Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?

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Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego%3F (television logo).png
Genre
Developed bySean Roche
Directed by
  • Joe Barruso
  • Stan Phillips
Voices of
ComposerTom Worrall
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes40 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Andy Heyward
  • Robby London
  • Michael Maliani
  • Benjamin Melniker
  • Michael E. Uslan
ProducerMichael Maliani
EditorMiriam L. Preissel
Running time30 minutes (with commercials)
Production company DIC Productions, L.P. [2]
Original release
Network Fox (Fox Kids)
ReleaseFebruary 5, 1994 (1994-02-05) 
January 2, 1999 (1999-01-02)
Related

Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? is an American live action/animated television series based on the series of computer games. [3] The show was produced by DIC Productions L.P. and originally aired from 1994 to 1999, on Saturday mornings during FOX's Fox Kids Network block. Reruns aired on the Qubo television network from June 9, 2012 (alongside Animal Atlas ) to May 26, 2018. [4]

Contents

The series won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program in 1995, and in the same year was spun-off into a Where in the World-styled video game entitled Carmen Sandiego Junior Detective . Its theme song uses the melody from the chorus "Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder" ("Sing Songs of the Great Pasha") from Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio).

History

Production and broadcast (1994–1999)

We optioned 'Carmen Sandiego' three years ago. Originally our intent was to do it as a straight animated cartoon. The Fox Saturday morning series was based on the computer game designed by Bay Area-based Broderbund Software. As we developed it, it became a mixture of CGI, classical cel animation, computer graphics, live action, film clips, different styles of cel animation. The bed of the show is a mystery show with two kids searching for a thief, but there's so much stuff going on in mixed-media bags. The show is doing very well, and we think it's going to open the door for a lot of innovations.

DIC Entertainment president Andy Hayward in interview with Variety. [5]

The script for every Earth episode had to meet the approval of Broderbund, which created and, at the time, owned the Carmen franchise. Their cause for concern was the level of the violence on other FOX children's shows such as X-Men and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers . Broderbund did not require this of the creators of the World and Time game shows that aired on PBS, presumably since PBS, as the distributor of such shows as Sesame Street , had a long-standing reputation for non-violent educational children's programming. [6] [7] The lead characters of Earth were featured in Carmen Sandiego Junior Detective , released in 1995. The opening theme song for the show is "Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder" from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail , with new lyrics, pop instrumentation, and a backbeat. The Rainbow Animation Group (later renamed Galaxy World, Inc., [8] not to be confused with the Italian studio Rainbow S.p.A.), and Han Yang Productions contributed some animation for this series.

Home media releases

Fox Video originally released the series on VHS through their Fox Kids Video label, which contained two episodes each.

In November 2001, Lions Gate Home Entertainment and Trimark Home Video released two VHS tapes, Carmen's Revenge and Time Traveler, consisting of the show's three-part episodes ("Retribution" and "Labyrinth") in a feature-length format. Time Traveller was also released on DVD, and alongside the "Labyrinth" episode, also came with a demo of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge. A video of the episode "Timing is Everything" was included with some versions of the mentioned game. [9]

In September 2003, Sterling Entertainment released Into the Maelstrom and No Place like Home on VHS and DVD. Into the Maelstrom contained the three part "Retribution" episode, while No Place like Home contained the episode "The Remnants" and the two-part episode "Can You Ever Go Home Again?" The DVD versions contained "When it Rains..." and "Follow My Footprints" as bonus episodes, respectively. NCircle Entertainment reissued both DVDs in 2007.

In June 2006, Shout! Factory and Sony BMG Music Entertainment released the first season on DVD. [10] [11] Due to poor sales, no further seasons were released.

Mill Creek Entertainment released Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 on February 21, 2012. This four-disc set contains all forty episodes of the series. [12] They also released a ten-episode best-of collection the same day. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. Mill Creek re-released the complete series on DVD in Region 1 in June 2017. [13]

PIDAX, a German company, released the complete series on DVD for Region 2 in 3 Volumes in 2019 in English and German.

