Butch Hartman

Elmer Earl Template:NoboldButchTemplate:Nobold Hartman IV (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, illustrator, writer, producer, director, and actor. He is best known for creating the animated television series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and Bunsen Is a Beast for Nickelodeon. He founded the company, Billionfold Inc. in 2003, to produce the shows. Hartman was an executive producer on The Fairly OddParents for the entirety of its 16-year run.

In February 2018, Hartman announced his departure from Nickelodeon after almost 20 years; this resulted in the end of production on Bunsen Is a Beast after one season. In 2021, he returned to the studio to produce The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder, a live-action Fairly OddParents reboot which premiered on Paramount+ the following year and aired for one season. In 2023, his first non-secular animated program, The Garden, premiered on the Christian streaming service Pure Flix.

Early life

Hartman was born in Highland Park, Michigan. He received the nickname Butch as a young boy and continued to use it as an adult. Hartman spent his childhood in Roseville, Michigan, and his teenage years in New Baltimore, Michigan. He graduated from Anchor Bay High School in New Baltimore in 1983, and subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. As a young student, he appeared on The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour; he won close to $3,000.

Career

Early career

While still attending CalArts, Hartman interned as an in-between animator on the Don Bluth film An American Tail. Before graduating, he was a contestant on the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour for three episodes and shortly after graduating, he was hired as a character designer and storyboard artist for an unidentified My Little Pony animated series. As he had no previous experience with storyboards, he was soon fired. Afterwards, he found work with Ruby-Spears, where he worked on It's Punky Brewster and Dink, the Little Dinosaur. He was also a member of the video reference crew for the Disney film Pocahontas.

In the early 1990s, he was hired as an artist in the model department at Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually contacted by studio president Fred Seibert to create the shorts Pfish and Chip and Gramps for his animated incubator series What a Cartoon!. Eventually, he became a writer, director and storyboard artist for several of the early Cartoon Network shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and I Am Weasel. After his contract with Hanna-Barbera expired, he went to work with Seibert at his newfound Frederator studio, on his successor incubator series, Oh Yeah! Cartoons for Nickelodeon.

During his time working at Hanna-Barbera, he became acquainted with future Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. The two would later go on to make the short Zoomates together for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. The character Dr. Elmer Hartman in Family Guy was named after Hartman. He also voiced various characters in the show's first seasons.

Working at Nickelodeon

Hartman at a Fairly OddParents panel during Comic-Con 2009

His biggest success came in December 1997, when he created The Fairly OddParents. The series originally started out as a series of shorts on the anthology show Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Eventually, Nickelodeon decided to pick the shorts up as a full series. Premiering in 2001, the adapted series ended up becoming a huge hit, second only in the ratings to SpongeBob SquarePants (and it briefly even passed SpongeBobTemplate:'s ratings). Following the third The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius crossover The Jimmy-Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators, the series ceased production in 2006, but it was announced on Hartman's forum on February 2, 2007, that 20 more episodes would be produced; the 6th season of Fairly OddParents aired on February 18, 2008, starting with the one-hour special Fairly OddBaby. From May 1, 2009, to May 3, 2009, the three-part special Wishology aired; although that too was originally intended as a series finaleTemplate:CN, the series was renewed for another season. A tenth season was eventually ordered in 2015. The Fairly OddParents is Nickelodeon's second longest-running animated show behind SpongeBob.

Due to the success of The Fairly OddParents, Hartman was asked to create another show for Nickelodeon; Hartman says the President of Nickelodeon asked him if he had an idea, and before he could say the title he was given the greenlight. The show would later become Danny Phantom. To produce the show, Hartman founded his own production company Billionfold Inc. in 2003, which he also used to produce his other projects. Danny Phantom received his furthest critical acclaim throughout his career, with Hartman himself acknowledging it as perhaps the best of his programs while acknowledging its cult following. Danny Phantom ended production in early 2007.

Around 2008–2009, Hartman began production his third show for Nickelodeon, T.U.F.F. Puppy, which premiered in 2010 alongside the Jimmy Neutron spin-off Planet Sheen. The series received mixed to positive reviews and ran for three seasons before being cancelled.

