featured squares for national parks and monuments, and its small circles also represented islands, but these were seldom utilized.) The gumshoe was given 45 seconds to correctly identify seven locations (eight after Season 1). (In two first season episodes, if the map selected was Asia, the gumshoe was given 60 seconds instead.)

The gumshoe used several large markers with flashing siren lights on them. If a location was correctly identified, the light turned on and a siren went off. Incorrect guesses were marked by a two-note buzzer. One incorrect guess per location was allowed, but a second incorrect guess forced the gumshoe to leave the marker on the board and return for the next location. If the gumshoe succeeded and captured Carmen before time expired, he/she won the grand prize trip anywhere in the continental United States (season 1) or anywhere in North America (all subsequent seasons) plus a package of educational items similar to those given in round two. Otherwise, Carmen escaped and the gumshoe received just the prize package instead.

Closing

The show is noted for concluding with Greg complimenting the winning gumshoe on their work (regardless of the result), while reminding the sleuth there was one more thing for them to do and "you know what it is": Greg, the sleuth, and the audience pointing and yelling "Do it, Rockapella!" into the camera. This signaled the group to begin their title song for the animated closing credits, which depicted members of Carmen's gang stealing the names of production staff members against a background resembling a notepad (for the final season a black backdrop with confetti was used). After the credits and in Season 2 (sometimes in Season 1), the audience was invited onto the map to dance and sing the theme song.

Afterwards, the Chief, who joined in the celebration from her office, stated: "This is Lynne Thigpen (speaking) for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and remember, (something funny in rhyme)," or instead of the rhyme, the Chief would say "See ya next time!" Before the camera faded, a disclaimer would appear on the screen reading, "All contestants have been briefed prior to their appearance." In Seasons 2 and 3, the Chief read the disclaimer aloud. Seasons 4 and 5 did not have the disclaimer.

Since the series was produced in the early 1990s when many new nations were formed and borders shifted, the recording date and an announcement that "all geographic information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded" were added to the end of each episode (read aloud by Thigpen). The first season was not rerun at all, due to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

At the end of some shows, the Chief would summon a member of the audience to her office to answer a single geography question. If they answered correctly, they would be given an official Carmen Sandiego sweatshirt. They would be given a world atlas if they got the question wrong. Either way, they would be invited to return to the show as a gumshoe contestant.

Prizes

The grand prize was a trip to anywhere in the continental United States (season 1) or anywhere in North America (all subsequent seasons). For each trip, the winning sleuth, a parent, and a guest flew round-trip coach from New York City to the selected location. The sleuth spent one week at a luxury hotel chosen by the Chief. Later in Season 4, the sleuth stayed in the hotel of his or her choice. A rental car was included in Seasons 3–5. The sleuth also received extra money to add to the Crime Bucks as spending money.

A total of 295 episodes over five seasons were recorded. A 296th episode was recorded, but not aired.

Original music and theme song

All of the music on the series was arranged and performed by the a cappella group, Rockapella. The music package included a popular theme song and short signature stings such as "Let's Get Packing" when the contestant won the grand prize. The full theme song was played over the final, animated credits as Greg invited the sleuth and the audience to look up and shout, "Do it, Rockapella!"

The show's main theme song was written by Sean Altman and David Yazbek, and performed by Rockapella as the studio audience danced to the music on the map. Rockapella's original recording appears on the 1992 soundtrack album Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and Television's Greatest Hits Volume 7: Cable Ready (TVT 1996).

Animation

Gene Mackles recalled: "I took on the assignment to produce about 2 hours of animation for the [show]. With a ridiculously tight deadline and budget, the only possibility for this to work at the time involved purchasing half a dozen Macintosh computers and assembling a team of animators using Macromind Director to get it to happen. Amazingly enough it worked, and Chris Pullman and I won a daytime Emmy for our effort".

Awards and nominations

The show won six Daytime Emmy Awards and one Peabody Award, and was nominated for several other awards.

Funding

The show was primarily funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the annual financial support from the viewers/stations of PBS (1991-1996). Holiday Inn and Toyota both provided funding for four seasons (1991-1994). Delta Air Lines provided funding for the show's fifth and final season (1995-1996).

International versions

Disney's Buena Vista Productions International (BVPI) co-produced the series in Germany with MDR in Chemnitz (formerly Karlmarxstadt) where it aired on national broadcaster ARD and was entitled Jagd um die Welt – Schnappt Carmen Sandiego! (Chase Around the World: Catch Carmen Sandiego!) in 1994. In the same year, BVPI also co-produced the Italian series in Naples with national broadcaster RAI (entitled Dov'è finita Carmen Sandiego?), and the Spanish version, Dónde se esconde Carmen Sandiego, (Where Hides Carmen Sandiego) which was co-produced in Valencia with national broadcaster TVE in 1995. Canada's Télé-Québec produced a French-language version called Mais, où se cache Carmen Sandiego? (But, Where is Carmen Sandiego Hiding?), which aired between 1995 and 1998 and stars Pauline Martin as "The Chief" and Martin Drainville as ACME Agent in Charge of Training New Recruits. There was also a New Zealand version of Carmen Sandiego that lasted from 1996 - 1999.