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SITE HISTORY
What is The Ultimate VeggieTales Web Site? We're glad you asked!
UltimateVeggie.com is the brainchild of Darren Sumner, a student, father, and long-time employee of
Big Idea Productions. I met a tomato named Bob and a Cucumber named Larry in the winter of 1995, when I
took a job at a Christian bookstore in Portland, Oregon. "Are You My Neighbor?" was the newest video, and
there were rumors of "Rack, Shack & Benny" on the horizon. That fall I departed for college, and took the
guys with me.
At Seattle Pacific University I set about converting the student population to my favorite animated,
singing vegetables, hosting viewing parties in the dorm and always buying the newest releases right away.
Among the new converts was the woman I would one day marry, Christy. In the summer of 1996 I was looking
for a project to teach myself HTML, and after United Press Syndicate quickly shut down my Web site devoted
to Snoopy's friend Woodstock, I immediately turned to a much better subject: VeggieTales.
The show was very new but rapidly gaining in popularity. The same could be said of the Internet, and at
that time Big Idea didn't even have its own Web site. The site grew and grew and became so popular that
the university even had to kick me off their free student Web space. I found hosting elsewhere, and soon
the site got the attention of the show's creators in Chicago, Illinois. Big Idea was looking to start
their own official site, and wondered if I would be interested in interviewing.
I graduated in 1998 and The Ultimate VeggieTales Web Site was a smashing success. Big Idea flew me out to
interview that summer, and by September I was clocking in to my post-college dream job. As the first hire
in the new Internet group, I worked with the growing team to create BigIdea.com, BigIdeaFUN.com,
LarryBoy.com, JonahMovie.com, and other company sites. I participated with my friends Tim Johnson, Eric
Ronne, John Reich, Oed Ronne, David Martin, Raphael Villas, Karl Pradel, Debbie Geils, Dina Pruzin, and
others to also help create PC software titles "The Mystery of Veggie Island," "Jonah - a VeggieTales
Game," "Veggie Carnival," "VeggieTales Creativity City," and "Minnesota Cuke and the Coconut Apes."
After we were married a year into my time at Big Idea, Christy also got a job there. Since she ended up
working in the post-production department she of course became much more famous than me (and more
interesting to talk to at parties), and her name shows up in the credits of a lot more shows. Together
we lived through the stratospheric rise and meteoric fall of Big Idea Productions. When the company had
less than 60 employees and was creating LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed, I was there. When Big Idea
surpassed 200 employees and released the Top 10 theatrical film Jonah - a VeggieTales Movie, I was
there. When it was forced to lay off massive amounts of people to keep its head above water -- again, and
again, and again -- I was still there, even though my friends were all gone. When the company filed for
bankruptcy and was purchased by Classic Media, I was there. When it relocated from the Chicago suburbs to
the Nashville, Tennessee area, I went with it.
I spent eight years with Big Idea -- pretty much my entire twenties -- before leaving to pursue
theological studies at Princeton Seminary.
Now, one year later, I am ready to return to VeggieTales. In spite of a long and sometimes rough
history, I love the company and the product and what it is doing for parents, kids, and for the world of
Christian entertainment.
The Ultimate VeggieTales Web Site is back! If you will forgive its current state -- created 10 years ago
when I knew a little HTML and next to nothing about design! -- we'll get it renewed for the twenty-first
century. We have some big ideas planned for the future of the site and how you can participate in
it.
Just like in 1995, there's never ever ever ever ever been a show like VeggieTales!
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