I needed to finally find Carmen Sandiego once and for all.

August 18, 2016 6:49 AM

My 20-Year Quest To Find Carmen Sandiego
posted by Faint of Butt (30 comments total)

Read this with musical accompaniment, of course.
posted by Cash4Lead at 6:55 AM on August 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

Once Carmen, always Carmen.

Great find, thanks.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:00 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Apple, Carmen Sandiego, and the Rise of Edutainment
posted by Artw at 7:21 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, Carmen Sandiego! I grew up with the original TV game show, and when I was a bit older I had Where In The USA Is Carmen Sandiego for our family computer, which required swapping between two large genuinely floppy disks multiple times during the game. I was devastated, DEVASTATED, when I was finally old enough to be on the show but they'd switched to Where In Time, because that is some bullshit. There is no motivator for studying geography like an Ohio girl seeing the prospect of a free trip to California or Florida if she can only remember which country is which in Africa. (Though let's be honest, we all wanted to get the US map, didn't we?)

Great article and happy nostalgia to start my day.
posted by olinerd at 7:24 AM on August 18, 2016 [11 favorites]

"I looked into a detective costume suitable for catching LaManna in Times Square. I found one that somewhat mirrored her getup."

And did not at all realize "Yellow Jacket Detective Costume" meant "Dick Tracy", which sadly means that despite the 1990 film poor Tracy has sunk into obscurity and kids born in 1991 have absolutely no idea why a detective costume in all yellow is a thing.

I remember that TV show. It was kinda cute, but yeah, by the time it aired I was just a year younger than this writer when he started looking for LaManna, so it doesn't hold much sentimentality. Now the games for MacOS? I played the heck out of those games in the 80s and get sentimental watching this.
posted by linux at 7:32 AM on August 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

I watched the Carmen Sandiego show on afternoon TV as a kid, but did not catch the Where In Time iteration. Which is a damned shame, because Lynn Thigpen's uniform as Chief of ACME Timenet is pretty much the most bitchingly awesome wardrobe ever assembled.
posted by Mayor West at 7:44 AM on August 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

I didn't watch Where In Time, but I did play that version of the computer game. Now I want to play it again.

I am fascinated by Where In North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego.
posted by jeather at 7:52 AM on August 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I spent so much time looking through an atlas and some sort of world fact book my parents had due to the original (1985) Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? videogame. So much time looking at flags, trying to find the right one.

Also, Lynne Thigpen (.) rules. Seeing The Warriors for the first time and realizing that the narrator DJ was The Chief was super nuts.
posted by tocts at 7:55 AM on August 18, 2016 [8 favorites]

Where in North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego? I never even heard of it until the recent newspaper article (I was probably too busy playing Oregon Trail at the time). Playthrough.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:15 AM on August 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I am fascinated by Where In North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego.

I'm shocked that this is a real thing. It must be more difficult than it sounds.

Grand Forks? Nope
Bismark? Nope
She's in Fargo then.
posted by dances with hamsters at 9:47 AM on August 18, 2016 [19 favorites]

This was fun, thanks for posting.

Incidentally: the Where in Time theme song is still totally BOSS. Really fun, and catchy as anything. *hums*...
posted by Zephyrial at 9:59 AM on August 18, 2016

Per the Digital Antiquarian article North Dakota was a "prototype for a proposed series of state-level games that never got any further", so we've been robbed of a whole range of them.
posted by Artw at 10:04 AM on August 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was too old for this show, but I really like the Carmen Sandiego series. It's the right blend of edu- with -tainment that so often doesn't work.

This story was great! Other than Lynne Thigpen (bummer - I didn't know) the followups were fun to read. I really like that even though Todd Van Luling knows (somewhat at least) Where In The World Janine LaManna is, she's still a mystery to the rest of us. It's so much better that there is no current reunion picture or link to a profile somewhere.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 10:22 AM on August 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

This was excellent. I loved the show, the various video games, and even the cartoon with the brother/sister combo. I wanted to be Carmen Sandiego too.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 10:24 AM on August 18, 2016

I preferred Where in the Multiverse is Carmen Sandiego, but I have a hard time recognizing her manifestation when she appears as a phase-shifted muon cloud from reality 1XB/995Z.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:38 AM on August 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

I am fascinated by Where In North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego.

She's in Mott because it's the spot to live and shop.
posted by nathan_teske at 11:05 AM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am fascinated by Where In North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego.

She's right next to the WALL DRUG sign.
posted by Etrigan at 11:07 AM on August 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Etrigan you need to play Where In North Dakota is Carmen Sandiego -- Wall Drug is in South Dakota.
posted by nathan_teske at 11:09 AM on August 18, 2016 [10 favorites]

The signs, though...
posted by Etrigan at 11:10 AM on August 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

So long as she's not in Africa. That map was a killer.

"O.K. Jimmy, Carmen's in Burkina Faso!"
"Dude, are you kidding me? I'm 9."
posted by leotrotsky at 1:04 PM on August 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS WALL DRUG??

(Actual sign. Probably).
posted by MOWOG at 1:32 PM on August 18, 2016

Also, Lynne Thigpen (.) rules. Seeing The Warriors for the first time and realizing that the narrator DJ was The Chief was super nuts.

If you really want your mind blown, watch the original film version of "Godspell" and delight to her gorgeous singing voice. Added bonus: an impossibly young Victor Garber.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:11 PM on August 18, 2016

I never saw the show (probably was a little old for it when it came out) but I loved the game. A friend and I would memorize the flags from that middle section of the World Almanac and quiz each other about them for fun. So I'm real good at flags from 1985, to the point where I can more readily recall the flag for Tuvalu than for Russia, which is kind of silly.
posted by aubilenon at 2:35 PM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wait, there was a Where in TIME is Carmen Sandiego?! I even owned the tie-in CDs for the first two game shows, too (which were pretty good) so this discovery comes as something of a shock
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:53 PM on August 18, 2016

where in time was my favourite.
posted by PinkMoose at 8:19 PM on August 18, 2016

I remember being mad that it wasn't "when in time"

(I've gotten over it by now)
posted by aubilenon at 11:34 PM on August 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Aww, am I only the only non American Carmen fan? We didn't get the tv show here- I would have *loved* it.

I was obsessed with the game from the age of 9 onward, in all the different incarnations. Still waiting for someone to make it a Facebook game.
posted by daybeforetheday at 2:33 AM on August 20, 2016

I loved the gameshow but rarely got to see it because it aired opposite the pile of television feces that was Small Wonder and the other kids who went to that babysitter were Philistines, I tell you.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:38 AM on August 20, 2016

So if they did where in South Carolina is Carmen Sandiego the answer would be by the Piggly Wiggly.
posted by winna at 8:06 AM on August 20, 2016

Aww, am I only the only non American Carmen fan? We didn't get the tv show here- I would have *loved* it.

No, my Aussie sister in law was apparently a fan. I knew we were going to get along when I Facebook stalked her before our first meeting and found a photo of her in a Carmen Sandiego Halloween costume.
posted by olinerd at 8:56 AM on August 20, 2016