The whole series is available to stream on Paramount+.

Plot

Following the plot of the Carmen Sandiego franchise, Earth sees international thief Carmen Sandiego (voiced by Rita Moreno) lead the organization V.I.L.E. in stealing treasures from around the world and leaving clues behind for ACME agents Zack (voiced by Scott Menville) and Ivy (voiced by Jennifer Hale), under the guidance of the Chief (voiced by Rodger Bumpass), to find, in order to capture her. In this version, Carmen Sandiego is a former agent of ACME who left to seek a greater challenge, and has a strong code of ethics when stealing items. The Player is an unseen live-action character who bookends acts by communicating with Carmen; it is implied that the television series is a video game that they are playing from a computer.

While Carmen is originally presented as the show's antagonist, she becomes more like an anti-hero as the series progresses; she even helps Zack and Ivy against mutual enemies.

Characters

Main characters

ACME detectives

The following are ACME detectives who assist Zack and Ivy:

V.I.L.E. agents

The following are agents who work for Carmen Sandiego's organization, V.I.L.E.:

Other villains

As Carmen Sandiego became less villainous and evolved into more of an antihero, other characters began to fill her original role as the show's antagonist. The following villains are:

Episodes

SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
1 13February 5, 1994 (1994-02-05)September 17, 1994 (1994-09-17)
2 8February 4, 1995 (1995-02-04)March 25, 1995 (1995-03-25)
3 10September 16, 1995 (1995-09-16)November 18, 1995 (1995-11-18)
4 9September 9, 1996 (1996-09-09)January 2, 1999 (1999-01-02)

Cast

Additional voices

Critical reception

The show was given a rating of 4 stars out of 5 by Common Sense Media , noting that the format of the show – which includes trivia sessions between acts, vocabulary definitions, and the use of foreign languages – is "designed to pique kids' interest in these subjects". [14] DVD Talk noted that the show exceeded the obligatory action of comedy of a cartoon, by respecting its audience with an intelligent sensibility rarely seen in children's television. [15]

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Cherlynne Theresa Thigpen was an American actress of stage and screen. She was known for her role as "The Chief" of ACME Crimenet in the game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? and various spinoffs, and for her role as "Luna" in the Playhouse Disney children's series Bear in the Big Blue House. For her varied television work, Thigpen was nominated for six Daytime Emmy Awards. She won a Tony Award in 1997 for portraying Dr. Judith Kaufman in An American Daughter, and also played Ella Farmer on The District (2000–2003). Thigpen first gained attention for her role in the 1971 off-Broadway musical Godspell. Thigpen's character is named Lynne, and she sang "O Bless the Lord, My Soul" in the musical. Thigpen reprised her role as Lynne in the 1973 film version of Godspell, which she also starred in alongside David Haskell and Victor Garber.

<i>Carmen Sandiego</i> (video game series) American educational mystery video game series

Carmen Sandiego is a series of American educational mystery video games that spawned an edutainment franchise of the same name. The game released in 1985, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, started off both the video game series and the franchise as a whole, which has continued up to the present day. Each game of the series has a particular theme and subject, where the player must use their knowledge to find Carmen Sandiego or any of her innumerable henchmen. This series was originally owned by Broderbund, but is now owned by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since its initial release the series has won over 150 awards and accolades.

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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 Broderbund. 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 Chelsea Studios and Kaufman Astoria 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 until May 31, 1996. A total of 295 episodes over five seasons were recorded.

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Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Treasures of Knowledge is a point-and-click adventure game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise, released in 2001. For its title, the game does not use the long-standing formula of the previous Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? titles. Instead, the game seems to be based on the structure of the newest version of Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, which The Learning Company retitled Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time.

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Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? is a multiplatform video game where players have to travel through time to collect clues and the warrants necessary to capture Carmen Sandiego or her henchmen. The goal of this game is to track Carmen's villains through history and arrest them and ultimately arrest Carmen herself.

