Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (game show)
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is an American half-hour children's television game show based on the Carmen Sandiego computer game series created by Brøderbund Software. The show was hosted by Greg Lee, who was joined by Lynne Thigpen, and the a cappella vocal group Rockapella, who served as the show's house band and comedy troupe. The series was videotaped in New York City at Lifetime Studios and co-produced by WQED and WGBH-TV, and aired on PBS stations from September 30, 1991 to December 22, 1995, with reruns continuing to air through October 4, 1996. A total of 295 episodes over five seasons were recorded.
The show won seven Daytime Emmys and a 1992 Peabody Award. In 2001, TV Guide ranked the show at No. 47 on its list of 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time.
The show was created partially in response to the results of a National Geographic survey that indicated Americans had alarmingly little knowledge of geography, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean. The show's questions were verified by National Geographic World, who also provided prizes to the contestants in the form of subscriptions to their magazine.
Main characters
The Chief
The Chief is head of the fictitious "ACME Crimenet". As the de facto announcer for the show, the Chief eloquently uses dialogue rife with puns, alliteration and other forms of word play. The Chief became so popular that Thigpen reprised the role in later editions of the computer games, and also in the subsequent TV series Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?Rockapella
New York City a cappella group Rockapella was the house band for the show and also contributed to the comic relief. During the series run, their lineup included:- Scott Leonard
- Sean Altman
- Elliott Kerman
- Barry Carl
- Jeff Thacher
The Crooks
The crooks, all animated characters, are a Rogues' gallery of ne'er-do-wells:- Carmen Sandiego: master criminal and the title character of the show. During the show's "Phone Tap" segments, she would be heard talking to the episode's crook, giving them advice to evade detection. The ultimate goal of the game is to capture Carmen after the crook was caught.
- The Contessa : a so-called criminal of style who fancies herself to be near-royalty.
- Double Trouble: a pair of Yin and Yang party-boy twins with quarter moon-shaped heads. They speak in a voice similar to Jack Nicholson.
- Eartha Brute: a muscular, dimwitted woman.
- Kneemoi: an shape-shifting alien from the planet Roddenberry. Her name is a reference to Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek and her home planet to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
- Patty Larceny: a flighty, blonde schoolgirl with a sweet and giggly personality. Her name is a pun on the phrase "petty larceny".
- RoboCrook : a cyborg spoof of RoboCop.
- Sarah Nade : a loud, obnoxious teenage punk rocker with rainbow-colored hair. Her name is a pun on the word "serenade".
- Top Grunge: a burly and unkempt biker who was always riding his chopper motorcycle. Dirty and surrounded by flies, he would continually sneeze, snort, and cough in conversations.
- Vic the Slick: a tactless salesman who wears a loud polyester suit. He also has a seedy moustache, shifty eyes and slicked black hair.
- Wonder Rat : a superhero parody who wears a makeshift rat costume.
Gameplay
Round One
After Greg meets the day's gumshoes at the beginning of the show, the Chief briefs them on the crime and the crook who committed it, often adding the crook's reason for committing the crime. The gumshoes began with 50 ACME Crime Bucks each. Assorted live action, celebrity, musical, animated, and costumed comedy sketches were performed, each providing clues to a geographical location of the day's crook. A map with three possible locations was shown on-screen to the gumshoes, Greg would remind them of the clues, and each gumshoe chose an answer. Ten Crime Bucks were added to each gumshoe's score for a correct answer, and there was no penalty for a wrong guess.Various elements of the first round included:
- The Lightning Round: Partway through round one, a thunderclap/lightning effect played in the office signaling the start of the Lightning Round. Three toss-up questions, all multiple-choice related to the area in the previous question, were asked to the gumshoes, and each right answer earned five more Crime Bucks. This section, along with The Chase, required the gumshoes to use their buzzers to answer questions.
- Chief's Office: After the Lightning Round, the Chief would call Greg into her office for a brief conference. This was used as a comedy break, during which the Chief and Greg would engage in a brief skit, usually brought to a close by either announcing the show's grand prize: a trip to anywhere in the Continental United States to the gumshoe who captured Carmen Sandiego by the end of the episode, or they would describe a home viewer contest in which viewers could win a Carmen Sandiego T-shirt, and some winners of the home viewer contest.
