The one about the sticky-fingered filcher ...
“Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina … ”
With her trademark trench coat and fedora, Carmen Sandiego made a mark on the Millennial psyche. Beginning with the original Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? video game in 1985, the character’s exciting capers made learning geography way more fun. The ensuing game show (and its absolute banger of a theme song) filled kids’ heads with dreams of world travel.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? currently ranks 37th on the list of longest-running video game franchises, a few spots ahead of another computer game many ‘90s kids are all-too-familiar with: Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. With plenty of different versions over the years (Where in the U.S.A, Where in Europe, Where in Time, etc.), lots of kids can point to Carmen as a touchstone in their childhood.
But did you know …
1. Where in the world is … the Pacific Ocean?
If you loved the Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? game show growing up, you have dumb Americans to thank for it. Part of the inspiration for the series was a geographic literacy survey which had been published by National Geographic shortly before the show was developed.
The survey found that only one in four American adults could place the Pacific Ocean or the Soviet Union on a map. The embarrassingly poor performance gave PBS that extra push to develop a game show with geography as its core topic.
2. The other ‘90s “Buffy”
Did you know that Carmen Sandiego’s nickname with her “inner circle” is Buffy? The user’s manual that came with the original 1985 video game included this tidbit in her police dossier. A few other fun facts about the infamous founder of Villains' International Legion of Evil (V.I.L.E.):
She’s a former spy for the Intelligence Service of Monaco, where she often posed as a tennis pro and drove a 1939 Packard convertible.
She never appears in public without her ruby necklace, “The Moon of Moldavia.”
She loves tacos.
Her middle name is Isabella.
She has a cat named Carmine who, after being hit with a sack of kitty litter, became a criminal mastermind.
The Carmen “bible” served as a home for these and other facts about the characters and storylines in the video games. The design team meticulously tracked all these details to ensure consistency across every story, especially when new artists joined the team.
3. Carmen explores the Roughrider State
The original Carmen Sandiego game involved worldwide locales, while the next two focused on the U.S. and Europe, respectively. Where would Carmen’s travels take her next? North Dakota. Not the most likely of destinations, sure, but the creators of the game were interested in finding out whether state-specific games would be their next hit. They started out with North Dakota in 1989 so it could be released in conjunction with the state’s centennial celebration.
Thirteen school teachers teamed up to help create the game by researching North Dakota’s history and geography. The goal was to integrate the game into school lesson plans to educate young North Dakotans. They decided that Carmen was a bit too much of a villain, however. Instead of committing crimes, she and her gang pull a bunch of pranks throughout the Roughrider State. Unfortunately, the project didn’t really catch on, and the plans to create games for each U.S. state were scrapped. Today, Where in North Dakota Is Carmen Sandiego? is an extremely rare game, with only three retail copies known to exist.
4. Undead acapella
Those who have watched the Carmen Sandiego game show know that the theme song by Rockapella is a major earworm. The group also became an integral part of the show, often performing musical interludes and comedic bits that went along with the story for each week’s episode. But where in the world did they find these guys?
The creators of the show first spotted Rockapella in an appearance on a PBS TV documentary called Spike Lee & Company – Do It A Cappella. In the special, Rockapella is featured singing Zombie Jamboree. After being selected as the house band for Carmen Sandiego, the group’s profile shot up. They did a commercial for Taco Bell, a Whoopi Goldberg comedy special on HBO, and opened for big acts like Billy Joel, Styx, and Chuck Berry.
5. Map attack
Global shakeups created some extra work for the Carmen Sandiego production crew. Due to geopolitical upheaval in the early ‘90s (the breakup of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, for example), they sometimes had to make changes to the set’s maps overnight so they’d be ready in time for the next day’s tapings. They quickly realized that some episodes would have inaccuracies if they were viewed later, so beginning in season two, they added this disclaimer at the end of every show: “All geographic information was accurate as of the date this program was recorded.”
As far as we know, they only got it wrong once. After the final episode of season two, it was discovered that a contestant’s answer which had been deemed incorrect on the show was actually right all along. They noted it in the show’s credits when it aired, and invited the contestant back to compete again in season three (he won!).
6. Hollywood’s top (secret) agents
Famous faces often popped up on Carmen Sandiego, which helped make the PBS show even more popular. In many cases, celebrities appeared in pre-recorded segments as special agents of ACME giving helpful clues to the contestants.
Among the many celebrities featured were Rhea Perlman, Sally Jesse Raphael, Walter Cronkite, Penn & Teller, and President (then Senator) Joe Biden. Even some fictional characters, like Zap and Turbo from American Gladiators and Henrietta Pussycat and X the Owl from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, showed up to help catch Carmen.
7. Jiminy Cricket!
The cool animations which helped make the original Carmen Sandiego games so popular were informed by Disney-level talent. Gene Portwood, one of the principle creators and designers behind the first Carmen computer games, joined the Disney animation team in 1950. He actually helped draw scenes for films like Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, and he created many of the images of Jiminy Cricket that were used in segments introducing Disney’s television programs.
A couple decades later, Portwood returned to the animation business to work at Broderbund Software, which created Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? along with other popular early video games like Lode Runner, Prince of Persia, and Myst.
8. A global sensation
Considering Carmen Sandiego’s extensive world travel, it should come as no surprise that international versions of the popular game show sprung up all over the globe. Many had their own quirky takes on the original name, like:
Germany: Jagd um die Welt – Schnappt Carmen Sandiego (Chase Around the World: Catch Carmen Sandiego)
Italy: Che Fine Ha Fatto Carmen Sandiego? (What Has Come of Carmen Sandiego?)
France: Mais, où se cache Carmen Sandiego? (But, Where Is Carmen Sandiego Hiding?)
Malaysia went one step further by eliminating Carmen altogether and replacing her with a character named Pompadour Joe.
9. Who is Carmen?
Carmen Sandiego is undeniably elusive, so players of the game only catch glimpses of her. Though she’s said to be loosely based on the Portuguese-Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, the character is of Hispanic descent. She’s only ever appeared in a live-action version on the game show, Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? For years, no one knew who had portrayed her, until Huffington Post writer Todd Van Luling finally tracked her down after a 20-year search (Carmen had been portrayed by actress Janine LaManna, who also played various other roles on the show).
As for the cartoon versions of Carmen, a couple big names have helped bring the character to life. In the late ‘90s, EGOT winner and legendary actress Rita Moreno voiced her on Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? A more recent revival for the character came in 2019 with the animated Carmen Sandiego series on Netflix, in which actress Gina Rodriguez voices Carmen and Rita Moreno returns to voice Cookie Booker, V.I.L.E.'s bookkeeper.
10. Sandiego starlets
Carmen made the leap from the computer screen to the TV screen, but she couldn’t quite make the jump to the big screen. In the ‘90s, a Carmen Sandiego movie was in the works at Disney with Sandra Bullock in line to star as the title character. The project never took off, but in 2011, Jennifer Lopez was reportedly on board to produce and possibly star in a Carmen Sandiego flick. Though it never came to fruition, the idea for the film was “National Treasure meets The Thomas Crown Affair.” Still secretly hoping someone makes this a reality.
Carmen Sandiego was a fashion icon from day one. Forward this to someone who could totally pull off the trench coat and fedora look.
Editorial: Ashley
Illustration: Nick