In 1999, COSI opened at its riverfront location in downtown
Columbus. Once the building opened, the COSI Design and Production Studio, the
group of folks who envisioned, designed, built, and installed COSI in its new
location, broke up into three groups. Some people
left to pursue other projects. Others
remained in-house to help maintain
the newly opened building.
And the last bit became what was to be COSI Studio; a group of folks developing
new exhibits for COSI and for other science museums, children’s play areas, and
aquariums.
The first exhibit this group worked on was Space, which
opened the following year at COSI. But during this time, COSI was approached by
several Ohio Agricultural groups to help promote healthy eating and Ohio
farmers. What finally came of this was “The Big Yummy,” a lunchtime,
animatronic talent show with various foods competing to win The Big Yummy
award.
In 30 minutes, kids were rotated in, they would eat their lunch, watch
the show, and then cycled out.
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| The Big Yummy door graphic hanging behind me. |
The show was even set up with three different endings that were
determined by the volume of the audience’s applause. (The Pinto and Soy Beans
almost always won due to the fart machines hidden in the lunch seats that were
activated during the beans’ performance.)
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| Soy and Pinto Bean sketch with color callouts |
At the outset of the project, we worked on the concept and
the script. We designed the space and determined the necessary refurbishment
and modifications. We developed the characters and worked on their art
direction with the animatronic company.
The show had several songs, an original score and when the script was
finalized, we flew out to California to a recording studio to record the music
and voice actors.
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| A scale model of the stage with sculpted maquettes Johnny Rotten, Soy and Pinto Beans, Corn Cob Bob, and Leche Es Bueno |
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| Corn Cob Bob and Pat O'Butter final animatronics |
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| Egg, the heckler in the back of the audience |
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| Leche Es Bueno, the milk carton host of the show |
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| The show trophy sketch with color |
This is where I stop and tell you that up until now, you
think I have been talking about The Big Yummy, but I haven’t. I’ve been talking
about The Big Weenie. The show we worked on up until this point was called The
Big Weenie. The logo, the songs, the lyrics, the characters’ lines, and even
the grand prize trophy all referenced The Big Weenie. In the science museum
world, a "weenie" was the best exhibit in the gallery, the one that got the most
attention. Weenie is also a food, so that was part of it. It’s also laughingly enjoyable to
say out loud. Try it… weenieweenieweenie See! But not everyone thought it was a good choice of word.
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| One of the early logo concepts |
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| The final (we thought) logo |
As Allen and I flew westward to Burbank, California and the
Theta Sound Studio, there was a management meeting at COSI. Even though we had
been working on The Big Weenie for several months, management was unaware of the
name or perhaps their ears finally perked up when it was mentioned at this
meeting. After we landed, we went to the Studio and arrived mid-session as the
musicians were laying down the music. As we were settling in and working on
some last-minute edits, Allen got a call from COSI. We were told that the name
“Weenie” was absolutely not allowed and that any reference to it must be
removed from the show. I assume this was because “weenie” can also mean
“penis.” The Big Penis show.
After Allen hung up and told me this, we started to realize
the situation we were in. This wasn’t just a simple name change. The word
Weenie was throughout the lyrics, usually at the end of a line. This meant that
our replacement word needed to be:
-two syllables
-end in the “ie” sound
-be food related
-it had to fit in the flow of everything
-determined in the next 18 hours before the actors were in
the studio to record their lines and songs
-not have anything to do with penis
What we came up with in those first few hours was, “The Big Smörgie,”
short for Smörgåsbord. It fit with most the replacement criteria, except that
it was a made-up word and didn’t quote flow. But that was the best we had. And
the best was mediocre.
Allen had another meeting across town, so he left me at the
studio to oversee the recording and to make sure we didn’t have any other odd
references in the script to Weenie.
Allen called twenty minutes later in LA traffic. He had an
idea. He told me about Jerry’s Famous Deli. It’s a landmark in LA and they have
an awesome menu. On that menu is (was) a delicious dessert (or breakfast item
depending on how you wanted to frame it) item that consisted of a cream cheese
and jelly sandwich that was soaked in egg and deep fried.
The item was called a Yummy.
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| Jerry's Famous Deli menu with The Yummy |
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| The Yummy |
The Big Yummy! Yummy was the perfect replacement word! It
met all the criteria. It was the next best, closest thing to Weenie that we
were going to get. We swapped out all the Weenies with Yummys in the script, changed the logo, and moved on.
There are still secret stashes of The Big Weenie floating
around. Sketches. Original scripts. Logo development concepts. I think the biggest one in clear sight is that the trophy the “winner” of the show received is a hot dog or weenie.
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| Note the W on the crown and faux Latin on base |
In 2004, a financially burdened COSI had a failed tax levy and
the institution made some major cuts. The Big Yummy was a staff intensive show
and went on the chopping block. LifeFormations, the animatronic company, bought
back several of the animatronics and repurposed them at different venues. One
of the most popular is Corn Cob Bob and Pat O’Butter at Jungle Jim’s in
Cincinnati. You can still see them there at the front door today.
I was extremely fortunate to work on The Big Yummy project.
There were many, many creative people involved that I still interact with
today. We all made something outlandishly creative and heartrendingly original.
When I am at COSI, I will go into that room and look for the hints and shadowed fingerprints that were left behind by that experience. Seams in the drywall.
Bumps under the carpet. They are there if you know where to look. But the
biggest, lasting impression, which you can also see, if you know where to look,
is on me.
Fortune and Fame,
A heartbeat away,
Lights flashing your
name,
This is your day,
It’s the Weenie,
The Big Weenie,
Ennie, meanie, miney,
moe,
Where will the Big Weenie
go?
