Characters and sketches on Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

This article lists recurring characters and sketches performed on the PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.

Characters

The Chief (Lynne Thigpen)

On World, the Chief became a more dynamic character than in the computer games. Played by Lynne Thigpen, she was 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. Her catch phrase was "I salute you," which she often uttered while holding a magnifying glass over her eye. Thigpen also played this character on Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?.

The character proved popular and the computer games Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time) included QuickTime videoes of Thigpen portraying the Chief. Thigpen again played the Chief in the planetarium film Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? and its sequel Where in the Universe is Carmen Sandiego? II.

The Chief also has a great-grandmother, Agnes Acme, who is the founder of ACME. Agnes Acme was also played by Thigpen and is apparently deceased, though that didn't stop her from Providing clues. In "The Canal Caper," Agnes would also be in place of the Chief in the office scene right after the end credits of the latter episode.

Greg Lee

Although Greg Lee was referred to by his real name, he adopted a goofy yet amiable persona as the show's agent in charge of training new recruits, often playing "Lucy" to Lynne Thigpen's "Desi" in the office sketches. On the show, it was explained that he was a special agent in charge of training new recruits, but the show's continuity was very loose and the fourth wall was frequently broken.

Featured crooks

Some of the crooks featured on the show were:

• Carmen Sandiego - The Title character herself rarely appeared on the show, although she was often referenced and, as in the computer games, it was made clear that she was the crooks' leader. The ultimate goal of each episode was to capture her after the day's crook was jailed.
• Contessa is a so-called criminal of style. She is presumably Italian given that a "contessa" is an Italian countess, the character spoke with a distinctly Italian accent and that most of her fashion is styles from Milan. As her moniker implies, she considers herself to be near royalty. Contessa pilots a helicopter during some capers and her motto (seen on her dossier) is "I May Be a thief, but my taste is impeccable."
• Double Trouble are a pair of different-colored twins who mirror each other in a Yin and Yang fashion. They are international playboys. Judging by their sunglasses and voice, they are a parody of Jack Nicholson. Their motto (seen on their dossier) is: "They snatch. They match. They're hard to catch." On one episode, they were told that they couldn't be on Growing Pains, and yes, they indeed were not in Growing Pains.
• Eartha Brute is a muscle bound woman with a green beehive hairdo. Eartha Brute wears a pink singlet uniform complete with weight belt that has the V.I.L.E. initials on the gold plate. Underneath her brutish exterior, it was mentioned in an episode that she loves romantic stories.
• Kneemoi is an alien from the planet Roddenberry with a round body and two tentacled arms. She has a reputation on 93 planets as a space outlaw and is a pink ball of ectoplasm that can morph into any form she desires. Her name is reference to Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek and her home planet is a reference to Gene Roddenberry.
• Patty Larceny is a ditzy, blonde schoolgirl who has a rather cloyingly sweet and giggly personality, she is also the niece of Carmen Sandiego. She wears a pink (or orange) shirt, a green jacket, green skirt and saddle shoes. She once appeared in a bikini during the Ipanema beach caper. She also had her answering machine set up during one phone tap segment which made Carmen Sandiego mad. Her name is a play on "petty larceny", a minor felony of stealing anything less than $275 in some states.
• RoboCrook is a bass-voiced (ala Barry Carl) cyborg parody of RoboCop who also appears in third version of Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?. In RoboCrook's TV appearance, he wears a grey hat and a Zorro-eqe mask, while in his computer appearance, he he wears a black hat, and no masks. His real name as mentioned in a phone conversation on the show is "RoboCrook Unit-059". Sometimes he is referred to as "The Solderhead".
• Sarah Nade is a punk rocker teenager who loved concerts and singing. She came from the computer game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe EDition. According to the computer game file, she has a small scar on her left ear shaped like New Jersey and had blonde hair. Sarah Nade's hair in the TV series has a rainbow of colors. Obviously, her name is a play on "serenade".
• Top Grunge is a large smelly biker with flies hovering over his head. Due to his filthy nature, he seems to have a permanently chronic head cold. He rides on a badly-tuned motorcycle that spits out smoke wherever he goes. His eyes are always covered by large sunglasses -- which were also, unsurprisingly, featured in the hit Tom Cruise film Top Gun.
• Vic the Slick is a shrewd salesman in a loud polyester suit and an even louder tie with a seedy moustache, shifty eyes and slicked black hair. In one episode of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, he often tried to hit on Carmen Sandiego (one time by stealing for her the Isla del Carmen which was located off Mexico). His motto (also seen on the dossier) is: "Bad taste is better than no taste at all".
• Wonder Rat is a parody of Superman and Batman who flew with a helicopter. He is Carmen Sandiego's personal caped criminal who considers himself "The Rat of Steel" (a reference to Harry Harrison's hero The Stainless Steel Rat.) Wonder Rat can't fly on his own, so he has to resort to using the Rat-Copter (a different version of Contessa's helicopter) with himself strapped to a bungee cord while the helicopter is on automatic pilot.