- Training Exercise : In this game, the gumshoes were each given a trash can to rummage through to find a card; each card providing a different clue for another location. After all of the clues were read, the first gumshoe to find their card and re-close their trash can got the first chance to answer, the right answer earning ten Crime Bucks.
- Phone Tap: After visiting the Chief's office and returning to the game set, Greg would play a "Phone tap" recording for the gumshoes on the game monitor: in it, Carmen would converse with the crook of the day, providing more clues for another location to which the crook has gone.
- The Chase : Similar to the "Lightning Round", and also requiring contestants to answer with their buzzers, Greg asked a series of five toss-up questions which provided clues about locations that followed a path, indicating that the gumshoes were hot on the trail of the crook; each correct answer earned five Crime Bucks.
- The Final Clue: To end the first round, Greg showed the gumshoes a map of three locations to where the crook may have traveled. Before the clues were given, Greg gave them a few seconds to wager up to 50 of their Crime Bucks, in increments of 10, on their answer. The final clue would then be given, and the gumshoes would be allowed to pick and set aside their answer. Starting with the lowest scoring gumshoe up to that point, each gumshoe would then first reveal their wager and then their answer. Their wager was added to their score if they answered correctly, but deducted from their score if incorrect. At round's end, the lowest scoring gumshoe received consolation prizes from the Chief and was eliminated from the game.
Round Two: Jailtime Challenge
The two higher scoring gumshoes continued on to Round Two, following the crook to their next destination. The Chief briefed the two on their destination, using a "Photo Recon" to describe different landmarks and venues in the location from the final question of the first round. Fifteen trilons were then displayed on a large game board, each one labeled with the name of a different landmark, including those shown during the Chief's briefing. Hidden behind three of the trilons were the day's stolen loot, an arrest warrant, and the crook him/herself, and behind the other twelve were shoe prints, which indicated nothing was there.The higher of the two scoring gumshoes from round one chose first. If the two gumshoes were tied for first place, a coin toss determined who would start. The gumshoes would then alternate taking turns until one of them found all three of the key items in the required order:
- First, the loot, the evidence required for the warrant,
- Second, the warrant to arrest the crook, and
- Third, only after finding the loot and the warrant, the crook him/herself
At round's end, the winning gumshoe would pull a ring on a chain rope, activating a foghorn and incarcerating the crook. A consolation prize was announced by the Chief to the losing and departing gumshoe, after which Greg would reiterate the grand prize to the winning gumshoe.
Bonus Round: Carmen's World Map
At the end of the second round, Greg would then hand a portfolio to the winning gumshoe for them to secretly write down their chosen destination if they were to win the grand prize in the Bonus Round, after which the gumshoe received a phone call from the apprehended crook, who would instruct them to look for Carmen on a certain continent: either Asia, Africa, Europe, South America or the United States, and the Chief then gave a list of thirteen locations on the chosen continent.Greg and the gumshoe then moved to a giant map that covered the entire floor in front of the studio audience. The map showed small red circles denoting cities of countries or states, and later added red arrows marking bodies of water and red squares for national parks and monuments.
To capture Carmen, the gumshoe had to identify seven different locations on the map in 45 seconds or less, each time grabbing one of a set of large markers with police beacons mounted on top, and quickly placing the marker on one of the red spots on the map. If they correctly identified a location, the beacon on the marker would begin to flash and a police siren would blare briefly, while incorrect guesses were marked by a two-note "uh-oh" buzzer; one incorrect guess per location was allowed, but a second incorrect guess forced the gumshoe to leave the marker behind and go on to the next location. What made the round especially challenging was that the map was upside down from the gumshoe's perspective. If the gumshoe succeeded, he/she won the grand prize which is the trip; Greg would then reveal the location the gumshoe wrote down in the portfolio. If the gumshoe failed to capture Carmen, they would receive a consolation prize but they wouldn't show the trip. Regardless of the result, the Chief promoted the gumshoe to "sleuth" with her congratulations.
