Butch Hartman

Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, executive producer, animation director, storyboard artist, producer, and creator of the animated series, The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom.

Childhood
Hartman was born in Highland Park, Michigan to Elmer Earl Hartman III and Carol Davis. He received the nickname "Butch" as a youth and continues to use the name professionally as an adult. Hartman spent his childhood in Roseville, Michigan and his teen years in New Baltimore, Michigan. He graduated from Anchor Bay High School in New Baltimore in 1983. He subsequently attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.

Early career
While still attending the California Institute of the Arts, Hartman received the chance to intern as an in-between animator on the Don Bluth film, "An American Tail". Shortly after graduating for the California Institute of the Arts Hartman was hired as a character designer for the animated series "My Little Pony". Instead, they had him working on storyboards (which he hadn't done before) and as quickly as he was hired, he was fired. Soon after Hartman found work with Ruby Spears, where he worked on "It's Punky Brewster", "Dink the Dinosaur" and "Police Academy the cartoon series". He was also a video reference crew for the Disney movie, Pocahontas. Later, he became a writer, television director and storyboard artist for several Hanna-Barbera shows, including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken. After his contract with Hanna-Barbera finished up he went to work with former co-worker Fred Seibert on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons show.

He is also a friend of Seth MacFarlane and designed and directed on MacFarlane's animated short "Zoomates." MacFarlane also has a character on Family Guy named after Hartman: named Dr. Elmer Hartman. Hartman currently lives in Bell Canyon, California, with his wife, Julieann, and daughters, Carly and Sophia.

The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom
His biggest success came in 1997, when he created The Fairly OddParents. (The idea came to him during the drive from Hanna-Barbara to Nickelodeon to pitch an idea to Fred Seibert.) It was originally a series of made for TV shorts on the anthology show, Oh Yeah! Cartoons. In 2001, Nickelodeon picked it up as a full series. The Fairly OddParents became a huge hit, second only in the ratings to SpongeBob SquarePants. Due to the success of "OddParents", Hartman was asked to create another cartoon 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 a contract.) Danny Phantom, in 2004.

The Fairly OddParents ceased production in 2006, but it was announced on Hartman's website on February 2, 2007 that 20 more episodes will be produced. On July 11, 2007, the first new episode of Danny Phantom was aired on the Nicktoons Network. Danny Phantom ended production on August 24, 2007. The 6th Season of The Fairly OddParents aired on February 18, 2008, starting with the 1-hour special Fairly Odd Baby. On May 1, 2009 to May 3, 2009, the brand new special Wishology aired.

Doogal
Hartman was asked to serve as executive producer and screenwriter of Doogal, the Americanized dub of the British/French animated film The Magic Roundabout. Seeing that the movie itself was lacking, Hartman proposed that in addition to dubbing, extra scenes be filmed in live action to fill up empty spaces in the story. While the idea was originally received with praise and was essentially given the okay, budgeting was pulled from it at the last minute and the only changes made were in the dubbing.

The film was then dubbed by The Weinstein Company, and was released on February 24, 2006. Doogal was poorly received by critics, and did poorly in the box-office, grossing $7 million dollars and getting 7% on Rotten Tomatoes.

T.U.F.F. Puppy
Hartman's newest show, T.U.F.F. Puppy premiered on October 2, 2010, after the premier of Planet Sheen.

Other works
His other TV work includes voicing various characters on the animated series Family Guy and playing the character Sean Masters on the short-lived series Generations in 1991. He also appeared on the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives during the late 1980s.

Hartman House
Hartman also founded a non-profit organization in 2005, Hartman House along with his wife, Julieann Hartman, who is the Co-Founder of the organization. Hartman House travels to developing nations and some of the most poverty stricken areas in the United States.

Hartman House has built two homes for families in Guatemala, fed nearly 7200 families with Thanksgiving meals in the U.S., and is in the midst of funding a school in Africa. Hartman uses his talent to draw and autograph pictures of his animated shows for hundreds of children at these events.