Don Young was on top of the world after winning the Half Moon Bay World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in early October. He earned nearly $10,000 in prize money, stayed at the Ritz-Carlton for free, and was feted as the person of honor (along with his giant pumpkin) in a big parade down Main Street.

That was before he got a call from "The Tonight Show."

"They said, 'What are you going to do with it?' I said I didn't have any plans," recalled Young, speaking from his Iowa home.

That was on Oct. 16. Two days later, the Tonight Show sent a pickup and a trailer to haul Young's 1,658 pound Atlantic Giant pumpkin, the biggest gourd ever weighed in California, back to NBC Universal Studios in Burbank. A week