Production
A staff of 150 worked to produce the show.Original music and theme song
All of the music on the series was arranged and performed by Rockapella. The theme song played in full over the animated end credits as the studio audience danced to the music on the map, and in later episodes the audience would join in singing along. The main theme song was written by Rockapella co-founder Sean Altman and David Yazbek, and appears on the 1992 soundtrack album Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and also in the compilation Television's Greatest Hits Volume 7: Cable Ready.Animation
Graphic designer Gene Mackles recalled: "I took on the assignment to produce about 2 hours of animation for the . 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". All the animated characters were created on the Mac.Geopolitical changes
Following the completion of taping for Season 1 in 1991, massive geopolitical changes in the world, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union as well as Yugoslavia, rendered the entire season geographically inaccurate. So as to prevent confusing viewers into seeing information by the time of air being outdated, starting in the second season, a disclaimer was heard in the closing which stated that "All geographic information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded", with the recording date listed in the copyright info at the end.Funding
The show was primarily funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the annual financial support from the viewers/stations of PBS. Toyota funded the show for its first three seasons with Holiday Inn co-funded for the second half of the first season and all of season two. Delta Air Lines provided funding for the show's final two seasons.Critical reception
NerdHQ deemed the series the "crown jewel" of the Carmen Sandiego franchise.Awards and nominations
Aside from the aforementioned Emmy and Peabody wins, the show was nominated for several other awards.| Year | Award | Title | Recipient | Result |
| 1992 | Young Artist Award | Outstanding New Animation Series | Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? | |
| 1992 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design | Jim Fenhagen | |
| 1992 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Children's Series | Jay Rayvid et al. | |
| 1992 | Peabody Award | Recipient, 53rd Annual Peabody Awards | Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? | |
| 1993 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design | Jim Fenhagen & Laura Brock | |
| 1993 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series | Dana Calderwood | |
| 1993 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Graphics and Title Design | Gene Mackles & Chris Pullman | |
| 1993 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Children's Series | Jay Rayvid et al. | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series | Lynne Thigpen for playing "The Chief" | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design | Jim Fenhagen & Laura Brock | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Children's Series | Jay Rayvid et al. | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series | Dana Calderwood | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design | Danajean Cicerchi | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Technical Direction/Electronic Camera/Video Control | Richard Wirth et al. | |
| 1994 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Live and Tape Sound Mixing and Sound Effects | Todd Miller et al. | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design | Laura Brock & Jim Fenhagen | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series | Lynne Thigpen for playing "The Chief" | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series | Hugh Martin | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Children's Series | Kate Taylor & Jay Rayvid et al. | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Costume Design | Danajean Cicerchi | |
| 1995 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Achievement in Live and Tape Sound Mixing and Sound Effects | Fritz Lang et al. | |
| 1996 | Image Award | Outstanding Performance in an Educational/Informational Youth or Children's Series/Special | Lynne Thigpen | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Art Direction/Set Direction/Scenic Design | Jim Fenhagen, Laura Brock, Eric Cheripka, Hank Liebeskind | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Live and Tape Sound Mixing | Tim Lester, Robert Agnello, John Converting, Ronnie Lantz, Billy Straus | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Children's Series | Jay Rayvid & Kate Taylor et al. | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series | Lynne Thigpen for playing "The Chief" | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series | Hugh Martin | |
| 1996 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Costume Design or Costuming | Maria E. Kenny | |
| 1997 | Image Award | Outstanding Youth or Children's Series/Special | Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? | |
| 1997 | Daytime Emmy | Outstanding Art Direction/Set Direction/Scenic Design | Jim Fenhagen, Erik Ulfers, Laura Brock |
International versions
Disney's Buena Vista Productions International co-produced the series in Germany with MDR in Chemnitz where it aired on national broadcaster ARD and was entitled Jagd um die Welt – Schnappt Carmen Sandiego! in 1994. In the same year, BVPI also co-produced the Italian series in Naples with national broadcaster RAI, and the Spanish version, Dónde se esconde 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? , which aired between 1995 and 1998 and stars Pauline Martin as "The Chief" and Martin Drainville as the ACME Agent in Charge of Training New Recruits.
There was also a New Zealand version of Carmen Sandiego that lasted from 1996 to 1999. Radio Television of Malaysia produced their own iteration of the show in 1998 titled Di Mana Joe Jambul. In this version, contestants composed of two teams of three kids try to find clues and stop Pompadour Joe and his gang's criminal activities around the world. The show was rebooted in 2012 with a new set, animation and rules.