Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? character sheet.
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ACME Crimenet
Greg Lee
- Excited Kids' Show Host: Downplayed; Greg was laid back, and a bit of a goofball, but he wasn't really "zany".
- Large Ham: He was usually more of a straight man to the hammier Rockapella guys, but he certainly had his moments.
- Phrase Catcher: "Greg, go away!"
The Chief, Lynne Thigpen
- Black Boss Lady: A former trope image.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Greg only ever addresses her as "Chief". However, she does sign off at the end of every episode as Lynne Thigpen, although this could just be a fourth wall break.
- Canon Immigrant: Lynne reprises her role as Chief for the 1996 versions of the Where in the World and Where in the U.S.A. computer games.
- Character Catchphrase: "Greg, go away!", "I salute you!"
- Da Chief: She's the chief of Acme Crime Net. She can be serious when the situation demands it, and she keeps Greg in line.
- Ms. Exposition: Whenever the gumshoes tracked the criminal of the week to a specific part of the world for the second round, the Chief would give them and the viewers some information about the place.
- Not So Above It All: While she often plays the Straight Man to Greg's antics, there are some shades of Cloud Cuckoolander in her. In the first season, at the end of the Photo Recon segments, she would often stray off-topic and relate a story about her childhood, or, in one episode, make shadow puppets on the screen.
- Once an Episode: She would call Greg into her office to list the contest winners and/or offer the trip to the gumshoe that catches Carmen, give the gumshoes a briefing on whatever part of the world they visited in the second round and list some of the countries of whichever continent Carmen was hiding in.
- Ultimate Job Security: The Chief occasionally worried that she'd lose her job because ACME hadn't caught Carmen and offered the gumshoes a trip as extra incentive to catch her. She always kept her job, possibly because on her watch ACME saved hundreds of cultural and natural treasures and did catch Carmen dozens of times.
Rockapella
Members: Sean Altman, Scott Leonard, Elliott Kerman, Barry Carl, Jeff Thacher
- A Cappella: They're an a cappella group in real life and on the show, so they sing their songs unaccompanied.
- Ascended Extra: Compared to his fellow band members, Elliott didn't have many standout moments Season 1, whether it be leading a song or providing clues. Later seasons gave him considerably more things to do.
- Boy Band: Boy bands were big at the time and Rockapella was recruited in an attempt cash in on that.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: They all wear similar clothes that are distinguished by being different colors.
- Final Season Casting: Jeff Thacher was added to Rockapella as the band's vocal percussionist in 1993. However, he wouldn't appear on the show proper until its final season in 1995.
- Greek Chorus
- He's Okay: Rockapella member Scott Leonard would often play a recurring character called the "Dying Informant," where he would often give clues about the whereabouts of the crook of the day before dying. Of course, Greg would always remind us that Scott wasn't really dead.
- Last-Name Basis: Greg always refers to her by her last name, but the full name of his upstairs neighbor, as seen on a book in "Rio Rock Wrangers", is "Mrs. Prunella Pumpkin-Klanger".
- Mr. Fanservice: They were all very pretty men.
- Phrase Catcher: "There's one more thing you have to do, you know what it is!" "Do it, Rockapella!"
- Pungeon Master: Their theme song for the show is full of geography puns. "Steal their Seoul in South Korea" for example.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Jokes abound that their costumes were the reason PBS couldn't afford too many grand prizes.
- Sixth Ranger: Jeff Thacher, both in-universe and in real life, adding a fifth member to the group.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Jokes abound that their costumes were the reason PBS couldn't afford too many grand prizes.
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: A few of their songs sing about the criminals Carmen Sandiego hires. "Stinkin' Dirtbag" and "Bad Girl" to name a few. The theme song could also qualify as such, since they're singing about Carmen Sandiego herself.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: One of the informants was upstairs neighbor Mrs. Pumpkin-Klanger, who was played by Barry Carl in drag.
VILE
Carmen Sandiego
- Malicious Misnaming: In one episode, she writes a letter to the Chief, addressing ACME Crimenet as "Slimenet."
- Orcus on His Throne: She masterminds all the thefts but doesn't do much in the show itself, preferring to work through her henchmen to avoid the cops.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Listen to her phone calls
to her henchmen on the show. It's obvious that they're not the brightest people in the world.- Lampshaded in some of the computer games as Carmen having a soft spot for those less talented than herself.
- Troll: She occasionally does this to the Chief, mocking the Chief for not catching her or planting spy bugs in the Chief's office.
