Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

S. Epatha Merkenson (2011-present)

(Currently on hiatus as of 2017)

***Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?*** is the flagship show of ACME Crime Net. It is based on the computer games of the same name created by Brøderbund Software (now The Learning Company). *World* aired on PBS from 1991 to 1995 and starred Lynne Thigpen as "The Chief", Greg Lee as "the ACME Special Agent in charge of training new recruits" (renamed "Senior Agent" for Seasons 3-5), and Rockapella as the house vocal band and comedy troupe. Rockapella featured Sean Altman as tenor, Elliot Kerman as baritone, Barry Carl as bass, and Scott Leonard as high tenor, with Jeff Thacher joining in the fifth and final season as vocal percussion.

In 2008, due to the sucess of reruns of the show on YouTube (see below), fanfics premiered on V.I.L.E Headquarters before moving to the Elusive Carmen Sandiego (TECS), and then to the main ACME Crime Net boards.

*World* holds the record for being the longest-running game show on PBS and the second-longest running children's game show in U.S. television history (behind *Double Dare*, which ran from 1986 to 1993 and for which Greg was a contestant coordinator). The show received the George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in 1993. The show's theme song, penned by Altman and David Yazbek, is one of the most well-known themes in television history according to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 2001, *TV Guide* ranked the show at #47 on its list of "The 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time".

## Origin

*Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?* was created partially as a response to a National Geographic survey that found Americans had an alarmingly low knowledge of geography, with one in four being unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean.[1] The game series, started by Brøderbund in 1985, was developed for television by Howard Blumenthal, Dorothy Curley, and Dana Calderwood and was produced by WGBH, Boston and WQED, Pittsburgh.

The half-hour show premiered on September 30, 1991. The game franchise also inspired the unrelated animated series *Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?*, which ran on Fox Kids from 1994 to 1999.

## Plot of each episode

The bulk of each *World* episode consisted of three child contestants, called "gumshoes" (typically 10-14 years of age), answering questions to determine the location of one of Carmen Sandiego's wacky crooks with zany sketches being performed to provide clues. Eventually, the contestant with the lowest score was eliminated, and the remaining two contestants played a *Concentration*-esque game to capture the day's crook. The winning contestant then moved onto the final round, where siren lights had to be correctly placed on a giant map as locations were named. If the player was successful in this round, Carmen Sandiego was "captured" and the contestant won a trip to anywhere in the continental United States in the first season, which was expanded to anywhere in North America in the second season and beyond.

## Gameplay

### **Opening**

In the show's opening sequence, the three child contestants (gumshoes) were introduced as the stars in the first season in the alley followed by Greg's introduction as the day's episode was shown. The Chief explained what kind of spectacularly impossible heist one of the crooks from Carmen Sandiego's outlandish henchpeople had pulled. The dossier of the crook then appeared on the screen. Carmen and her crooks were, in contrast to the live-action actors and the child contestants, portrayed as cartoon characters and were never shown directly interacting with the live-action people.

The Chief's description of the day's theft was accompanied by an animation of the crook, inserted into stock photographs, perpetrating the crime in a humorous way (the photographs were doctored to show the loot being removed from the scene). The opening typically ended with the Chief explaining for what silly or petty reason the crook wanted the loot.

### **Round 1**

Each gumshoe was given 50 "ACME Crime Bucks" (100 in the fan-fics; the show's official currency) to begin the round. Various comedy sketches were performed, each providing clues to a geographical location of the day's crook. After the clues were provided, a map with three possible locations, all within proximity to one another, were shown to the players. Each gumshoe simultaneously selected their answer and then revealed that answer to Greg. Each correct answer earned a gumshoe 10 Crime Bucks. The typical course of the round would be as follows:

* **Lightning Round** – After three sketches were performed (two in the final season, and sometimes in the second season), the game moved to the "Lightning Round" which began with a deliberately cheesy lightning effect. Greg read three questions about the last location visited and provided three possible answers for each. The first gumshoe to buzz in with the right answer earned five (ten in fanfics) crime bucks. If they were wrong, the other gumshoes would be offered to answer. If no gumshoes buzzed in within five seconds (indicated by a single-note buzzer), or buzzed in but nobody got the right answer, Greg would reveal the correct answer himself.