List of sketches

Sources of clues

On any given day, members of Rockapella might be dressed as giant ears of corn, or as The Beatles. Aside from providing the theme song for the show, Rockapella also supplied many of the sound effects and voiceovers.

• The Chief (she always gave the first clue of the game in seasons 1 and 2)
• The Chief's Fax Machine
• Song parodies performed by Rockapella
• Animations featuring well-informed fish
• Crystal the Teenage Medium, who always overrides the signal of the monitor
• Dog-and-cat rappers
• An annoying fly
• The ACME Crimenet Computer
• The file right by Greg's door was RIFE with clues.
• The world-band radio
• ACME Home $pending Net
• ACME News Net
• ACME Sports Net
• ACME Movie Net
• ACME Munchkin Net (Sean Altman, Scott Leonard, and Elliot Kerman played the munchkins)
• ACME Oompa-Loompa Net (played by Barry Carl and Sean Altman)
• Astra, the big dog
• Celebrity guests such as then-First Lady Barbara Bush, Walter Cronkite, Katie Couric, Peter Jennings, Maury Povich and others.
• One episode featured X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, a scene from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, possibly because MRN and WITWICS both aired on PBS and were co-produced by WQED. Fred Rogers, the puppeteer of X and Henrietta, died the same year of Thigpen.
• One episode features the 2 main characters from the popular Square One TV segment: Mathnet, possibly because SQTV aired on PBS like WITWICS, and David Yazbek, who co-wrote the theme song to WITWICS with Sean Altman, was a frequent writer on SQTV during the first season.
• During one special occasion, Marc Summers joined Greg Lee in one of the questions of the 1st round. Summers was dressed in Greg's signature blue jacket, khakis, and Converse gym shoes. The connection may be that Greg Lee was one of the helpers on Summers' signature, Nickelodeon's Double Dare. Marc also subbed in for Greg in the episode "Auld Lang Gone."
• In "The Return of Dracula's Castle", Dracula himself (portrayed by Barry Carl) provided the second clue and the final clue (as a bat) during the 1st round. When he enters, the same lighting and thunder from the Lightning Round appeared.
• A dying informant, who provided valuable clues just as he (sometimes she) died multiple times (in one episode, "The Voice" set him free) (mostly portrayed by Scott Leonard)
• Occasionally, when no other clue source was available, Greg would go backstage to "ACME Controlnet" and ask the show's director, Dana Calderwood, what the next clue was. Once it had been given, Greg would start meddling with the production equipment, prompting Dana to tell Greg to go away. (ala Chief)
• Nana Rap, an animated grandmother who danced to a rap song; Nana Rap was a fan favorite with the audience always clapping in unison when Nana Rap did her song.
• "The Word on the Street" - Greg hears chatter in the alley and walks out to find Rockapella. He asks them what the word on the street is, one of the band members--usually Scott Leonard, but Barry Carl and Sean Altman have each done this at least once as well--tells Greg the word, which is literally written on the street in front of them, and provides a related clue while the others provide background "mood" music.
• "The Roach Hotel" - Rockapella member Barry Carl portrayed a giant cockroach named Kafka. In one episode, he mentioned biting Patty Larceny's ankle, making her scream.
• A giant alien who hosted a similar television series in a parallel universe
• Upstairs neighbor "Mrs. Pumpkinclanger" (Barry Carl in drag with a falsetto voice), who always complained AbOUT the noise downstairs before giving clues.
• A giant baby, also played by Barry Carl. Entire Series
• A mysterious voice with a pointing finger at the ceiling (often referred to as "The Voice", portrayed by Barry Carl). Entire Series
• There was an episode towards the end of the run where, in order to get a clue for the first part of the game, Greg Lee had to go backstage to talk with an "informant." He gets the clue from two random crew members who are arguing about shoe prints (nothing) behind the wall for the 2nd round. This gave away some of the potential searching locations for Round 2 later in the show (The Wood Islands were one of the locations here).
• The Mysterious Woman, which parodied the 1940s detective movies. The Mysterious Woman's arrival was always heralded by smooth jazz music, and a FADE from color to black and white, and Greg would suck on a lollipop in lieu of a cigarette. Greg would always have something that The Mysterious Woman would want, such as letters, and in order to get them, she had to give Greg and the contestants a clue. The item would always turn out to be ludicrous; for example, after begging Greg for the letters, the Woman would be presented with actual oversize letters: a J, an M, and a Q. This particular installment resulted in a funny exchange between the two when the Mysterious Woman heard the music that signaled her to leave: "That's my cue!"..."No, that's my Q!" . Entire Series
• The Shadow (originally played by Nicole Leach). Greg would hear a signal, then go into the alley where the scene turned black and white and was coated with fog. The Shadow appeared and tried to give Greg the clue in code. Of course, Greg never remembered the code, which irritated the informant and forced her to give the clue directly.
• The Plastic Diver Guy (referred to by Greg as P.D.G.), whose clues always ended in him getting destroyed (ala Dying Informant), with him saying "Oh, no, it's the ominous music!"
• ACME Man, played by Greg Lee.
• "My Buddy Buzz", Greg has a very favorite TV program. This very short "TV program" features Greg and his friend Buzz (played by Barry Carl) who "tells" about the next clue.
• "Get Back from the radio Jack". When Rockapella sings "Get back from the radio Jack. More Hits. More MUSIC!" Greg turns into Jack the DJ man. And he comes up to a tape player. and messes With It. And talks to us about the next clue.