Contessa
A woman who is implied to be wealthy and of noble blood.- Cool Shades: She rarely takes them off. One instance of her eyes being shown is in "The Fat Lady Sings No More" when she steals Sydney Opera House.
- Put on a Bus: She left after Season 1...
- The Bus Came Back: ...but returned in Season 4 with a new look, and stayed for the remainder of the show's run.
- During Season 2, Contessa's book can still be seen on the Chief's bookshelf, despite her absence.
- The Bus Came Back: ...but returned in Season 4 with a new look, and stayed for the remainder of the show's run.
- Spell My Name with a "The": Zigzagged. While everyone else simply called her Contessa, Greg had a habit of adding "The" to her name. It makes sense that he'd do it, as contessa is Italian for "countess" instead of being an actual name.
- Villainous Fashion Sense: Her motto on her dossier reads: "I may be a thief, but my taste is impeccable."
Double Trouble
Twin brothers who are identical except for having opposite color schemes; where one is colored black the other is colored white.- Conjoined Twins: Subverted. Although they may look conjoined at a first glance, some episodes featuring Double Trouble show them in a scenario where it was obvious that they weren't conjoined. And in some episodes, the reason why they rat out Carmen's location from jail is because they're upset that the warden wants to put them in separate cells.
- Cool Shades: Both of them wear sunglasses.
- The Dividual: As implied, they're the Twindividual type; they're twins, but they function as a unit and consequently share a single criminal profile on the show.
- Deliberately Monochrome: For whatever reason, Double Trouble are completely black and white, right down to their skin tones.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The episode "Danube-bee-doo-bee-duped" reveals that they would draw the line at grave-robbing.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Both of the twins talk like Jack Nicholson.
- Single-Minded Twins: Their description reads: "Two guys, one mind, no shame."
Eartha Brute
A female bodybuilder. According to her dossier, she enjoys romance novels.- The Brute: It's in her name for crying out loud!
- Dumb Muscle: On the phone taps it's obvious that she's the dimmest bulb out of Carmen's entire gang, most of her gang can at least recognize certain city's and landmarks, Eartha recognizes none of them and typically needs Carmen to walk her through it, though given that she enjoys romance novels she's at least literate.
- Never My Fault: Whenever she gets jailed, she accuses Carmen of double-crossing her.
- Simpleton Voice : Listen to the way she talks on the phone tap or when calling the gumshoes.
- Woman Child: If this season 5 call toward the winning gumshoe is any indication:Eartha: I thought maybe I'd take some classes while I was in jail, but the warden says they don't have a nursery school.
Kneemoi
A one-armed pink blob from the planet of Roddenberry, where they follow a religion centered on plumbing devices. Able to use her nose as a vacuum. Debuted in Season 2.- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Even Kneemoi's people appreciate the talented basketball player Magic Johnson.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: While Kneemoi is normally pink, she has the ability to instantly change the color of her body. Justified due to her being an alien.
- Ambiguous Gender: Although female, Greg sometimes refers to Kneemoi as a male, possibly by accident. It might just be a slip of the tongue due to her male namesake (see below).
- Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: In one episode, Kneemoi steals a golden bull head because it is "the spitting image of her mother".
- Shout-Out: To Star Trek, specifically Leonard Nimoy.
- Her home planet's name is also an obvious nod to Gene Roddenberry.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: She can grow a tube-like nose and as many arms and legs as she wants. In her "normal" form, she's a round blob with eyes and a mouth that move around on her face.
Patty Larceny
A teenage schoolgirl. Refers to Carmen as "Auntie Carmen." Her name is a pun on "petty larceny."- Affably Evil: "Nothin' like a polite threat."
- The explanation given is that while a sweet person, Patty has kleptomania, an uncontrollable urge to steal. And it shows: out of all of V.I.L.E.'s gang she's probably stolen the most loot and has gotten arrested the most. She's even stolen the atmospheric phenomenon responsible for the Northern Lights (using a giant magnet apparently).
- Anti-Villain: Type IV, see below.
- Family-Values Villain / Gosh Dang It to Heck!: "Why couldn't they just call it examination heck?"
- Faux Horrific: In That Girls Got Characters she calls up the gumshoe in tears after coming in from the prison laundry, why? Because the laundry mixes colors with their whites in the same wash! Patty reacts to this like it's the worst torture imaginable, and she was just arrested less than a minute ago!
