Butch Hartman Came Up With The Fairly OddParents in Only 20 Minutes

It turns out that The Fairly OddParents was an idea created in only 20 minutes according to series creator Butch Hartman! The Fairly OddParents had a rather humble beginning as a short pilot for Oh Yeah! Cartoons back in the 1990s, but soon went on to explode with a huge animated series that went on to run for many seasons, movies, video games and more. But according to Hartman himself, this idea was something that came together rather quickly when trying to come up with the idea for a new short with Oh Yeah! Cartoons following his work with Johnny Bravo at Cartoon Network. 

Speaking during the "A Fairly Odd Panel with Butch Hartman" at Mega-Con in Orlando hosted by ComicBook.com's Chris Killian, Hartman noted how it all came together pretty quickly, "I worked on Johnny Bravo and Johnny Bravo ended and I was out of a job. And this is 1997, and I had been on several shows at that time. And a show will always go for a while and then it will end and you have to find another job. I was so tired of having to find another job and I thought, 'I'm going to create my own cartoon, so I'll be the last one out. If that job ever runs, I'll be the last one.' My friend Fred Seibert called me. He was over at Nickelodeon at the time. He said, 'I've got this show I'm doing called the Oh Yeah! Cartoons show.'

Creating Fairly OddParents in 20 Minutes

"He goes, 'I got one slot left. Would you like to come over to Nickelodeon and sell me a cartoon?' This was, like, Tuesday. I said, 'Absolutely. I'll be right over. I got the coolest idea. You're going to love it.' Hung up the phone," Hartman continued. "I had nothing. Nothing at all. I sat down and I said, 'I'm going to do a show about a little boy, because I used to be one. So I know how they think. A boy.' And I'm like, 'I want to give this kid some kind of a power so it's interesting to be animated,' right?" But Hartman explained that his options for cede power were limited due to other shows at the time. 

"I couldn't do science because Dexter's Lab was already out. So it's always be careful what you pitch, because you know, do your homework and make sure the network doesn't have something like that already," Hartman explained. [S]o I thought if I could do magic, that'd be kind of cool. So I thought, but I don't want to give him the magic, because I thought if he had a magic friend that he could get separated from, that'd be a funnier story. Like, always trying to get back to the friend. So I came up with Wanda, whose name was Venus at first. And then I'd never seen... He [h]as a fairy godmother, and I'd never seen a fairy godfather before. So I drew Cosmo. And I drew him. I didn't have a name for him, but Seinfeld had just revealed Kramer's first name as Cosmo Kramer. And I went, 'Cosmo's a great name.'"

Then the ideas kept coming together as Hartman explained, "At first it was Cosmo and Venus, and I changed it to Wanda because of 'Magic Wanda.' And I just drew the picture. I drew a bad girl named Vicky. Drew that. And I thought it'd be fun if they could turn into things, so I drew the fishbowl. This took about 20 minutes. I'm not even kidding. It's so weird. I drew it and I pitched it to Hanna-Barbera and they said no. Pitched it to Cartoon Network. They said no. And then I took to Nickelodeon, took it over to Fred, and he said yes, and then we made the first episode." 

Then this continued after it was accepted by Nickelodeon, "Then we made four more episodes, short cartoons. And then they did the most terrifying thing in the world. They focused tested it in front of kids. If you've ever been through that experience, it's the most nightmarish experience you've ever been through, because you're behind a glass wall going... you're screaming and the kids can't hear you. But then fortunately the kids liked it, and then Nickelodeon bought it and made it into a series in 2001." 

But while the idea came about in 20 minutes, Hartman makes sure to emphasize that it took a long time for it to really come together with such an idea, "It took me 35 years... I was 33. It took all those years of working and practicing and learning how to be a storyteller. Because I was a director, I was a writer. And it takes all that time to get to that moment. You're all going to have that moment where that opportunity comes up. Because an opportunity is going to come up and you need to be ready for the opportunity. I always say that opportunities are like comets. They're really cool, but they don't come around very often. And it might be a long time until you see another one. So always be ready for that opportunity. Always be practicing, be writing, be on your game, because that might come around when you're finally ready. It'll show up."

How do you feel about the way The Fairly OddParents was created? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!