The Chief's office

One sketch in the Chief's office was performed in each episode. This sketch always involved Greg Lee and Thigpen and was never used as a source of clues.

• The Chief's office is turned into Grand Central Station, filled with racing commuters and a giant clock.
• The Chief and Greg receive a rude message from Carmen Sandiego. ("Dear Chief, you are a chump. You and your Glum-Shoes still haven't found me or (Crook's Name "Usually Double Trouble"). Catch me if you can. Regards to ACME Slime Net. Signed, Carmen Sandiego. P.S.: Nanny-nanny Poo-poo.")
• The Chief is suffering a HeadAche, and Greg grows another arm to help alleviate the pain.
• The Chief grows two FACES, so that they can be more alert about catching the crook and Carmen. Greg sees this as a bit too extreme.
• The Chief is feeling rather glum, to the point of shedding tears. She is fearing that she will lose her job if Carmen is not caught. However, Greg makes it clear that the show's production crew, Rockapella, and the audience in the studio are all supporting Greg and the gumshoes effort of catching Carmen.
• The Chief contemplates retirement to do yam-farming with her cousin in the country, much to Greg's dismay.
• The Chief complains that Carmen being out of jail has upset the "NATURAL balance of things", demonstrating this by showing that the incorrect sound effects accompany certain actions. Greg, however, finds this amusing.
• The Chief goes over The New Crimenet budget, and Greg then talks about some taxed lunches (e.g.: Crab Alfredo, pizza), which, to Greg, is not social, but business.
• The Chief complains about Carmen Sandiego not being captured, and shows Greg a newspaper headline pertaining to the situation: "ACME Crimenet Going Nowhere Fast".
• The Chief is accidentally shrunk down to be under a foot tall (courtesy of ACME Shrinking-Things Net), prompting Greg to bombard her with "small" jokes. After she returns to her regular size, Greg leaves and comments that he was out of small jokes anyway.
• A contractor accidentally does his underground work in the Chief's office.
• The Chief and Greg demonstrate a portable alarm system that yells at someone who tries to steal anything.
• The Chief finds herself unable to say what she means; she can only say the opposite. Greg discovers the Chief's "polarity" switch and changes it from negative to positive.
• The Chief asks Greg for change, and he shows her some unusual coins, one of which has Millard Fillmore On It.
• The Chief's office is turned upside-down. She explains that she was so frustrated by Carmen's latest caper that she "just flipped." Greg inverts the office with a special knob, so the Chief turns right-side up-- but now Greg is upside-down.
• Greg enters the office, and finds that things are slanted to the right. When Greg moves leftward, the office moves in the opposite direction.
• The Chief's phone keeps ringing and she thinks there's nobody on the other end, but it turns out she was wearing extra-long ear plugs and couldn't hear the other person.
• The Chief's desk has a thistle on it, and Greg removes it, and it is revealed that the desk has moving legs!
• Greg accidentally pulls a plug, causing the office to spring a leak (what the audience saw was the scene gradually getting smaller).
• Greg tries to take advantage of a substitute chief, Mr. Schwemphf, in order to get out of taking an exam.
• A freshness inspector (played by Scott Leonard) smells everything in the Chief's office to make sure it meets standards. He is about declare everything fresh, until he gets a whiff of Greg's tie.
• After saying "Something extremely important has come up," the Chief shows Greg a novelty "fortune teller foldie thing," which seems to make accurate predictions.
• The Chief asks Greg for the latest on Carmen Sandiego---with the voice of a man. He turns out to be Conrad Knuckle, the joint director of a rival crime-fighting agency, EMCA ("ACME" spelled backwards), who takes over the Chief's body and offers A Tour of a meat-packing facility in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to the gumshoe who captures Carmen. To get the old Chief back, Greg hits her in the shoulder with a squeaking toy hammer (and must hit himself as well as he talks with the voice of a woman leaving the Chief's office).
• The Chief is "unavailable due to classified business", and leaves Greg voicemail options, the last one in which the Chief offers to "set [Greg] up with [her] gorgeous cousin Gladys".
• The Chief's offices turns into a replica of the Chocolate Room in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".
• The Chief informs Greg that he has replaced her as chief, Greg then asks who will take his old job. The (ex) Chief does not know, so he goes back to the main game stage to see Rockapella hosting the show, offering one million ACME Bucks for the next question