* **Chief's Office Sketch** – After the Lightning Round, Greg was always called into the Chief's office for a special briefing or conversation or lunch. This was used as a comedy break, an opportunity for a bizarre interaction between the Chief and Greg. Sometimes, the Chief didn't call Greg in her office. Instead, Greg would choose to just go in her office. To end the break the Chief would almost always (less often in the later seasons) say exasperatedly, "Greg, go away." In the later seasons she'd say "Greg, get back on the case." In the first and second seasons, the sketches were used to promote the grand prize to whoever caught Carmen Sandiego in the final round. In the third season and beyond, the sketches were used to promote the contest for the home viewers. In those episodes, Greg would promote the grand prize to the gumshoes upon his arrival to the studio and greeting the gumshoes one-by-one. He would follow up by saying, "And that isn't bad." However, in some episodes, there was no office sketch. But in most of these instances, the Chief quickly promoted the grand prize and announced the Phone Tap. In the third and fourth seasons, Greg announced the Phone Tap and the contest was described during the closing credits. These sketches were always pre-recorded, and often re-used. If a sketch continued as Greg left the office and returned to the live shoot, the sequence had to be re-created live each time the sketch was used.

* **Greg Lee's Training Exercise** (Season 5 of the original series only) – In the final season of the oriinal series, a new mini-game was added, and was played after the Chief's conversation with Greg. This replaced one clue. Greg met the gumshoes in the alley, and they would come across a few trash cans. Most of the time, Greg's can contained a gag (mostly from earlier in the episode). One example: As Greg tried to lift the lid, Barry Carl's voice would intone, "WARNING! This bag is full, and can only be activated by saying 'Swordfish.'" On several occasions, Greg's can would contain a video camera - the screen would cut to that camera while Greg explained the rules. Once that was done, Greg took out a card with a flag of a country. The gumshoes then raced to grab a similar card out of their own cans, ending by putting the lid on the can. After that, each gumshoe would get a clue (e.g., language, capital, government, etc.) about the country in question. Greg would give three choices for the country, and the gumshoes would then offer their answers in turn, starting with the first one to get their clue card and lid their can. The first gumshoe to guess the right country earned 10 ACME Crime Bucks, and the ACME Bug Net Alert next to Greg would signal Greg and the gumshoes to go to the Phone Tap.

* **Phone Tap Sequence** – After the break, the gumshoes watched an animated phone conversation (aka "phone tap") between Carmen and the day's crook, courtesy of ACME Bug Net. In this sequence, Carmen would tell the crook where to go, and, typically, become exasperated by the crook's stupidity. The gumshoes were than asked where the crook went. In the first through third seasons, Greg would formally introduce the phone tap to the gumshoes, but sometimes in the third and most of the fourth season, as the Chief's office sketches continued outside the office, Greg would usually just say "Phone tap." to cue the video.
* Several other clues were presented and questions answered. Two or three more skits and questions took place before the next break.
* **The Chase** – Starting with the second season, there was a new series of five questions known as "The Chase" beginning with a funny chase scene performed by Rockapella and occasionally with the Chief or on rare occasions Greg participating if either one of them was attacked/robbed by a Rockapella member. While the Lightning Round asked questions related to the last visited country, The Chase provided clues about countries within proximity to the location last visited, indicating that the gumshoes were close on the trail. Each question had three locations as choices and the first gumshoe to buzz in with the right answer received five crime bucks. As with the Lightning Round, there was no penalty assessed for an incorrect response, though unlike the Lightning Round, only one player could buzz in and answer (although in some early second season episodes, more than one player could buzz in and answer). An incorrect response resulted in Greg giving the right answer.
* **Final Clue** – After a few more clues (or The Chase), Greg showed the gumshoes one more map (in this case before the skit was performed). The gumshoes were asked to make a wager of zero, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 ACME Crime Bucks on their ability to provide a correct answer. The final skit was performed and gumshoes made their guesses. Anyone with a right answer had their wager added to his or her score, and anyone with a wrong answer had their wager subtracted from his or her score. The top two gumshoes at this point moved on to the Jailtime Challenge (Round 2), while the third-place gumshoe was eliminated.

