The Fairly OddParents

The Fairly OddParents tells the story of a miserable 10-year-old boy named Timmy Turner who is neglected by his parents and abused by his babysitter, Vicky. One day, he is granted two fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, who grant his every wish to improve his miserable life. However, these wishes usually backfire and cause a series of problems that Timmy must fix. Earlier episodes of the series tend to revolve around Timmy trying to navigate his everyday life at home, at school and elsewhere in town with his friends, Chester and A.J. and occasionally his parents, while also trying to fix a wish gone awry and ultimately, learning a lesson in the end. Later in the series, Timmy wishes that Cosmo and Wanda would have a baby, whom they named Poof. Much later in the series, Timmy got a pet fairy dog named Sparky. Even later in the series, Timmy is informed that due to a shortage of available fairies, he must now share Cosmo and Wanda with his neighbor, Chloe Carmichael, who is essentially his polar opposite. Chloe loves sharing, animals, and everything that is ecologically friendly.

At the beginning of the series, Vicky was the main antagonist, but as the series progressed, many more villains were introduced, including: Denzel Crocker, Timmy's mentally-ill teacher who wishes to prove the world that fairies exist; Francis, the school bully; Remy Buxaplenty, a young billionaire child with a fairy godparent named Juandissimo Magnifico, who is set on getting rid of Timmy's fairy godparents due to his immense jealousy towards him for having two fairy godparents compared to his one; Dark Laser, a parody of Darth Vader, who wants to destroy Timmy and the Earth; The Pixies, who are known to wield as much power as fairies, but they treat their magical powers like a business. The Pixie's primary goal is to take control of Fairy World and the Earth; The Anti-fairies, who are similar to the actual fairies, but with polar opposite personalities and character traits. Anti-fairies are also known for causing bad luck; and Norm the Genie, who hatches plans to gain freedom from his lamp and get revenge on Timmy.

The Fairly OddParents is set in the fictional city of Dimmsdale, California. Dimmsdale has a sign on some mountains near the city that is a parody of the Hollywood Sign. In the episode, "Vicky Loses Her Icky", the Mayor of Dimmsdale unveils the "Welcome to Dimmsdale - Nicest Town on Earth!" sign. However, at the end of the episode, the President of the United States changes the word “Nicest” to “Meanest”. Dimmsdale appears to be average-sized, with a downtown containing large buildings, skyscrapers and a city hall, but also containing uptown areas with suburban residences (including the neighborhood where Timmy, his parents and his friends live) and businesses, such as Timmy's school; a hospital; a jail; a sports complex called, “The Dimmadome”, which is named after its founder and owner, Doug Dimmadome; a local TV channel and various restaurants and stores, as well as a park in the center of the city. Dimmsdale also appears to have rural farmland located outside of the city. The adults who live in Dimmsdale are notably moronic and often settle situations with things like angry mobs, but they do still manage to form a working and functioning society. In the episode, "Which Witch is Which?", it was revealed that Dimmsdale was founded in the 1660s and named after a man called Dale Dimm.

When the show needs to, it switches its location to Fairy World, the home of the fairies, which is a floating world located on top of some clouds and colored with an abundance of pink and purple. Fairy World is depicted as a large metropolis with houses, streets, different kinds of buildings and skyscrapers. Most buildings in Fairy World have crowns and stars above their roofs. The fairies have a civilization like that of humans, but with their primary source of power being magic, which also keeps their world afloat. A large rainbow acts as the bridge between Fairy World and the Earth, although the bridge seems to exist only for decoration since fairies teleport via magic to and from Earth. Fairy World is not actually a part of Earth but is depicted as a separate world in outer space located near Earth's orbit that can only be accessed by magic. Among the most notable landmarks in Fairy World is the glowing entrance sign on the other side of the rainbow bridge and the giant wand located in the center of Fairy World that powers the fairies' magic. Jorgen Von Strangle, who acts as the leader of the fairies and Fairy World is an enormous and tough fairy with an Austrian accent, similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jorgen personally dislikes Timmy at the beginning of the series but warms up to him over time.

Another location seen in the show is the city of Chincinatti, the home town of Timmy's favorite comic book superhero, the Crimson Chin. Other locations include the dark and twisted Anti-Fairy World, the dark counterpart of Fairy World where the Anti-fairies reside; the dull and gray metropolis of Pixies Inc., home of the Pixies; and Yugopotamia, another planet where Timmy's alien friend, Mark Chang, lived until the episode “New Squid in Town!” when Timmy invites Mark to live in the Dimmsdale junkyard in order to escape his evil fiancée, Princess Mandie.

