Acting for Two: Along with their regular roles, Greg Lee, Lynne Thigpen and the members of Rockapella all appeared as different informants, with Greg's and Lynne's characters being pre-taped and appearing on the monitor.
Blooper: In "Crook Snatchez Natchez", the Warrant sign accidentally fell off, causing Rockapella to sing "Low budget" for everything, including the Warrant. This led to Greg making jokes about PBS Pledge Drives.
The Cast Showoff: Rockapella did this every episode, obviously. We also got to enjoy Lynne Thigpen's singing talents whenever she served as the "Acmettes", or when we saw footage of some of her earlier work.
Corpsing: Rockapella's Round 2 snarkery (see below) would sometimes make Greg have to stifle his laughter as he would continue to move the round along.
Rockapella lead singer Sean Altman co-wrote the show's theme song and also made frequent appearances with his group.
Show director Dana Calderwood would sometimes appear in show sketches, either as himself or as a character such as Kafka the roach.
Enforced Method Acting: In "Tango Mysterioso," one of the clues was given by Greg Lee's real life mother. Greg was not told beforehand and was genuinely shocked to see her on the show. He was so shocked that he practically talked over her clue.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The show has never been released on home media, primarily because it was made during the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and therefore a good chunk of the geographical information presented is outdated.
Missing Episode: Of the 295 episodes produced for this series, 284 have off-air recordings and 11 episodes are missing as of 2021.
Mockbuster: As per usual, a total ripoff of the game show called Di Mana Joe Jambul was made in Malaysia. Aside from Carmen Sandiego changed to the titular Joe Jambul (who is also a Lupin III wannabe) as well as the rest of her crew changed out, the animated segments were all done in an extremely cheap and low-resolution manner using an extremely old version of Adobe Flash that lacks anti-aliasing (thus making it look really pixellated), and the lack of a music band, the game otherwise plays out just like the US counterpart.
No Budget: The show was not expensive to make, and it shows at times. Occasionally joked about by Rockapella when there was a board malfunction during the Concentration-style segment.
Christine Sockol voiced all of the animated female characters in Seasons 1-3. In seasons 4 and 5, she was replaced with Laura Dean. The difference is noticeable, to say the least.
The Dying Informant is normally played by Scott Leonard. In "Big Ben Bagged", the role is played by an unidentified woman, and in "The Disoriented Express" (the second pilot), the informant is played by James Greenberg (who wrote for this show and wrote, produced, and acted for Where in Time).
Padding: One of two things would occur if the show went too short:
In the first season, a segment entitled "Acme Crimenet Detective Academy" would air. In this segment, the Chief would call between one and three random audience members to her office and ask them geography questions. If they got the answer right, they would receive a Carmen Sandiego sweatshirt, but if they answer incorrectly, they would receive an atlas.
From the second season onward, if the show was short, an extra performance from Rockapella would air.
Pop-Culture Urban Legends: For years, rumors circulated online of an unaired episode called "Auld Lang Gone", which featured the winning contestant breaking her arm during the bonus round, and the runner-up having to finish it on her behalf. Other things apparently went wrong as well, such as Rockapella member Sean Altman ripping Greg's jacket, the Plastic Diver Guy's tank breaking, and Greg taking over the Chief's role until the office sketch ended because Lynne Thigpen had a sore throat, prompting Marc Summers to take over his hosting role for the rest of the episode. It also allegedly contained an appearance from Gene Wilder. However, in August 2020, BuzzerBlog contributor Christian Carrion researched the episode's existence. After talking to archivists at WQED and WGBH, creator Howard Blumenthal, and Summers, he concluded that the episode never happened and wasn't real.note Blumenthal stated that they only recorded 65 episodes per season; this was alleged to be an episode 66. Furthermore, Summers straight-up stated that the episode didn't exist, and that his only contribution was to assist in presenting the first clue in person on one episode.
Production Posse: A few of the voice actors from the show also worked on Doug with Greg. Director Dana Calderwood and Greg had previously worked together on Double Dare (1986) (with Marc Summers making a guest appearance and beginning to recite the Double Dare rules before Greg corrected him), and much of the cast and crew, including Greg Lee, worked on the obscure game show Nitro! in 1995-96 (think a mix of Remote Control and The Mad Dash with a car racing theme) for the equally-obscure and short-lived tv! Network (which later became MoviePlex, a spinoff of Starz/Encore).
Rockapella member Barry Carl's daughter appears in the opening of "Beach Blanket Bye Bye," as he had brought her to visit the set during taping.
Each episode would feature an informant providing clues via television, which was often a way to shoehorn in some celebrity cameos. In "Tango Mysterioso," however, the informant was Greg's mother. The subtitles even identify her as "Greg's Mom (Really... No Kidding!)" The producers pulled this as a prank on a delighted Greg, who had no idea his mom would be appearing on the show and can be seen discreetly wiping away some Manly Tears afterward. See it here.
Greg: Can we please have a nice round of applause for the finest informant ever on this show?
Screwed by the Lawyers: In 2009, Warner Music Group (WMG) claimed the theme song on YouTube, leading many Where in the World uploaders to receive copyright strikes from YouTube because of that. Thankfully, though, it seems to have subsided.
Star-Making Role: Before this show, Rockapella was just another college a cappella group. Now everyone thinks of them whenever someone brings up the style.
Most of Rockapella's sound effects. Many of their antics were built around this.
In one bonus round, the kid was on his last country, with not quite enough time to run to the country, so he dived - and broke the siren off the pole it was mounted on. The producers not only decided to count it as a win, but let him keep the broken siren as a souvenir in addition to all the other prizes.
Voices in One Room: Averted as while everything else was done on set, much of Lynne Thigpen's segments were pre-recorded, including her interactions with Greg.note This was the only way to get Thigpen to agree to play the Chief, which the producers desperately wanted; she was concerned about having the energy to keep up with the shooting schedule, and pre-recording most of her appearances made it easier for her. This was evident as some of the comedy bits between Greg and the Chief were repeated in different episodes. You'll also notice that in clues where Greg walks around the set, the door to the Chief's office actually leads to nowhere.
the Double Dare rules before Greg corrected him), and much of the cast and crew, including Greg Lee, worked on the obscure game show Nitro!