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Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective is a 1995 education game in the Carmen Sandiego franchise developed by Broderbund. Although not a version of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? by name, it is essentially a simplified version of it for pre-readers. Allgame says the game "is geared for younger users, with only 14 cases to solve". The lead characters of the FOX animated series Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Zack and Ivy, were included in the game, along with Stretch - "ACME's crime-tracking dog".

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Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is an educational video game released by Broderbund on April 23, 1985. It is the first product in the Carmen Sandiego franchise. The game was distributed with The World Almanac and Book of Facts, published by Pharos Books. An enhanced version of the game was released in 1989, which did not have the almanac-based copy protection and instead used disk-based copy protection. A deluxe version was released in 1990, and featured additional animation and a reworked interface from the original version. Some of the bonus features included digitized photos from National Geographic, over 3200 clues, music from the Smithsonian/Folkways Recordings, 20 villains, 60 countries, and 16 maps. CD-ROM versions for DOS and Macintosh were released in 1992, and a Windows version was released in 1994.

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The remake version of Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? was released in 1996 by Windows and Macintosh and features Lynne Thigpen playing "The Chief" from the World game show. The game's opening credits finds Carmen Sandiego arriving in her underground V.I.L.E. outpost in Washington, D.C., as she and RoboCrook plan to steal America's greatest treasure from each of the 50 states. Carmen later contacts each of her 39 V.I.L.E. operatives telling them to begin their missions.

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Where in the U.S.A. Is Carmen Sandiego? is a video game that was released by Broderbund in 1986 and is part of the Carmen Sandiego series. The game is a sequel to 1985's Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?. A deluxe version with updated graphics and interface was released in 1992 and a remade version was released in 1996. The goal of the game is to track Carmen Sandiego's henchmen across the United States, arrest them, and ultimately arrest Carmen herself. The game received generally positive reviews but some critics compared it unfavorably with its predecessor game, which had a global perspective.

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Where in Europe Is Carmen Sandiego? is a 1988 European geography-based educational computer game in the Carmen Sandiego detective mystery franchise. It was originally published by Broderbund in 1988 for Apple II, Commodore 64, and DOS, and ported to the Amiga and Macintosh in 1989. It is the third Carmen Sandiego title, after Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985) and Where in the USA Is Carmen Sandiego? (1986). Under the guidance of The Acme Agency's chief, the player completes cases to catch Carmen's henchmen; they accomplish this by traveling to European cities to find clues relating to the crook's last known whereabouts, and by gaining enough character data to issue a warrant of arrest. Once the player has captured all 15 thieves, they can pursue Carmen herself.

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Carmen Sandiego Returns is a 2015 social studies puzzle adventure video game, part of the Carmen Sandiego franchise. It is developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and uses Intel RealSense Technology in order to enhance the immersive nature of player interaction. The educational game aims to teach players about world geography and culture to its 10–14 year old target market.

<i>Carmen Sandiego</i> (TV series) 2019 animated television series

Carmen Sandiego is an animated action-adventure television series with educational elements, based on the media franchise of the same name created by Broderbund. The series is produced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with WildBrain serving as the production company, and contains a "serialized look at Carmen's backstory that is told from her perspective". Serving as an origin story for the fictional thieving villain of the same name, it is the fourth Carmen Sandiego television show after the PBS game shows Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?, and the Fox animated series Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?; it is also the first Carmen Sandiego related show since the end of Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego in 1999.

<i>Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal</i> 2020 animation/interactive fiction film

Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal is a 2020 animated interactive television special directed by Jos Humphrey and co-directed by Kenny Park and Mike West, written by Duane Capizzi, May Chan, Sam Nisson, Susan O’Connor, Greg Ernstrom & Becky Tinker and starring Gina Rodriguez and Finn Wolfhard. It is part of the 2019 Netflix series Carmen Sandiego.

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