### **Round 2 (Jailtime Challenge)**

The two remaining gumshoes "traveled" to their final destination from Round 1, where The Chief described various landmarks in that country, city or region, called a "Photo Recon". Often, these descriptions were silly; the writers always used this sequence as an opportunity to poke fun at the destination. For example, the camera zoomed in on graffiti on a small landmark and the Chief openly scolded the people who had spray painted their initials on a marker. Fifteen names of the local landmarks were placed on a board. Hidden behind three of the landmarks were the loot that was stolen at the beginning of the show, the warrant to arrest the crook, and the crook himself/herself. Hidden behind the remaining landmarks were a pair of shoe prints (sometimes one or three), which meant that nothing was there.

The gumshoe in the lead after Round 1 played first. If the two gumshoes were tied, a coin toss determined who would start (early in the first season, the gumshoe to Greg's left went first in the case of a tie). If a gumshoe found any of the three key items, he or she could select again. A gumshoe's turn ended if he/she did one of three things:

1. Find a box with shoe prints
2. Took too much time (10-second limit) picking a location (which happened very few times)
3. Find the loot, the warrant, and the crook in the wrong order in a single turn (which happened on at least four occasions)

Gumshoes alternated turns until one found the loot, the warrant and the crook in that order in a single turn (as the loot is the evidence needed to get a warrant and the warrant is needed to arrest the crook). When a gumshoe found all three items in the correct order, he/she won the game and was given the right to "put the crook in jail" by pulling on a hanging chain before proceeding to the final round to catch Carmen Sandiego. The other Gumshoe was eliminated.

On the one occasion in the show's history that one gumshoe (Ali Haider) won the Jailtime Challenge on the first try, he not only won the game, but also earned the chance to win a $100 savings bond. The bond was hidden behind one of the remaining 12 landmarks, and Ali was given 5 chances to find it, although he was unsuccessful in doing so. Because winning the Jailtime Challenge on the first try only happened once, no one won the savings bond.

### **Final Round: The Map**

In the final round, the gumshoe was given a chance to try to catch Carmen. If successful, he/she won an all-expenses paid trip to anywhere in the lower 48 states (expanded to anywhere in North America starting with the second season). After the gumshoe wrote down their desired trip destination, the jailed crook then "called" the sleuth on a telephone so as to find where Carmen is. The crook gave the general location of Carmen Sandiego (one of four continents (South America, Europe, Africa, or Asia) or the United States). After the second season, the U.S. was replaced with North America. In the fan-fics, South America was expanded to include Central America and the South America map was renamed Latin America. In addition, the United States and Canada was merged as Anglo America. Though, the United States and North America maps were used separately. Oceania was included beginning in the fan-fics despite it was never used on the orignial show. The Chief then gave a list of 13 possible locations Carmen may have traveled (either countries, states, cities, islands, bodies of water, national parks, or national monuments) on that continent.

The gumshoe was then presented with a giant map that covered the floor of the studio, with dots marking the cities and islands, squares marking national parks and monuments, and arrows marking bodies of water (the national parks were only used in North America in the third and fourth seasons, and bodies of water were used in all continents except Africa in the third and fifth seasons). As Greg read the locations, the gumshoe had to place a marker with a red flashing siren light on the correct location on the map. If the gumshoe placed the marker on the correct location (indicated by a siren), that marker was activated and the contestant was given the next location. If he or she was wrong, (indicated by a two-note buzzer), the gumshoe was given one more chance to move the marker. After two incorrect guesses (indicated by a 4-note-buzzer in the first season), he/she had to pick up a new marker and another location was read; otherwise, the next answer wouldn't count. Later on in the round, if the gumshoe needed to move incorrectly located markers in order to identify correct locations, they were allowed to do so. Overall, the biggest challenge was the fact that from the gumshoe's perspective, the map was upside down, which was often given as a reason for a loss.