Butch Hartman, the series' creator

A postcard for The Fairly OddParents segment on Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons

Prior to the creation of The Fairly OddParents, Butch Hartman was working at Cartoon Network on Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo. In 1997, Fred Seibert contacted Hartman about pitching ideas for his Oh Yeah! Cartoons series which he was developing for Nickelodeon, Hartman initially declined the offer. Several months later, Johnny Bravo finished and Hartman decided to create his own series instead of going back to working for other studios.[7]

Hartman started developing his own series by drawing a picture of a little boy who would become Timmy Turner. Hartman was originally going to name him Mike, after his brother Mike Hartman, but they had a fight that day, so Hartman named him after his other brother Timmy Hartman instead.[7] Hartman wanted Timmy to be able to go anywhere because he never wanted to be stuck for a story transition.[9] Hartman was originally going to give Timmy science powers, but decided against it due to Dexter's Laboratory having recently come out. Instead, he decided to give Timmy a magic friend. He drew Wanda first and then decided that she needs someone to talk to other than Timmy, and that was when he drew Cosmo.[7] After coming up with the entire premise for The Fairy OddParents in about fifteen minutes, Hartman first pitched the idea to Hanna-Barbera and then to Cartoon Network, both of whom turned it down. Hartman then went back to Seibert at Nickelodeon and successfully pitched it to them for Oh Yeah! Cartoons.[7]

While in early development, the series was titled The Fairy GodParents and then it was briefly changed to Oh My GodParents.[10] Bill Burnett came up with the title The Fairly OddParents, which they ended up sticking with.[11] Hartman originally created The Fairly OddParents as a seven-minute short film, which was one of the thirty-nine short cartoons created for Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Hartman made ten more seven-minute short films of The Fairly OddParents in total for Oh Yeah! Cartoons, which aired on Nickelodeon from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001.[11] Due to the success of the shorts, Nickelodeon decided to pick up The Fairly OddParents for a full-length series alongside fellow Oh Yeah! Cartoons: ChalkZone and My Life as a Teenage Robot. In 2000, Nickelodeon ordered seven twenty-three-minute episodes for the series' first season, which premiered on March 30, 2001[11] in the half-hour before fellow Nicktoon Invader Zim made its debut.[8]

Unlike the later series, the animation in the original shorts is not as smooth and the designs are notably different (including Timmy's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Turner, who are only seen from the neck down with their faces hidden in the pilot episodes and appear to be more intelligent than they appeared to be in the proceeding series, yet still easily duped by Vicky's abhorrent actions). Other notable differences include the voices like Timmy Turner, who was voiced by Mary Kay Bergman rather than Tara Strong. Cosmo is significantly more intelligent than he appears to be in the proceeding series while Wanda is shown to be ditzy. Vicky is also much less evil than in the current series; she also calls Timmy by his name as opposed to the more often used "twerp".

Upon its premiere, The Fairly OddParents was immediately popular and quickly became the second-highest-rated children's program among kids ages 2–11 on both network and cable television, behind Nick's own SpongeBob SquarePants.[12][13] The series managed to briefly steal SpongeBob's spot as the number one highest rated children's television program in mid-2003.[12][13] The Fairly OddParents also attracted a wide audience, appealing to kids as well as to teenagers and adults, with 14.2 million kids 2-11 tuning in each week, 10.8 million adult viewers per week and was the number one series on television among tween audiences (9-14).[13][14]

On January 24, 2006, Hartman announced on his forum that Nickelodeon had ceased production of the show. "The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators" is the fifth-season finale in production order and was intended to be the series finale, airing on July 21, 2006. However, Nickelodeon broadcast the episode "Timmy the Barbarian/No Substitute for Crazy" after "The Jerkinators" as the fifth-season finale in airing order, on November 25 of that year.

On February 2, 2007, Hartman announced on his forum that Nick granted The Fairly OddParents twenty more episode slots, making sure the show resumed production. Later on July 7, 2007, a special titled 77 Secrets of the Fairly OddParents Revealed hinted that a new character would join the series.[15]

After a one-year hiatus, Nickelodeon announced that they would begin the sixth season, which would consist of twelve episodes alongside the broadcast of a television film called Fairly OddBaby, which introduced a new character, a baby fairy named Poof, to the main cast of characters.[17] A huge hit, Fairly OddBaby aired on February 18, 2008, and garnered 8.89 million viewers for its premiere; the rebroadcast of the film the following day garnered 4.82 million viewers, making it the number one and ninth most viewed cable broadcast respectively for the week of February 18–24, 2008.[18]

To honor the 10th anniversary of The Fairly OddParents, a live-action television film titled, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, premiered on July 9, 2011.[19] The film is set 13 years after the animated series and stars Drake Bell as a 23-year-old Timmy Turner, who is trying his hardest not to grow up in order to prevent losing his fairy godparents, and Daniella Monet as Tootie, who has grown into a mature and beautiful activist with whom Timmy falls in love.[20] The premiere of the movie attracted 5.8 million viewers and it was the top-rated television broadcast on cable networks for the week of July 10–16, 2011, and ranked as "2011's Top Original TV Movie on Basic Cable with Kids and Total Viewers".[21]

