Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, a bestselling computer game, is about to become a game of a different kind: a quiz show for kids ages 8 to 13. Starting in September, PBS will broadcast 65 episodes over 13 weeks. Who is Carmen Sandiego? A master thief whose notable heists include the Mona Lisa and the entire potato crop of Idaho. Show contestants will attempt to find Carmen by following her accomplices — and by answering geography questions along the way.
The show's co-executive producers, Jay Rayvid (the WonderWorks Family Movie series) and Kate Taylor (Degrassi High), want Carmen to encourage youngsters to find out more about the world — its cultural variety as well as its topography. ''Geography is not just memorizing the capitals of states,'' Taylor says. ''It's a much wider and broader and [more] interesting subject than that.'' The show will have as its host comedian Greg Lee (Nickelodeon's Total Panic); it will also feature live music.
And, of course, there's Carmen. Her latest thefts, sources report, are a hole from Scotland's St. Andrews' Golf Course and...the Queen Mary.
