fairly odd parents

The Fairly OddParents is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman. It is shown on the children's television station Nickelodeon, and is also shown internationally. It is currently one of the most popular shows on Nickelodeon, second only to SpongeBob SquarePants, with a TV-Y rating. The television series was produced by Frederator Studios for the Nickelodeon cable channel, and distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company Nelvana.

Characters

Main article: List of The Fairly OddParents characters

Cast

• Tara Strong: Timmy Turner
• Daran Norris: Cosmo/Mr. Turner/Jorgen Von Strangle
• Susan Blakeslee: Mrs. Turner/Wanda
• Grey DeLisle: Vicky/Principal Waxelplax
• Carlos Alazraqui: Denzel Q. Crocker
• Jay Leno: The Crimson Chin
• Dionne Quan: Trixie Tang
• Dee Bradley Baker: Elmer/Sanjay
• Frankie Muniz: Chester McBadbat (2001-2003)
• Jason Marsden: Chester McBadbat (2003-2006)
• Ibrahim Haneef Muhammad: A.J. (2001-2003)
• Gary LeRoi Gray: A.J. (2003-2006)
• Faith S. Abrahams: Francis
• Jim Ward: Chet Ubetcha

Plot

The show is set in the fictional town of Dimmsdale, which is generally shown to be in northern California (although in "Fairy Idol", it was shown that Dimmsdale was located in Southern California) but also reflects the creator's hometown in Michigan. It should also be noted that episodes have had time travel to both Wild West and Colonial (East Coast) Dimmsdale. It follows the day-to-day life of 10-year-old Timmy Turner. An only child, Timmy is often preyed upon by such adversaries as his evil babysitter, Vicky, his maniacal fairy-obsessed teacher, Mr. Crocker, the school bully Francis, and various magical creatures: Mama Cosma (Cosmo's mother), Jorgen Von Strangle, Norm the Genie, and The Pixies.

Just as his situation was particularly grim, he was granted a pair of fairy godparents, named Cosmo and Wanda, who had the power to grant his wishes and were charged with making Timmy happy. Unfortunately, Cosmo is somewhat slow and dumb, and the two often come up with strange dangerous ideas; although well meaning, their wishes often go awry. Wanda, Cosmo's more sensible (and somewhat sarcastic) wife (although occasionally out of rage she will create wacky plans), must devote her time to ensuring both Timmy's and Cosmo's safety. These Fairly OddParents (a pun on "fairy godparents"), mindful of their secretive existence, disguise themselves as various animals and objects in public, always with the same peculiar colors to identify the two: Cosmo is always a light green, and Wanda is always a light pink. The only exception is when they become goldfish; only their eyes stay the same. Other than Timmy, no-one seems to notice green and pink talking birds, or pillows with faces and gold crowns.

Most episodes end with a deus ex machina, because Timmy has fairy godparents that grant wishes for him. Many episode plots are resolved by Timmy yelling, "I wish everything was back to normal!" or something very similar, with the occasional tag line, "...and no one remembered any of this."

Most episodes of the show consists of two cartoons (each approximately 11 minutes long). Some of them have one cartoon (22 minutes long). A few episodes that contained a collection of the Oh Yeah! shorts were also aired, containing 3 cartoons.

The show's humor features run-on and children's jokes to appeal to the younger audience, but also has sarcastic and word-wise jokes as well as non-explicit sex references or innuendo ("Now it's time to copy Dad's magazines!" , a nod to MAD Magazine) to appeal to teens and adults as well.

Dimmsdale Elementary School is the elementary school that the children attend, the only other schools ever shown are Snerd Elementary School and the FUN Academy.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Fairly OddParents episodes

Production

History

The Fairly OddParents first aired as a short film on Oh Yeah! Cartoons in 1998, which aired some ten episodes of the original show. Oh Yeah! Cartoons was cancelled in 2001, but Nickelodeon offered to pick up the franchise. This offer was accepted by creator Butch Hartman. The show began airing its own full-length episodes as its own series on March 31, 2001, alongside Invader ZIM. On April 11, 2006, Nickelodeon UK aired all nine Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts in three episodes, which includes a different voice actor for Timmy, and the faces of Timmy's parents Mr. and Mrs. Turner are unseen. These stories include "Where's the Wand" in which Vicky uses Wanda's wand, and "Too Many Timmys" in which Timmy makes copies of himself. Each pilot episode lasts for about seven minutes, and the drawings were very crude, and the up-and-down animation of the floating godparents was slower and rougher. After a run of new episodes aired in 2004-2005, Nickelodeon finally decided to remove "The Fairly OddParents" from its listings, and the show is currently ending at episode 83. The series officially ended on July 21, 2006, and has aired 83 episodes in the United States. As of now, the last episode was pronounced to be Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3. It was produced by Frederator Studios.