The success of A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! spawned two sequels: A Fairly Odd Christmas and A Fairly Odd Summer, which premiered on November 29, 2012,[22] and August 2, 2014[23] respectively. Drake Bell and Daniella Monet reprised their respective roles in both of the sequels.[23][24]

The ninth season of The Fairly OddParents began with a television special titled "Fairly OddPet", which premiered on March 23, 2013 and attracted 3.8 million viewers.[25] The ninth season's official run began on May 4, 2013.[26] Season nine introduced a new character, Timmy's pet fairy dog Sparky, to the show's main cast.[26] Season nine contained twenty-six episodes, making it the longest season in the series. It is also the first season to be formatted in both high definition and widescreen.

The tenth season of The Fairly OddParents began with a special called "The Big Fairy Share Scare!", which introduced another new main character named Chloe Carmichael, Timmy's neighbor who he is forced to share Cosmo and Wanda with due to a fairy shortage.[27] The tenth season aired from January 15, 2016, to July 26, 2017, on both Nickelodeon and Nicktoons. The visuals and lyrics for the theme song were changed for season ten in order to include Chloe; however, it still contained the same rhythm and melody as the original theme song.[16] Also in season 10, the show's animation made the transition from traditional animation to Flash animation. The animation for season ten was done by Elliot Animation Studios in Canada, whereas all of the prior seasons were animated by Yeson Animation Studios in South Korea.[16] Sparky was completely absent from season ten, with no in-universe explanation for his disappearance. Poof was absent throughout most of season 10 as well, but returned in the episode "Certifiable Super Sitter".

Betsy Wallace from Common Sense Media gave the series 3 of 5 stars saying, “Nickelodeon airs some of the most creative and expertly animated cartoons on television, and it has another winner with The Fairly OddParents.”[31]

Dennis Cass from Slate Magazine favorably compared the series' writing to that of Animaniacs and praised the series' broad appeal.[13]

Four video games have been released based on the series. The first video game, The Fairly OddParents: Enter the Cleft! was released exclusively for the Game Boy Advance on November 6, 2002 in North America.[60][61] The second video game, The Fairly OddParents: Breakin' da Rules was released for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows exclusively in North America on November 3, 2003. The third video game, The Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown was released for Microsoft Windows, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance on September 8, 2004 in North America. The fourth video game, Fairly Odd Parents: Clash with the Anti-World was released exclusively for the Game Boy Advance on October 17, 2005.[62][63]

The show was featured in most Nicktoons crossover video games, including Nicktoons Basketball released for Windows PCs on September 11, 2004, Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy was released for the Game Boy Advance on September 20, 2004, Nicktoons Movin' was released for the PlayStation 2 on October 21, 2004, the 2005 video game Nicktoons Unite was released for the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and Nintendo DS, Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing was released for Windows PCs on February 15, 2006, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island was released for the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and Nintendo DS on October 24, 2006, and Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots was released for the Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, Wii, and Nintendo DS on October 23, 2007. The show was also featured in an arcade racing game, Nicktoons Nitro, released on November 10, 2009.[64]

Timmy Turner and his alter ego, Cleft the Boy Chin Wonder, are playable characters in the official mobile game Nickelodeon Super Brawl Universe.

Photograph of the Fairly Odd Coaster ride at the Nickelodeon Universe Mall of America

There are 3 attraction rides based the show in total at Nickelodeon Universe in American Dream and Mall of America. Fairly Odd Coaster, located in Mall of America and formerly known as Timberland Twister in 2004, is a spinning roller coaster themed to the show that opened in 2007. In American Dream, there are 2 attraction rides themed to the show titled Fairly Odd Airways, designed for toddlers, and Timmy's Half-Pipe Havoc, a half-pipe roller coaster suitable for all ages, both opened on October 25, 2019.

All seasons of the show were available to stream exclusively on NickHits (through Prime Video, Apple TV Channels, and Roku), and on CBS All Access in July 2020.

The Fairly OddParents' popularity during its run saw a rise in a line-up of merchandises, including board games, collectible figures, plush toys, and more. The show was also included in promotional kids' meal tie-ins from Burger King[65] and Wendy's, along with brands from Kraft, Nabisco, and Popsicle.

In 2004, Palisades Toys released a line of collectible Fairly OddParents figures.[66]

In 2012, a toy company called Jazwares released some Fairly OddParents figures and plushies as part of the Nicktoons toy line.[67][68]

A line of The Fairly OddParents shirts were made available at Hot Topic, Kohl's, and Amazon as part of their licensed Nickelodeon Rewind merchandise collection.[69]

American rapper Desiigner premiered a track titled "Tiimmy Turner" on July 21, 2016 based on the character Timmy Turner.