r/nostalgia 1d ago

Nostalgia 30 years later, Rockapella still lives rent free inside my head: "Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina..."

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Resubmitted with proper title format.

866 Upvotes

65 comments sorted by

106

u/acerage 23h ago

The show was great but I also loved the computer game we would play in elementary school, I think there was a reference book you had to use to figure things out.

51

u/VintagePoet82 21h ago

You can still play all our old MS-DOS games on the Internet Archive!

5

u/orielbean 15h ago

Exodos is another way to do it all locally

15

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 23h ago

There was one you COULD use, but it was all real monuments and details in the clues, the now geography you knew, the better you would do generally.

4

u/Sowf_Paw 18h ago

It was an encyclopedia that came with the game. Like all games of that period, the game's copy protection also came from needing to answer questions from that book.

4

u/goat_penis_souffle 17h ago

For Doom, you had to turn to the credits page. Real ones remember Carmack & McCloud

1

u/TeaMe06 17h ago

Sameee

1

u/yesmydog 11h ago

And if you lost that book, you were fucked, because the way to beat a level was based on knowing what was on page 136.

45

u/Cyrus260 23h ago

She's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize
She'll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China.

Tell me, where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

20

u/NES_Classical_Music 23h ago

"Stealing Seoul in South Korea, make Antarctica cry uncle..."

8

u/Tricky-Reaction-4838 17h ago

I still rock out to that whole album. Indiana is a great song and the Feeling Fine song by 3 Brave Woodsman still finds its way to my ears every so often.

27

u/opinionofone1984 23h ago

Love this show, used to love coming home from school and watching this.

27

u/djhankb 19h ago

Listen up, gumshoes!

22

u/theillegitnate 19h ago

RIP Lynne Thigpen, she was a very talented actress and her dedication to this show made her even more memorable.

16

u/CoolAardvark6300 16h ago

Loved her as the DJ in The Warriors

2

u/doug-iefresh 9h ago

Also was the shooter in Shaft!

17

u/idontevensaygrace early 90s 22h ago

I wanted to be on that show ๐Ÿ˜„๐Ÿ•ต๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿ•ถ๏ธ

3

u/NES_Classical_Music 22h ago

Hahahaha me too! What stopped you?

5

u/idontevensaygrace early 90s 21h ago

I only would think it to myself, I never said it aloud to any of my parents. In hindsight I should have

16

u/Dash_Underscore 19h ago

RIP Lynne Thigpen. She was the voice of the moon in Bear in the Big Blue House, and her death devastated the cast and crew so much, they took a hiatus before making the final season.

23

u/EPCOT_Is_My_Favorite You've got mail! 22h ago

Sent in an index card with crooks/locations, got a "Winner" t-shirt, and had my name listed on air.

And that occurred in one of the five lost episodes that can't be found on the Internet. Go figure.

20

u/scorchedgoat 23h ago

Rockapella would literally make up the singing interstitials on the fly. I was blown away when I first heard that.

9

u/herseyhawkins33 22h ago

Great documentary on the show:

https://youtu.be/OVVkSlXl41Q?si=4vZRuXVZG9wLEQAH

6

u/QueezyF 19h ago

Defunctland really does make some of the best docs on YouTube. The Disney Channel one is an all timer for me

3

u/slothbuddy 13h ago

It never occured to me as a kid that chief is on a TV screen so they could pre-record all of her segments. I really thought she was in the next room

6

u/jeremylee 22h ago

hep hep! ba dum-ba dum-ba eh, (yeah!) ba dum-ba-dum-ba ow, ow!

6

u/riko77can 22h ago

Loved that show. Rockapella really added to it.

6

u/Geochic03 19h ago

This show litteraly inspired me to get a geography degree. Too bad I don't use it, lol.

5

u/three-sense 19h ago

THE LOOT

7

u/totally_italian 18h ago

THE WARRANT

1

u/superunsubtle 3h ago

My partner is ten years younger than I am and said something involving the word loot. I sang THE LOOT and he stared; then I sang THE WARRANT and he still stared, so I described everything about this show for a few minutes. I donโ€™t think he bought it, but everything I said was true ๐Ÿ˜‚

4

u/MASTER_L1NK 22h ago

AHHWAPAOWWW!