Popularity

Although The Fairly OddParents was not very popular in its first year, it began to catch on later, attracting both a child and adult fan base. SpongeBob SquarePants was the only thing keeping The Fairly OddParents from becoming Nickelodeon's most highly rated show at this point.

Early 2003 was the peak of popularity for The Fairly OddParents. Its ratings were extremely high, and it very briefly passed SpongeBob SquarePants. The show saw its very quick rise to the top and fall in summer of 2003 when the show's first TV movie, Abra-Catastrophe!, was aired. The film was a success and many products were merchandised.

After Abra-Catastrophe!, creator Butch Hartman created a new project for Nickelodeon called Danny Phantom.

A second Fairly OddParents TV movie was made, titled Channel Chasers. Since then, there have been other specials, like The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker, The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour, Crash Nebula, The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2: When Nerds Collide, School's Out: The Musical, Fairy Idol, and The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators. These movies did spark a short resurgence in FOP's popularity, but its ratings soon began to gradually fall again.

After the lower rated 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, Nickelodeon ceased the production of the show late in 2005, with The Jerkinators as the final episode. Butch Hartman made the official announcement on his forum on January 24, 2006.

Trivia

• In the first episode, Cosmo's voice is different – he has a lower and much more mature voice, similar to that of a traditional radio announcer's, though he was voiced by Daran Norris then too. Timmy's voice was dubbed for re-running on the show (it was originally an Oh Yeah! Cartoons episode), because he was voiced by a different actor.
• Timmy the Barbarian/No Substitute for Crazy and Fairy Idol both aired in the United Kingdom before the United States.
• Originally, the show was called "The Fairy Godparents." Next, Butch decided for "Oh My Godparents." Finally, Bill Burnett, the creator of ChalkZone, recommended the title we know today.
• In one episode, Timmy is playing a basketball game on his V-cube, which is similar to the Nintendo GameCube. The sound made when he scores a point matches the power-up sound made whenever Mario picks up a power-up in Super Mario Bros.
• Some episodes show the names of the series crew, including the episode "The Crimson Chin Meets Mighty Mom and Dyno Dad," in which a street sign bears the names "Hartman" and "Marmel," the surnames of series creators Butch Hartman and Steve Marmel.

Pop-culture references

• Every time Timmy Turner wishes himself to Fairy World, he will end up on an intersection named after a pop culture duo, such as Penn & Teller, Hall & Oates, or Siegfried & Roy.
• In the episode "Something's Fishy," Wet Willie is a parody of the DC Comics hero Aquaman. The King of Atlantis also says later that the Atlantians eat "crabs, starfish, and the occasional underwater squirrel," and coughs up a squirrel tail. This is in reference to Spongebob's friend Sandy in Nickelodeon show SpongeBob SquarePants.
• In the episode "Power Mad," when Cosmo & Wanda act out T.V. programs, there were many pop-culture references, there is a logo on the bottom left corner of the screen with techno music, and Cosmo is on stage, and says, "It's a show about nothing... how will we know when it's over?", a nod to Seinfeld. Also Cosmo and Wanda star in a fictional series called I Love Wanda, which is obviously a spoof of I Love Lucy. He even quotes Ricky Ricardo, yelling, "Wanda! You got some 'splainin' to do!"
• In the episode "The Good Ol' Days," a parody of Popeye is shown on Timmy's TV. This character is called Pokeye, and he eats beets to make him stronger, similar to Popeye's eating spinach. Also, when Timmy wished that they were in an old cartoon, there are many references to Mickey Mouse: Timmy and Cosmo are wearing the same clothes as Mickey (same gloves, two button shorts, and shoes), and Wanda is wearing the same dress as Minnie. There is also a woman at the hot dog stand who is a reference to Betty Boop. Peg Foot Vicky is a reference to Peg Leg Pete in the old Mickey Mouse cartoons.
• In the episode "It's a Wishful Life," a girl in Mr. Crocker's class blinks to reveal the words "Love You" written on her eyelids. This is a reference to the film Raiders of the Lost Ark in which a girl in Dr. Jones's archaeology class does the same.
• There are also recurring references to Star Wars, Batman, and Spider-man.
• In the episode "Power Pals," the logo seen on the Power Pals' computer screen is quite similar to the Mac OS logo.

In other media

• Cosmo and Wanda have been mascots for Nickelodeon for a while and have appeared in Got Milk? commercials.
• The Fairly OddParents are now appearing in a $50 Best Western travel card over the 2006 summer period. ^[1].

Awards

• 2004 Annie Award for Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production for the episode "Pipe Down" (Dave Thomas, storyboard artist)

External links

• The Fairly OddParents at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Fairly OddParents at TVRage.com
• The fairly OddParents Page on Nick.com