“The Fairly Oddparents” Creator Butch Hartman Shares the First Drawing of His Beloved Characters from 30 Years Ago
- - “The Fairly Oddparents” Creator Butch Hartman Shares the First Drawing of His Beloved Characters from 30 Years Ago
Angela AndaloroJanuary 28, 2026 at 6:47 AM
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Butch Hartman (left), early "Fairly Oddparents" art
Chris Weeks/WireImage; Butch Hartman/Twitter
Butch Hartman was enjoying success on shows like Johnny Bravo before working with Nickelodeon
After shorts like Oh Yeah! Cartoons became hits, Hartman was able to develop The Fairly Oddparents into its own series
The animated series ran from 2001 through 2017
Five years before the world was introduced to The Fairly Oddparents, Butch Hartman got his vision for the show's characters.
The creator behind the beloved animated series shared a photo on Instagram of his first-ever drawing of Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda. At the time, the characters had some subtle differences from how we know them today, including the fact that he referred to the latter two as "fairy godparents," another indicator that the idea was still in its infancy.
"First drawing ever. Almost 30 years ago. The experiences since have been amazing," Hartman wrote alongside the drawing, which he shared on X.
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First drawing ever. Almost 30 years ago. The experiences since have been amazing. https://t.co/Trbn6kwvRK pic.twitter.com/eKCFE9BANE
— Butch Hartman (@FairlyOddFather) January 23, 2026
The world first got a glimpse of The Fairly Oddparents as part of Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons. The shorts were a hit, leading to the show being greenlit as its own series.
The Fairly Oddparents ran on Nickelodeon from 2001 through 2017, making it the second-longest-running animated show for the network behind SpongeBob SquarePants.
Concept art. Marker on paper. Only the 2nd drawing ever done. Drawn in 1997. #FairlyOddParents pic.twitter.com/hV6bHci5J5
— Butch Hartman (@FairlyOddFather) January 4, 2026
Hartman recently looked back at the beginnings of The Fairly Oddparents as he honored Guy Moon after his sudden death at 63 earlier this month.
"To say that [Guy] was a huge part of my career journey is an understatement. He wasn’t just a part of it; he was fused with it. There’s no Butch Hartman Show without Guy Moon. His music was involved in everything - and I mean EVERYTHING – I’ve ever done professionally. Every episode, every song, every note. It was all him," he wrote.
"I first met him in 1996 at Cartoon Network while working on Johnny Bravo. His amazing attitude, kindness, warmth, overall sense of fun – not to mention the INCREDIBLE musical talent he possessed – were evident right from the start. From there, he worked on the original pilot for The Fairly Oddparents in 1997, all the way through its entire run until 2018."
He continued, "Not only did he score EVERY EPISODE, he was responsible for some of the most classic hits from ‘ICKY VICKY’ to ‘MY SHINY TEETH AND ME’. The incredible thing was, while Fairly Oddparents was still running, I handed him a brand-new show called Danny Phantom. It was completely different but that was no problem for him. He slid into it so effortlessly, it almost seemed unreal. He helped me compose the classic theme song and he did the score for, yes, EVERY SINGLE episode. Keep in mind, he was doing Fairly Oddparents the entire time as well. But this is how gifted people do things: they make it look easy to us mere mortals."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
