Does anyone know how long this has been around as an adverb, and where? A search of this site reveals an example of the usage I'm thinking of. Maverick wrote:
I have often thought about forming a Guy Fawkes Party, with the intention of re-introducing fireworks (big time) to the Mother of Parliaments, raddled old whore that she's become!

I thought it was British and of recent vintage, or recent popularity; then I found it in P.J. O'Rourke from about fifteen years back in this same sense.

(N.B. If it's a catchphrase from television or film, I am completely ignorant of both.)

big-time (adj, as used by mav in bigtime fireworks?) is in W3 <her presentation was definitely big-time>
it is undated; not much of a stretch to use it as an adverb (re-introducing... bigtime?).

AHD: adv : To an extreme degree; very much: “Sales are expanding, big-time.” [no date here either]

all of which is to say that it's been around long enough to be lexicographed.

As an adverb, you'd think that someone would have moved it to the more general syntactic form of adverbs. I look forward to seeing big-timely in future correspondence ...

Now CapK haven't you ever heard of letting sleeping dogs lay. Big-timely is positively ugly. Don't give anybody ideas.

In reply to:

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letting sleeping dogs lay

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While hens may lay, I know of no dogs that do, since they are viviparous. (See my rant the other day about the confusion of lay/lie).

As an adverb, you'd...

Who you callin' an adverb? [emoticon for evil smile]

Who you callin' an adverb? [emoticon for evil smile]

Sorry, Anna - adverbess. Got to get these things right if you're going to play big-timely. {Even eviler smile emoticon]

Cap in hand, Kiwi apologised: Sorry, Anna - adverbess

Intriguing. Some time ago, she whose face launched a thousand ships expressed her intense dislike for words such as actreess, and aviatrix, words that differentiate between people performing the same task simply on the basis of their sex. The same Epic heroine, however, seems to prefer doing exactly that when it comes to hatmakers. She makes a distinction between milliners and hatters, based on the sex of the person who will wear the object made. How do ohers feel about this apparent ambivalence?

Yep, Kiwi, or if you're gonna run adverbially with the big dogs, the big Sitters -- or is that Setters? You know, the Irish ones that don't lay. [big-time evilest smile emoticon]

Well, all I can offer is a Keeshond bitch who had a thing about mothering my Siamese cat's kittens. I'm sure if we'd had chooks, she'd have (s)mothered the chickens. Maybe lying in wait for them ...