Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego is an American half-hour children’s television game show loosely based on the computer game of the same name created by Broderbund Software. Just like its predecessor, the show was produced by WGBH Boston and WQED Pittsburgh. The program ran for two seasons on PBS, consisting of 115 episodes (65 in Season 1 and 50 in Season 2), which ran from October 7, 1996 to December 12, 1997, with reruns airing until September 25, 1998.

The show starred Lynne Thigpen as “The Chief”, Kevin Shinick as “ACME Time Pilot Squadron Leader” replacing Greg Lee and “The Engine Crew” who is considered a replacement for Rockapella as various informants.^[3] The show replaced Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, and was recorded entirely at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York City, the longtime home of Sesame Street.

Gameplay – Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

Opening – Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

Before the show began, the viewing audience would see Carmen Sandiego in her V.I.L.E. headquarters. In Season 1, Carmen appeared in a fourth wall type of narration. In Season 2, a surveillance nano-probe from ACME filmed Carmen in her lair where it went unnoticed. She would be complaining to herself and plotting to steal the historical “seed” of her complaint. Carmen then summoned one of her V.I.L.E. henchmen or henchwomen and told him/her what to steal and where to go.

In Season One, she would shine an “Info-Beam” on the villain to give the details of the object in question. In Season Two, she would give the thief a “Loot Orb” or “Cybersphere” to contain it and are just told to bring the object back to her when they find it. Once the villain takes off to do their mission, The Chief then told the audience that one of Carmen’s chosen henchman had stolen something from the past.

She tells them to recover the loot in 28 minutes (the length of each episode) to prevent temporal paradox. The show then began with the Engine Crew preparing the ACME Chronoskimmer (a flying saucer capable of time travel) for launch like activating the Chrono-Computer, launching the Time Pods, powering up the boosters, and then singing the show’s theme song while dancing. Afterward, the Chief would introduce host “Kevin Shinick”. In the first season, Kevin would directly enter from the left of the Chronoskimmer. In Season 2, Kevin was seen goofing around in his room until the Chief called him to do the show. He would then enter from the right of the Chronoskimmer.

Each episode’s general theme stemmed from the loot of the day, which helped to shape the history of its kind. For example, when Carmen stole P.T. Barnum‘s “The Greatest Show on Earth” slogan, the episode focused on the history of advertising.

Round One – Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

Three players (ages 10–14) known as “Time Pilots” competed. Each was given 100 ‘Power Points’ to begin. Each section of the round had an informative skit, a question, and then a warp to pursue the villain through time; the round had four sections in Season 1 and three in Season 2.

After a skit, Kevin would present three possible answers to the pilots. The viewer could see the individual choices represented by an individual color (pink, green, or blue). All three pilots answered the question, and anyone with the correct answer scored 10 Power Points, with no penalty for incorrect answers.

Skits include the following:

Mission Profile: The Chief briefs Kevin and the Time Pilots by identifying the time and place of the crime, as well as some background information on the loot. This is the first skit in every episode.
Cluefinder: The Cluefinder was an alarm identifying a clue, either leading into one of the other skits below or causing a historical figure or object to appear aboard the Chronoskimmer to reveal more clues. The person brought aboard could be a famous figure such as Elisha Gray or Ada Lovelace or a normal person caught in a famous event, such as a Navajo Code talker or the opening of Coney Island.
V.I.L.E. Villain: The show’s villain was shown revealing a clue, ostensibly against his or her intention. When this happened, Kevin often exclaimed “We’re losing communications!” if the villain was taking over the ship. On other occasions, the ship’s nano-probes would film the villain reporting to Carmen, still giving the clue to the contestants.
Collision Alert: Kevin conversed with a possible ‘future’ version of himself, to acquire clues.
Parallel Universe: Clues were given by Commisaar (an evil Chief) and an evil Kevin from ACME Slimenet, the evil version of ACME Timenet.
Omnicia: On certain occasions, when Kevin ran out of clues, he would ask the Chief to contact an omniscient informant known as Omnicia. According to the Chief, contacting Omnicia took a lot of power, and she always cited the risk of crippling the Chronoskimmer before using a computer secured in a briefcase to input the enabling codes.
Engine Crew’s Clues: The Engine Crew sang the clues from the Engine Room. On other occasions, the Engine Crew were in the Chronoskimmer’s cafeteria conversing with Libby the Cafeteria Robot (portrayed by Thigpen) as other passengers dine in the background. One episode where Kevin interacted with Eleanor Roosevelt during the “Cluefinder” skit had him stating that the cafeteria is for the Engine Crew and some other people he doesn’t know.
Intruder Alert: The Intruder Alert alarm alerted Kevin to an intruder in his bedroom, which was Sector 5, where a figure identified as his mother revealed the clue.
Millenia: “The world’s oldest woman;” Millenia (portrayed by Thigpen) ostensibly had been around for almost everything. Sitting on a rocking chair on her front porch, she recalls a memory relevant to the current case.
Elephant Guy: A businessman (portrayed by Owen Taylor) being chased through a jungle by an elephant gave clues to the time pilots, displayed in black and white.
The Unknown Explorer: An old bearded sailor riding on a raft provided a clue. Portrayed by John Latham.
ACME Street Entertainers: Three street entertainers (portrayed by The Engine Crew) performed in front of some of the studio audience members and gave out a clue.
Molecular Generator Clue: Kevin found clues inside the Chronoskimmer’s Molecular Generator.
TIMENET Weather Report: A weather woman with a southern accent (portrayed by Alaine Kashian) gave clues during her weather report.