His final show, Bunsen Is a Beast, aired on Nickelodeon and Nicktoons from January 16, 2017, to February 10, 2018. On February 8, 2018, Hartman announced on his Twitter and YouTube accounts that he had left Nickelodeon as of February 2 after a 20-year run.

Other works

In 2015, Hartman launched a "kid-safe [online] network of live shows and cartoons" called The Noog Network.

In October 2017, Hartman launched the podcast Speech Bubble, on which he talks about pop culture. Several voice actors have appeared on the podcast, including Rob Paulsen, Tara Strong, Jerry Trainor, Grey Griffin, and Vic Mignogna. After initially posting excerpts on his primary YouTube channel, the podcast videos were later moved to its own dedicated YouTube channel, now including full episodes.

In June 2018, Hartman started a Kickstarter campaign for OAXIS Entertainment, a "family-friendly" streaming service. After the fundraising goal had been reached, it was revealed that OAXIS was planned to be a Christian-themed network, which was not disclosed during the fundraiser. However, Hartman later claimed that, while faith would continue to be a part of his personal life, OAXIS would not be a faith-based service. As of 2024, Hartman has yet to give any updates on OAXIS.

On June 22, 2019, Hartman released the animated web series HobbyKids Adventures. This series, produced by PocketWatch Inc., was created for YouTube channel HobbyKidsTV. On 13 July, Hartman released a book, Mad Hustle, which details the ins and outs of pitching and selling a show in Hollywood.

In 2019, Hartman created the Christian animated web series The Garden, which he co-produced with his wife Julieann. Hartman has planned at least two seasons of the series and plan to launch a subscription-based app for The Garden in late 2022. Hartman's further plans for the property include creating a VBS curriculum for churches and illustrating a children's Bible published by Thomas Nelson, titled The Garden Children's Bible, which stars the characters from The Garden and is scheduled to release in 2023. The series premiered on Pure Flix on January 1, 2023.

In February 2021, Hartman was accused of plagiarism when he published his commissioned artwork of Attack on Titan character Mikasa Ackerman, in which similarities were noted to a 2018 artwork of a Japanese artist. The artist confirmed Hartman did not receive permission.

Hartman was credited as an executive producer on The Fairly OddParents revival series The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder and The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish.

Personal life

As of 2024, Hartman lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia Hartman. He also has three younger brothers. Hartman is an openly devout born-again Christian and young-Earth creationist, converting in 2000 after hearing a sermon by Frederick K. C. Price.

In 2005, Hartman, along with his wife, co-founded Hartman House, a non-profit organization which supports those in developing nations, as well as poverty stricken areas in the United States. By 2017, Hartman House has built two homes for families in Guatemala, fed nearly 7,200 families with Thanksgiving meals in the U.S., and funded aid projects for orphanages in Uganda and Haiti. At Hartman House events, Hartman usually draws and autographs items related to his work for children.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	An American Tail		In between artist
1992	California Hot Wax	Eddie	Credited as "Shiloh Pettibone"
1994	Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights		Character designer
1995	Pocahontas		Video reference cast
1997	Annabelle's Wish		Storyboard artist Direct-to-video
1998	Adventures in Odyssey: Baby Daze		Storyboard artist
	Adventures in Odyssey: A Stranger Among Us		Storyboard artist
2006	Doogal		Writer and Voice Director
2011	A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!	Waiter	Writer and executive producer
2012	A Fairly Odd Christmas	Christmas Caroler, GingerFred, GingerEd, GingerNed and GingerJed	Writer and executive producer
2014	A Fairly Odd Summer	Crazy Guy	Writer and executive producer

