The Cartoon Network Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Butch-hartman

Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, executive producer, animation director, storyboard artist, voice actor, occasional singer, writer, and actor. He's the creator of the animated series The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom and T.U.F.F. Puppy. He heads the production company Billionfold, Inc., which produces the three aforementioned programs.

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.

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 had not 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 and Dink, the Little Dinosaur. He was also a part of the video reference crew for the Disney movie, Pocahontas.

In the mid-1990s he was hired at Hanna-Barbera Studios and created 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 "What a Cartoon!" shorts that got turned into series, including Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel and The Powerpuff Girls. After his contract with Hanna-Barbera finished up he went to work with former co-worker Fred Seibert on the Oh Yeah! Cartoons show.

While working at Hanna-Barbera, he became friends with future Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. Hartman later designed and directed MacFarlane's 1998 animated short "Zoomates", for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. MacFarlane also has a character on Family Guy named after him: Dr. Elmer Hartman.

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) which would later become Danny Phantom. To produce that show, in 2004, Hartman created Billionfold Studios. Billionfold also produced another Hartman cartoon for Nickelodeon, T.U.F.F. Puppy, which premiered on October 2, 2010.

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1985–1986 It's Punky Brewster models
1987 Growing Pains Robert Jordan Episode 3.5: "Michaelgate"
1988 Just the Ten of Us Rod Grossman Episode 1.4: "Close Encounters"
Police Academy (TV Series) models
1988–1989 Days of Our Lives Henry
Jake
1989 Dink, the Little Dinosaur storyboard artist
1990 Piggsburg Pigs! key model designer
1991–1993 Tom & Jerry Kids character designer
1993 Droopy, Master Detective designer
1995 What a Cartoon! creator: "Pfish & Chip" and "Gramps"
1996–1997 Dexter's Laboratory storyboard artist/background designer/layout artist
1997–1999 Johnny Bravo writer/director
1997 Cow and Chicken models
1997 I Am Weasel models
1998 The Powerpuff Girls storyboard artist/layout artist
1998–2001 Oh Yeah! Cartoons creator: "The Fairly OddParents" and "Dan Danger", director/storyboard artist: "Zoomates"
1999–2002 Family Guy additional voices
2001–present The Fairly OddParents Dr. Rip Studwell creator/executive producer
2003 Pet Star Judge Episode 1.11
2004–2007 Danny Phantom creator/executive producer
2010–present T.U.F.F. Puppy Agent Weaselman
Agent Rodentski
creator/executive producer
2013 Big Time Rush guest star

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1986 An American Tail in between artist
1992 California Hot Wax Eddie
1995 Pocahontas video reference cast
1997 Annabelle's Wish storyboard artist
Direct-to-video film
1998 Adventures in Odyssey: Baby Daze storyboard artist
Adventures in Odyssey: A Stranger Among Us storyboard artist
2004 Channel Chasers animator for "Channel 297" scene
2005 The Magic Roundabout writer: United States screenplay
2011 A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! Waiter writer: series and characters
2012 A Fairly Odd Christmas Christmas caroler writer: series and characters
Advertisement