The British ‘Office’ started off as a BBC assignment for co-creator Stephen Merchant.
The details are fuzzy, but I think it was some sort of work/school co-op program and he had to demonstrate the skills he had learned by making a short film. Ricky Gervaise, his buddy, starred as the ‘crap boss’ and the rest is history.
KFC has become the giant it has since I was in college. In those days it was a franchise that some restaurants would buy into as a feature to their menu. Within a few years KFC was big enough to appear in the background in Goldfinger in the Fort Knox area. That was not too long after they first started having their own shops.
Not that KFC is all that much different from other food outfits. Just an example of the phenomenon, more or less.
Something about the $7,000 worth of Magic: the Gathering cards I have in my garage suggests that they would qualify.
Starting one’s business in one’s kitchen is a bit unusual for fast food, though. And let’s not forget without KFC there’d be no Wendy’s.
The universe.
Most (all?) religions would qualify. Just a few believers who were very good at spreading the word.
Smiley Faces.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by all of twelve publishers that JK Rowling sent it to. She eventually got a small London publisher, who gave her the mighty advance of £1500 (c.$2-2.5k) and printed just 1000 copies, half of which were sent to libraries. The publisher also advised her to get a day job, as there was little money to be made in children’s books.
Worth a bob or two, those 1000 copies.
I’d say that most bands fall into this category. It’s interesting to find videos on youtube of one of your favorite bands playing a basement show to 20 people, when now they play to sold out clubs (or bigger) on their world tour.
My submission: the band Rise Against
25 years back, who would have suspected that bottled water would become a 17 trillion dollar per-year industry in the USA alone???
The Muppets?
At least Kermit. Started out on a local Washington, DC commercial.
Ronald McDonald also started as a local DC commerical icon, with a very different look from today.
Which brings to mind Bozo the Clown. Started with one guy at Capitol Records in '46, then a chidren’s TV host in Memphis in '55. 27 different markets had licensed their own Bozo during his peak in the late-60s/early-70s, with the main one being portrayed by Bob Bell on WGN.
Hello Kitty paraphernalia went from being available only in upscale department stores and specialty shops to being friggin’ everywhere, including on waffle irons.
What about incidental characters that become cultural icons - like Fonzie from Happy Days or Urkel from Family Matters? Both, I think, were meant to be short-lived characters and instead because huge. Well, not Simpsons or Harry Potter huge, but pretty darn big…
Not quite.
Kermit started as a character on Sam and Friends, a kid’s show. Although it WAS local to DC.
I have seen people mistake Wilkins for Kermit, and he IS a commercial character, though.
And vibrators.
Yes, of course.
Wilkins had a voice very close to Kermit’s (and Wontkins close to Rolf’s).
The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Generally panned by the mainstream press, the cult following didn’t start until 6 months after its US opening in September ‘75. Never pulled from its original release, it has the longest-running theatrical release in film history—playing some theaters for decades at a time.
Sorry, I gotta agree Cheers definitely fits the bill. Yes, they had a series, but no, not every series is “huge” and Cheers was anything but huge when it started, and by the time it went off the air, it was an event. Seinfeld, same way. Contrast with, say, Friends, that was pretty much a big hit right off the bat.
The role of Benjamin Linus in Lost started out small, and became a huge part of the plot pretty quickly: