Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (game show)

Three players (ages 10–14) known as "Time Pilots" competed. Each was given 100 'Power Points' to begin. The Chief identified the stolen object and its source, and various skits give clues to the location. After a skit, three possible answers or locations were shown to the pilots. The viewer could see the individual choices represented by an individual color (pink, green, or blue). Any pilot with the correct answer scored 10 Power Points, with no penalty given for an incorrect answer.

At one point in the game, Carmen's henchman would provide a clue from the viewscreen. The points in time visited followed the historical progression of the "seed" originally stolen. The typical course of the round was as follows:

• Data Boost: At two points during the game (one in the second season), the episode's villain sabotaged the Chronoskimmer. (In Season One, a Data Boost was also done to replenish the Chronoskimmer's 'Fact Fuel'). In Season Two, the Engine Crew would report the problem. During the Boost, Kevin read clues in a given subject and gave the pilots a choice of 2 or 3 answers. The first pilot to buzz in and guess the correct answer scored 5 Power Points, but lost 5 Power Points for wrong answers.
• Global Pursuit: After one skit, the Global Pursuit round was played, for a series of questions were asked, each containing one of three possible answers. Only one pilot could buzz in for 5 Power Points up or down. This round in some episodes came before the Data Boost, and played similarly to the Chase round of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
• Ultimate Data Boost: This was just like a normal Data Boost, but the questions were worth plus or minus 10 Power Points.

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, a tiebreaker question was asked.

There were also other ways to gain clues:

• Cluefinder: The Cluefinder was an alarm identifying a clue, whereupon a historical figure or object appeared aboard the Chronoskimmer to reveal more clues.
• 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: Where in 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. Contacting Omnicia took a lot of power, according to the Chief. She would warn Kevin that they may not have enough power, but Kevin would tell her that they had to risk it.
• Engine Crew's Clues: The Engine Crew sang the clues of the year 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).
• Intruder Alert: The Intruder Alert alarm alerted Kevin to an intruder in his bedroom, which was Sector 5, where a figure representing his mother revealed the clue.
• Millenia: "The world's oldest woman;" she ostensibly had been around for almost everything. She was portrayed by Thigpen.
• Elephant Guy: A businessman being chased by an elephant gave clues to the time pilots. Portrayed by Owen Taylor.
• The Unknown Explorer: An old bearded sailor riding on a float 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.

With Kevin on command, the two remaining pilots activated the Loot Tractor Beam to capture the stolen artifact. The Chief then listed eight events, related to the artifact that was stolen, that the pilots had to recite in reverse chronological order. The first pilot to recite the events in the correct order advanced to the Bonus Round to capture Carmen and the day's villain, while the runner-up won a CD player and Carmen Sandiego merchandise.

The winning pilot had a total of ninety seconds to answer questions at several "Time Portals", posed by Carmen, with each portal themed to a particular period of time. All questions were related to the artifact stolen in the day's show and contained two choices each. If the pilot answered a question correctly, the gate opened automatically. If the pilot made the wrong choice, he/she was forced to perform a small manual task to open the gate.

Once through the second gate (or third), the pilot captured the day's villain and began chasing after Carmen. The pilot had to pass through the sixth gate, take what was called a capture crystal, and place it into what was called the "chronolock chamber" in order to capture her.

If Carmen was captured, the pilot was given a computer system and a year of Britannica Online. If she escaped, the pilot received a portable music system in addition to a 32-volume set of Encyclopædia Britannica (in season 1) or an ACME Time Net mission pack (in season 2).

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.

The series was created as a spin-off of the long-running geography game show, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.[5] Executive producers Kate Taylor of WGBH and Jay Rayvid of WQED wanted to refocus the show on history as a recent study had shown American children were weak in this area, and because Broderbund had already created a game in this field.[6] Taylor noted that it was important to them to create something new and fresh and different for fans of the original show.[5]

Around 10% of each half hour episode consisted of computer-generated animation and 3-D special effects, and the graphics/illustration for all episodes in a season were produced in around four months. The budget for each episode of the show' was $46,000. Animator David J. Masher spent $120,000 for animation equipment in his studio -he worked with a tight schedule and low budget.[6] The question writers worked with the Encyclopædia Britannica and a panel of history teachers.[7]

Rayvid noted that history can be more politically charged than the more cut-and-dry geography, noting, for instance, how the nature of historical documents led to bias toward male white stories. Moving away from a pro-American bias, in a World War II themed episode, the show spoke candidly about American internment camps for Japanese-Americans, citing this as an example of how "We try to deal with controversy in a very straightforward, educational way".[8] Another aim of the show was to give young viewers "a sense of time", in that things happened before they were born that influenced their current reality.[9]

The music on the show was performed by The Engine Crew. The music package included the theme song and the songs about clues in the engine room. The theme was played in the opening and closing sequences. When the contestant was heading for the trail of time, the theme was sometimes edited after the crew sang, "We're on the case" and the villains say, "And they're chasing us through history!" (used in first season). In the second season, when the contestant headed for The Trail of Time, the ending was normal instead of the villains singing the end part. The show's main theme song was written by Sean Altman of Rockapella and David Yazbek,[10] and is sung by The Engine Crew.

Like its predecessor series, which faced outdated information during its run, the end of every episode had an audible disclaimer from Lynne Thigpen stating that "All historic information has been verified by Encyclopedia Britannica (and was accurate as of the date this program was recorded)." with the recording date shown with the copyright information at the end of each episode.

The show was funded primarily by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by the annual financial support from the viewers/stations of PBS throughout the entire series. Delta Air Lines and the National Endowment for Children's Educational Television both provided funding during the show's first season.

Scott Wells served as the 3-D animator while Raeford Dwyer was the animation producer; together they gave the show a style that mixed computer-treated video FMV performances computer-generated two- and three-dimensional animation and special effects.[11]

A live version of the World and Time shows ("Carmen Sandiego Live") was performed at 85 sites across the United States and Canada from 1993 to 1997.