Rockapella Voiceovers

On the children's game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Rockapella (the house band) not only did the theme song, the also supplied the sound effects. Some of the sound effects, the band did include:

• "Rockapella!" during the beginning of the first season episodes, after Greg says "They're with me every day". In the very last episode, instead, Rockapella (dressed like clowns) would moan for help.
• "National Geographic World!" after Greg says "All of our answers have been verified by National Geographic World.". - used from the first season on
• "The Chase!" when this segment of the show was played accompanied by Greg's magic phrase "We'll pick up....THE CHASE!"
• A fanfare, preceded by "You've Won!" when a gumshoe found all three items in the jailtime challenge. Rockapella also made that fanfare in the first season when the winning gumshoe captured Carmen.
• The "think music" for making wagers ("How much you gonna risk?") and the sleuth deciding what trip he wanted to take if he won ("Where do you wanna go?").
• The background music during the Chief's reading of the consolation prizes for the eliminated gumshoes.
• The background music when five winners of the contest are shown from Season 3 onwards.
• The background music when the Chief travels along with Greg and the gumshoes to the final location in Seasons 3 and 4.
• The background music when Greg and the gumshoes modem themselves to the final location in the final season.
• The music accompanying the sleuth moving to the map before the Bonus Game after the Chief says the magic phrase "Let's go to the map!"
• The contest music for the bonus round.
• The phrase "let's get packin'!", sometimes preceded by "Ah", after the trip reveal with a successful bonus win.
• "The LOOT", "The Warrant" (sung), (crook's name) in the second round as they were uncovered, and "(crook's name)'s in jail!" after the winner arrested him/her. About halfway through the first season, Rockapella began singing a silly phrase instead of saying "The LOOT" as it was uncovered, such as "pilfered pipeline" when the stolen item was the Alaskan Pipeline, or "Subterranean scratchings" for the Lascaux cave paintings from Montignac, France. They sang something different every time the loot was revealed on the board. During some longer rounds, the singers poked fun at how long it was taking the contestants to find the items. On one very late episode, the group said "The LOOT" near the end of one of these long rounds (long after they had stopped regularly using it), drawing laughter. One first season episode also featured a long round as the players immediately found the Hollywood Bowl, but failed repeatedly to find the warrant or Double Trouble. This caused Rockapella's enthusiasm over the reveal of the Hollywood Bowl to wane after several turns, ultimately just deadpanning "the Bowl" by the time the round ended. Additionally, in the final season, there would sometimes be a silly phrase sung (or spoken) to indicate shoeprints (nothing) behind that location at this time. For instance, one of the Rockapella singers, when a famous shopping district was one of the locations and housed nothing.

Another time, when a contestant picked the Yi River, the singers replied with "Yi!," causing the audience and Greg Lee to burst out laughing. Another memorable event happened when a contestant picked the Batman Bridge, one of the Rockapella members made sound effects referenced to the 60s Batman TV series, which also got laughs from the audience. Also, in one episode, the board was setup with locations from Indianapolis, Indiana, which just happened to be Scott Leonard's hometown. With each pick of location, Rockapella sang out "Near Scott's house!".

Still another time, when the stolen landmark was the aforementioned French cave paintings, when the cave paintings were uncovered the third time, Barry Carl called out, "Gentlemen, dip your brushes!" Greg's response: "What!?"

One time, when the ferry from Zaire was stolen, when the loot was uncovered, Rockapella sang out a brief spoof of Chattanooga Choo-Choo about that loot.

Another episode, the landmark was the World Trade Center, when it was picked, Rockapella sang "I Love NY!". Greg told Rockapella "I love NY Too!".

• Rockapella also sang song parodies of, for example, "My Favorite Things" and "Surfin' USA". Once, they were dressed like The Beatles singing a spoof of "Yesterday". After each parody, Greg would say "Rockapella, ladies and gentlemen!"
• They also sang jingles for the crook, like for Eartha Brute, they would sing "Eartha Brute, HUH!", for Double Trouble, they would sing "Double Trouble (Trouble)", and for Patty Larceny, they would sing "P-P-P-Patty". Rockapella singing jingles more than 3 seconds long when the dossiers were revealed. Because Sarah Nade her jingle only lasted less than 3 seconds.