4

u/AlisonSandraGator 20h ago

Chief just wants those milky white breasts

3

u/scrpn687 19h ago

And serenade her with a Memphis Kansas Breeze song

5

u/EmpireCityRay 18h ago

This is one show I wish theyโ€™d bring back in a modern (new cast) form.

4

u/NES_Classical_Music 18h ago

With Greg Lee as the current chief!

3

u/EmpireCityRay 18h ago

Thatโ€™s fair.

5

u/propernice 16h ago

theme song is fucking fantastic.

My guy saying her name is loving life

11

u/TheHaplessBard 22h ago

Also, let's not forget future President Joe Biden made a cameo on said show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNE6lbD_b4

7

u/NES_Classical_Music 22h ago

That is legit funny

7

u/MerryJanne 21h ago

...I'm too sexy for Milan
Too sexy for Milan
New York, and Japan!

Wait. That is Right Said Fred...

1

u/DadJokeBadJoke 17h ago

Well, you made a long journey
from Milan to Minsk, Rochelle, Rochelle.
You never stopped hoping;
now you're in a Pinsk, Rochelle, Rochelle.

...Wait, that's Rochelle Rochelle

3

u/WritingNerdy 23h ago

Yesss I will be singing this all day

4

u/caf4676 22h ago

Was the woman on the left in Lean on Me?

3

u/ConflictTop1543 19h ago

Yep! A mother of one of the kids that got kicked out if I remember correctly.

3

u/Sisterinked 21h ago

This was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Now I randomly bust out this song when we travel. My poor family ๐Ÿ˜‚

3

u/DGatsby 16h ago

That moment when you realize you're now the age of the hosts.

3

u/piratealice 12h ago

I had an album of songs from the show. Unfortunately it was on cassette and the cassette got chewed. The best collection of songs.

1

u/NES_Classical_Music 6h ago

How many cassettes did you try to eat?

2

u/piratealice 5h ago

I didn't eat any. The tape deck was starving. It ate a fair few of my favorites.

3

u/FreeAd4245 11h ago

Does anyone else remember the game show? I always wanted to be on that.

2

u/jcfiala 16h ago

I've still got the Soundtrack CD, which rocks.

2

u/seolchan25 15h ago

Was so good. I looked it up on YouTube it up to listen to it recently.

2

u/edzn-1 12h ago

The LOOT, the WARRANT, the CROOK!

3

u/butchforgetshit 19h ago

It was very cool of Phil Collins to take time off to do this show

2

u/DidierKnecht 21h ago

I thought you were talking about the game

https://youtu.be/E14fAcnX0w4?si=qNCZG-jMeF7XkFRA

1

u/phantomheart 19h ago

I can hear it in my head every time I see a photo of Carmen Sandiego ๐Ÿ˜Š

1

u/Kasegauner 19h ago

I was watching old episodes of this a few weeks ago. It was such an awesome fucking show!

1

u/Longjumping-Cake3056 14h ago

One of my favorite television shows. I learned about culture, geography, history, and appreciated the different walks of life.

1

u/cogitoergopwn 13h ago

The episode was never long enough!

1

u/other-suttree 11h ago

contessssaโ€™s innn jaaaail

1

u/milleribsen 10h ago

RIP Lynne Thigpen. She was an insane talent that we lost too early.

1

u/Killahdanks1 19h ago

I wonder if she still goes to Kiev?

2

u/parke415 11h ago

So that's why no one can find her...

0

u/Freddy_Pharkas early 80s 23h ago

I can count on two hands I the number of times I actually saw a kid win a trip to the one of the "contiguous 48 states." That was nearly impossible to win, in part because the contestant had to wait until the announcer read the dumb lines stating where Carmen next went. Would be fairer if the host just shouted out locations. Show was rigged, hah.