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour	Contestant
1985	Body Language	Contestant
1985–1986	It's Punky Brewster		Models
1987	Growing Pains	Robert Jordan	Episode: "Michaelgate"
1988	Just the Ten of Us	Rod Grossman	Episode: "Close Encounters"
	Police Academy		Models
1988–1989	Days of Our Lives	Henry Jake	7 episodes
1989	Dink, the Little Dinosaur		Storyboard artist
1990	Piggsburg Pigs!		Key model designer
1990–1991	Generations	Sean Masters	16 episodes
1991–1993	Tom & Jerry Kids		Character designer
1993	Droopy, Master Detective		Designer
1995	What a Cartoon!		Creator: "Pfish & Chip", & "Gramps"; writer/director "Hillbilly Blue"
1996–1999	Jumanji		Storyboard artist: 3 episodes
1996–1997	Dexter's Laboratory		Storyboard artist/background designer/layout artist
1996–1998	The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper		Storyboard artist
1996	Timon & Pumbaa		Storyboard artist: "Beast of Eden", 1 episode, credited as Elmer Hartman
1997–1999	Johnny Bravo		Storyboard artist/writer: story/director
1997	Cow & Chicken		Models/storyboard artist
1997	I Am Weasel		Models/storyboard artist
1997	101 Dalmatians: The Series		Character/storyboard design
1997	The Weird Al Show	Pizza delivery guy	Episode: "Bad Influence"
1998–2002	Oh Yeah! Cartoons		Creator: "The Fairly OddParents" and "Dan Danger"; director/producer: "Terry and Chris"; director/storyboard artist: "Zoomates"
1999–2002	Family Guy	Jonathan Weed (pilot pitch only) / Additional voices	8 episodes
1999–2002	The New Woody Woodpecker Show		Storyboard artist: "Temper, Temper", 1 episode
2001–2017	The Fairly OddParents	Dr. Rip Studwell / Additional voices	Creator/story/writer/director/storyboard artist/voice actor/theme music composer/executive producer
2002	The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius		Writer: "See Jimmy Run"
2004–2007	Danny Phantom	Football Announcer 1 (episode: "What You Want")	Creator/story/writer/storyboard artist/voice actor/director/theme music composer/executive producer
2010–2015	T.U.F.F. Puppy	Agent Weaselman / Agent Rodentski / Escape Goat / TV Voice	Creator/story/music composer/voice actor/executive producer/writer/storyboard artist/director
2010–2013	Big Time Rush	Himself	Episode: "Big Time Cartoon" Guest animator on "Big Time Christmas"
2017–2018	Bunsen Is a Beast	Fido / Beast Ball / Pete / Memory Pete / Kitten	Creator/writer/storyboard artist/executive producer/theme music composer
2022	The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder		Executive producer
2024–present	The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish		Executive producer

Internet

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	The Fairly Odd Phantom		Internet short that reunites characters from all Butch Hartman shows created for Nickelodeon
2019–2020	HobbyKids Adventures	SlobbySnake (episode: "The Drawing Board")	Creator/executive producer/director/writer/designs/voice actor
2019	The Garden		Miniseries; Creator/story/writer/storyboard artist/director/executive producer
2023–present	The Garden	Mr. Toothacher / Cuckoo Charlie / Employee #101 / Various Animals	Creator/executive producer/director/story editor/writer/voice actor
2024	The Big Blue Book	Oven Mitt	Executive producer/director/writer/lyrics by/background designer/set designer

Written works

Year	Title	Publisher	ISBN	Notes	Template:Ref heading
2017	Butch Hartman: Sketchbook 1: Stuff I've drawn or am drawn to.	CreateSpace	Template:ISBNT	Author and illustrator
	3 O'Clock Club Vol. 1: School's Out... of Control!	ROAR Comics	Template:ISBNT	Co-author with Jordan B. Gorfinkel
2018	Vision: Possible!	CreateSpace	Template:ISBNT	Co-author with Julieann Hartman
2020	Hannah and the Beanstalk: A True Story of Faith	Harrison House Publishers	Template:ISBNT	Illustrator
	Mad Hustle: How to pitch & sell shows in Hollywood	CreateSpace	Template:ISBNT	Author
2023	The Garden Children's Bible	Thomas Nelson	Template:ISBNT	Illustrator

External links

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