Butch Hartman

Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, writer, producer, director, voice actor, and YouTuber. He is best known for creating Nickelodeon's "The Fairly OddParents", "Danny Phantom", "T.U.F.F. Puppy", and "Bunsen Is a Beast". Hartman also owns a production company, Billionfold Inc., which he uses primarily to produce his shows. Hartman was an executive producer on "The Fairly OddParents" for the entirety of its 16-year run.
On February 8, 2018, Hartman announced in a YouTube video that he had left Nickelodeon on February 2 after having worked at the studio since December 1997; he confirmed that this resulted in the end of production on "Bunsen Is a Beast" after just one season. Hartman's latest animated program, "HobbyKids Adventures", premiered on YouTube in 2019.
Early life.
Hartman was born in Highland Park, Michigan. He received the nickname Butch as a young boy and continued to use the name professionally 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. As a young student he appeared on "The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour" winning 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 make the shorts "Pfish and Chip" and "Gramps" for the "What a Cartoon! Show". 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 on the "Oh Yeah! Cartoons" show for Nickelodeon.
During his time working at Hanna-Barbera, he became friends 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 few seasons.
Working at Nickelodeon.
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 "SpongeBob"s ratings). Following the third "" 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 1-hour special "Fairly OddBaby". From May 1, 2009 to May 3, 2009, the 3-part special "Wishology" aired; although that too was originally intended as a series finale, 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, in 2003, Hartman founded his own production company Billionfold Inc., which he also used, and still uses today, to produce his other projects. "Danny Phantom" received critical acclaim and is considered Hartman's best show, with Hartman himself acknowledging it as perhaps the best of his programs. "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 3 seasons before being cancelled.
His fourth 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.
In late February 2018, Hartman revealed in a video released on his YouTube channel that "The Fairly OddParents" was canceled and renewed five times by Nickelodeon. He said that the reason for the series' back-and-forth cancellation and renewal was because it was not as popular as "SpongeBob SquarePants", yet it still performed better in ratings than any other animated show on the network.
Future projects.
After Hartman announced his departure from Nickelodeon, he additionally announced that he was working on new projects to be released in the future. He announced that he is working on a show called "Elf Detective" for his YouTube channel as well as multiple projects with PocketWatch, Inc. On June 18, 2018, he launched a Kickstarter campaign for his own streaming service for family-focused entertainment called OAXIS. It successfully reached its goal of $250,000 on July 18, 2018.
Other works.
In 2015, Hartman launched a "kid-safe [online] network of live shows and cartoons" called the Noog Network.
In October 2017, Hartman started a podcast called "Speech Bubble" with his co-host Jace Diehl, on which they talk about cartoons, movies, pop culture, and various other topics. 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.
On June 22, 2019, Hartman's latest animated series, "HobbyKids Adventures", premiered. 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 on pitching and selling a show in Hollywood.
In recent years, particularly after his departure from Nickelodeon, Hartman has been involved in multiple controversies. After the fundraising goal for OAXIS Entertainment had been reached, a video was spread online in which he stated the network was meant to be specifically a Christian streaming service, which was never disclosed on the page. However, he later clarified that while faith would continue to be a part of his life, OAXIS would not be a faith-based service.
In 2021, Hartman was accused of plagiarism when he published his commissioned artwork of "Attack on Titan" character Mikasa Ackerman, in which similarities were noted towards a 2018 artwork of a Japanese artist. The artist confirmed they had not given permission to Hartman, who had uploaded the artwork to Twitter, and has not Tweeted since.
Personal life.
Hartman currently lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia Hartman. He also has three younger brothers.
Hartman is also 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, founded Hartman House, a non-profit organization that supports those in developing nations, as well as some of the most poverty stricken areas in the United States.