- From the Mouths of Babes: As shown in this Season 2 call:Patty: Carmen's still free, and I'm not! Well, she can just go to fiddlesticks! Better yet, she can go to jail.
- Genius Ditz: Her personality is flighty, but she is also the top student in her class and very knowledgeable about the world and history.
- Honorary Uncle: Calls Carmen "Auntie Carmen."
- Precocious Crush: Was eventually revealed to have one of these on, of all people, Vic the Slick. In two episodes near the end of the show's run, Patty was shown to have pictures of him in her bedroom.
- Smarter Than You Look: One of the comments Da Chief makes about her is that she's on the dean's list. You don't get on the dean's list unless you get good grades. Also, when she stole the Hope Diamond, Da Chief described her as 'brainy.' She's quite possibly the smartest member of Carmen's gang, but considering that most of the gang is Dumb Muscle, that's not exactly a high bar to clear. (She's also still in high school, 'Life Of Crime High' to be more specific.)
- Token Good Teammate: She's only a villain because she has a severe disorder, and is otherwise a Nice Girl.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly-girl counterpart to Sarah Nade, a tomboy and the only other teenage girl in Carmen's gang.
Robocrook
A cyborg criminal and obvious parody of RoboCop.- Canon Immigrant: He appears with a new design in the 1996 version of the Where in the U.S.A. computer game.
- Robo Speak: Even his laugh is a robotic monotone.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Robocrook's dossier indicates he's just under four feet tall, but he's capable of carrying as much as anyone in Carmen's gang.
Sarah Nade
A teenage rock and roll star. Her name is a pun of "serenade." Debuted in Season 3.- Canon Immigrant: She was a character in one of the computer games before appearing on the show.
- Though given that the game in question actually features a Mrs. Sarah Nade, who is supposedly a children's piano teacher with blond hair who moonlights as a punk rocker, and here we have a teenager with a multi-colored mohawk who is only a punk rocker, whether it's really supposed to be the same character is debatable.
- Kaleidoscope Hair: Her hair can change colors on its own, seemingly by way of magic.
- Smarter Than You Look : Instantly recognizes what the Galapagos Islands are, specifically naming the Boobie as one of the birds there.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Patty Larceny's (the only other teenage girl in the gang) Girly-Girl.
Top Grunge
A filthy biker. He wears aviator sunglasses similar to those worn by Tom Cruise in Top Gun, the movie from which his name is derived.- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He has a "MOM" tattoo on his arm.
- Evil Smells Bad: He's a filthy, stinky criminal.
- The Pig-Pen: Always has a dust cloud around him wherever he goes even when he isn't on his bike and is typically surrounded by flies. His thumbprint on his dossier is also very greasy. Comments by The Chief are constantly made by how dirty he is.
- Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness: By far the filthiest member of Carmen's gang. He also coughs and hacks throughout conversations with Carmen.
- Working Through the Cold: He has a "permanent cold," presumably because his filth makes him germy, and his speech is always punctuated by disgusting sneezes and coughs. It doesn't stop him from trekking all over the globe committing crimes for Carmen, though.
Vic the Slick
A sleazy, poorly dressed criminal whose personality can best be described as "used car salesman."- Casanova Wannabe: His phone-tapped conversations with Carmen often include him making a clumsy pass at her.
- Honest John's Dealership: One of his dossiers says he'd sell his own grandmother. Then it adds he did sell his own grandfather!
- Impossibly Tacky Clothes: His motto on his dossier reads: "Bad taste is better than no taste at all."
- Rummage Sale Reject: See above, he always dresses horribly, often mixing and matching the colors of his shirts with his pants. His usual attire is a plaid green suit with pink interior, light blue slacks, pink shoes and a light green undershirt.
Wonder Rat
A wannabe superhero who flies by dangling himself from a helicopter. Debuted in Season 2.- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Of the Animal Alias variety.
- Attention Whore: His usual motivation for stealing things is to get attention.
- Chest Insignia: Naturally, a slice of cheese.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's disgusted when Carmen tells him that many universities used to refuse to allow female or colored students to be admitted, and praises Howard University for having always accepted anyone who wanted to learn.
- Expy: Of Superman and Batman, except not so heroic.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Sounds like Curly Howard, right down to the laugh.
- Small Name, Big Ego : A lot of his thefts are things like animation studios and film festivals, he then proceeds to make the areas all about him and only him.
- Stock Animal Diet: His episodes are full of cheese jokes.
