# Things that started out very, very small and became HUGE **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636 "2010-06-02T13:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/1 "2010-06-02T13:25:27Z")
I’m putting this into Cafe Society because I igure most of the replies will be entertainment related. Obviously, #1 is The Simpsons. From a bumper on the Tracey Ulman show, a new show on a new, fledglig network to a cultural phenomenon. It doesn’t start out smaller and get bigger than The Simpsons. The Special Olympics. Eunice Kennedy Shiver started them in her back yard, amidst criticism that the retarded could not compete in games. Now global, and an extremely wonderful thing in terms of chnging people’s perceptions of the handicapped. Chocoloate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Originally just a flavor in Ben & Jerry’s first store, people would go to their other stores and when they were told it was only available at one store, drive miles to get it. Now everybody who makes ice cream has Cookie Dough. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/2 "2010-06-02T13:26:33Z")
Joss Whedon ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/3 "2010-06-02T13:35:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Chocoloate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. For that matter, Chocolate Chip Cookies: > **[Chocolate chip cookie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_chip_cookie)** > > A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors. > Generally, the recipe starts with a dough composed... ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/4 "2010-06-02T13:38:16Z")
Riverdance started as a once off 7 min performance during the interval of the Eurovision Song Contest that Ireland was hosting in 1994. I remember that night very well. It became quite big after that 😉 Here’s the first [performance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4M2hEXdnvs) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/5 "2010-06-02T13:46:58Z")
Many recipes started out this way: one chef creating something that becomes popular. Examples include Ranch Dressing – originally the house dressing for a dude ranch in California. Now impossible to avoid. Potato Chips – invented by a piss-off chef named George Crum to get back at an overly demanding customer. Caesar Salad – attributed to chef Caesar Cardini in a single restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/6 "2010-06-02T13:49:33Z")
“Things that started out very, very small and became HUGE” That’s what SHE said! ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/7 "2010-06-02T13:51:03Z")
All those Ernest movies—didn’t they start out as a character in a Sprite commerical? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/8 "2010-06-02T13:52:11Z")
From the studios (and customer service center) of Paragon Cable in Hopkins, Minnesota, to the hearts of geeks everywhere,… **Mystery Science Theater 3000** ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/9 "2010-06-02T13:52:43Z")
**Star Trek**. Roddenberry was barely able to get his “wagon train to the stars” idea on TV in the first place because it was so different than anything else out there. It barely survived it’s second season, thanks to a letter-writing campaign from a core group of devoted fans, and was ultimately canceled after it’s third season. Then it went into reruns in syndication, and picked up an enormous number of fans (like myself) who never had the opportunity to see it in it’s first run. A decade later, we had the first in a long string of Star Trek motion pictures, and the mid-80’s saw the first of several new Star Trek-based TV series. Now we have the movie franchise reboot. Like the Simpsons mentioned in the OP, it started off barely on the radar and just mushroomed into something unbelievably huge. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/10 "2010-06-02T13:52:48Z")
Seinfeld, Cheers, Family Guy. All barely survived their first season. Family Guy was actually cancelled. Google, Facebook. Both spent a few years as niche sites. Now, both are ubiquitous. It’s a bit tough to limit, as everything HUGE was little at first. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/11 "2010-06-02T13:59:37Z")
Sequoia trees. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/12 "2010-06-02T14:01:18Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > All those Ernest movies—didn’t they start out as a character in a Sprite commerical? [Jim Varney](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001815/) > [@](#): > > He chose Nashville rather than New York or Los Angeles as a place to pursue his acting career and, with advertising executive John R. Cherry III, turned “Ernest P. Worrell” into a cash cow, making commercials for clients ranging from soft drinks to food stores and, eventually, Disney. Even though Ernest’s catchphrase “KnowhutImean?” became a national craze almost immediately, Jim worked in TV and film for more than a decade before his famous alter-ego hit the big screen in Ernest Goes to Camp (1987). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/13 "2010-06-02T14:06:46Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > Seinfeld, Cheers, Family Guy. All barely survived their first season. Family Guy was actually cancelled. > > \ > It’s a bit tough to limit, as everything HUGE was little at first. I don’t consider getting a series as staring out “very, very small.” That is quite an accomplishment in itsdelf. As I mentioned in my OP, the Simpsons wasn’t even a series. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/14 "2010-06-02T14:11:03Z")
The stories of entertainers who started small and have wound up HUGE would fill several threads, but I’d like to mention a TV shows that used to air late on Friday nights in this area (and I will assume was syndicated in other markets as well) called _Soul Train_ with host Noble Blackwell. [See this link for more details.](http://browneyedhandsomeman.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html)Stevie Wonder was a harmonica player along with acts like Good Rockin’ Hoppy and Ironing Board Sam and was “Little Stevie” in those days of _Fingertips_. I can remember thinking as I watched him play and sing, “This little guy is going to be a star someday.” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/15 "2010-06-02T14:17:26Z")
Most stars struggle along the way. Very very few bit players end up the star. On the other hand, a cantor named [Dudu Fisher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudu_Fisher) with no prior stage experience, captured the role of Jean Valjean in Israel’s Les Miz, and also did the role on the West End and Broadway. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/16 "2010-06-02T14:37:07Z")
Would those Geico cavemen count? They got bigger than they deserved to be. I just happened to be re-reading Tom Wolfe’s novel **the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test** which describes how a handful of west coast wing-nuts, led by an eccentric author, discovered the recreational uses of LSD. The 60s counterculture was originally small enough to fit into a school-bus! ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/17 "2010-06-02T14:48:41Z")
South Park started out as a 5 minute student film, which led to a $2000 commissioned video Christmas card, which led to the series, which led to Everybody Draw Muhammed Day. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/18 "2010-06-02T14:49:50Z")
**South Park** started out as a video project and later an animated Christmas card about four minutes long. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/19 "2010-06-02T15:09:03Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > All those Ernest movies—didn’t they start out as a character in a Sprite commerical? [A Beech Bend Amusement Park promo for an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_P._Worrell), according to wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636/20 "2010-06-02T15:24:17Z")
Pixar. The company started out selling computer monitors for medical equipment. They designed some in-house animations to showcase the quality of the monitors. They found that people were talking more about the animations than they were about the equipment so they decided to form a department that would make promotional animations. This department obviously grew into bigger things. I’m thinking by this point when they hold their annual board meetings, somebody has to remember to ask if they’re still making medical monitors and if they sold any this year. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-started-out-very-very-small-and-became-huge/541636.md?page=2)