Other events during the round are:

Data Boost: Immediately after a warp, Kevin gave the pilots a choice of 2 or 3 answers and then read several questions (usually five) on a given subject using those answers (e.g., listing terms and asking whether they were cars or facial hair; listing people’s names and asking if they were already dead or not yet born in the year they’ve traveled to; simple true/false questions; etc.). The first pilot to buzz in and guess the correct answer scored 5 Power Points, but lost 5 Power Points if they gave a wrong answer.
The Data Boost happened twice per episode in Season One and once per episode in Season Two; in Season One, the first time was because they ran out of Fact Fuel after a warp and the second time was due to the villain sabotaging the Chronoskimmer. In Season Two, it was always the villain’s sabotage. After the first Data Boost, Kevin always said, “Just a reminder: all our fact fuel is verified by Encyclopædia Britannica.”
Global Pursuit: Immediately after a warp, the villain begins “globe-hopping” to try shaking off the time pilots. The time pilots looked at a map with certain areas circled on their screens and Kevin read clues about the locations, with three answer choices displayed alongside the map. Like the Data Boost, correct answers scored 5 Power Points while incorrect answers lost 5 Power Points. This round occurred once per episode and played similarly to the Chase round of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? In Season 1, pilots could ring in during the question, as was the case on World. In Season 2, pilots could only ring in after Kevin had finished reading the question.
Ultimate Data Boost: The final event in Round One, with twice as many questions as a normal Data Boost and with the value of the questions doubled.

The two pilots with the highest scores after the first round advanced to the second round, while the third-placed pilot was eliminated from the game. If there was a tie between two pilots for second place or a three-way tie for first place, Kevin asked a tiebreaker question, which was always identifying a President of the United States.

Round Two – Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

With Kevin in command, the two remaining pilots fast forward to the present day and activated the Loot Tractor Beam to capture the stolen artifact. The Chief then listed eight events related to the day’s theme that the pilots had to recite in reverse chronological order, with the final item being the day’s loot; whichever pilot had the higher score from Round One chose who went first, with a coin toss as a tiebreaker. The first pilot to recite the events in the correct order restored the loot to its proper place in time and advanced to the Bonus Round to capture Carmen and the day’s villain.

Bonus Round: The Trail of Time – Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego

The Trail of Time consisted of six “Time Portals,” each one themed on a different era, which the winning pilot had ninety seconds to navigate. At each portal, Carmen would ask them a question on the day’s theme with two answer choices. If the pilot answered correctly, the gate opened automatically; if not, he/she had to perform a small manual task to open the gate (spinning a wheel, turning a crank, pulling a rope, etc.).

Once through the second or third gate, the pilot captured the day’s villain and began chasing after Carmen. If the pilot passed through the sixth gate before time ran out, they took the energized “Capture Crystal” and placed it into the “Chronolock Chamber” to capture Carmen.

The show always ended with Kevin, the pilot, and the Engine Crew saying: “At ACME Time Net, history is our job, and the future is yours!” followed by the theme song being played again, as they all headed back to the present.