If within 45 seconds (60 in at least two first season episodes when the Asia map was used) could the gumshoe successfully identify seven locations (eight after the first season) on the map, they captured Carmen Sandiego, became a sleuth, and won the trip. If not, they would win consolation prizes. From the second season and beyond, win or lose, the Chief would congratulate and promote the gumshoe to a sleuth.

The round would end with a simulation of a newspaper headline. If the Gumshoe won, the headline would read "(Gumshoe's name) Captures Carmen!". If the Gumshoe failed, however, the headline would read "Carmen Escapes Again!". In Seasons 4 and 5, the photo of Carmen would either be a white outline (if the gumshoe failed to catch her), or have prison bars overlayed in front of it (if she was successfully caught).

Sometimes, the gumshoe fell down while in the final round. The one noticeable is in the unaired episode ***Auld Lang Gone*** where a gumshoe named Jasmine Doman injured her arm on the Europe map. The episode stopped taping for several minutes. Ed Mann took Jasmine's place after she got injured, and he captured Carmen with 13 seconds remaining.

### **Closing**

At the end of each episode, Greg, the contestant, and the audience would point up in the air and yell "Do it, Rockapella!" as the camera pulled away from them. In the pilot episodes, instead of "Do it, Rockapella!", they said "Hit it, fellas!". After that, the group performed the show's theme 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 background with falling confetti was used. After the credits and in the second season (sometimes in the first season) the audience was invited onto the map to dance and perform the theme song. Greg and Rockapella performed and danced with audience members. Even the eliminated gumshoes would come out once again to dance with the sleuth, until the end of the third season; afterwhich they did not dance anymore.

Afterwards, during the first season, the Chief, who had joined in the celebration from her office, said "This is Lynne Thigpen speaking for *Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?*, and remember, (something funny in rhyme)". Sometimes the funny rhyme part wasn't heard, and during some of the first season episodes "See you next time!" was said instead. Before the camera fade, a disclaimer would appear on the screen reading, "All contestants have been briefed prior to their appearance." In the second and third seasons, Lynne Thigpen read the disclaimer aloud. the fourth and fifth seasons did not have the disclaimer.

Beginning in the second season, there was also voice-over disclaimer by Thigpen stating that "All geographic information is accurate as of the date this program was recorded." This was probably added due to the dissolution of both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia when the show's first season was taped, causing some episodes to be rerun with outdated geographic information, despite the fact that a vast majority of game show reruns have included outdated information in any topic whatsoever. It was also during the second season and beyond when the actual recording date of each program was shown on the bottom of the screen rather than just the year, as in the first season.

## Episode Status

The orignal series was not seen in reruns on television since 1996. Eleven years later, the show premiered on YouTube with the episodes "Diamonds are a Crook's Best Friend" and "The Cave Art Caper" popped up on YouTube. As the years went by, hundreds of users on the internet posted episodes of the original show to enjoy a new generation of children to come, even though the episodes geographic material were outdated. All but eighteen episodes of the show are viewable on YouTube and DailyMotion.

## Fan-Fics

As mentioned above, fan-fics debuted on the internet in 2008 due to the success of reruns of the show on YouTube. The fan-fic writers for the show are Nick "TVLubber" and Jonathan Mann. Greg Lee reprised his role as the ACME Special Agent before being promoted to captain in 2011. Due to Lynne Thigpen's death, the Chief was portrayed by an unknown actress until the move to TECS which S. Epatha Merkenson portrayed the Chief. Rockapella reprised their role as vocal band and comedy trope. They are being joined by new singing groups based on various animated/anime franchises like *Pokemon*, *The Chipmunks,* *Yu-Gi-Oh!*, and *Digimon.*