‘Fairly OddParents’ and ‘Danny Phantom’ Creator Explains Why He Is Leaving Nickelodeon

If you’ve watched Nickelodeon in the last 20 years, you’re well acquainted with Butch Hartman’s work, and now he’s letting fans know why he chose to leave.

Hartman has been with Nickelodeon since 1998, creating shows like Danny Phantom, Fairly OddParents, and his most recent show Bunsen is a Beast. He’s recently announced his departure from the company and recorded a video to share why with fans.

“I am leaving Nickelodeon,” Hartman said. “This is not clickbait. This is not a joke. This is completely 100% serious. I have reached a decision and it’s just time to go. These things happen with careers in Hollywood sometimes, and I’m certainly not the first person ever to leave a studio, and certainly won’t be the last, but it’s the first time for me.”

20 years is a long time, and Hartman made sure to let fans know it wasn’t anything to do with Nickelodeon itself.

“I never had a job this long at one place,” Hartman said. “A lot of you are probably very young. You’re probably not even 20 years old yet, and just to imagine being at one job for 20 years is probably a little hard to imagine but when you get to be my age and you’ve had a career as long as I have it can be pretty interesting to be at a job at one studio for so long, and I must tell you I’ve had the time of my life at Nickelodeon. I’ve never been disappointed. I’ve never been let down. I’ve been treated extremely well by everybody there. This is not a video to diss on Nickelodeon or to trash them or anything because they’ve just been fantastic.”

Hartman also revealed what that means for his newest show, Bunsen.

“The future of Bunsen right now it’s only been one season,” Hartman said. “It’s one season of Bunsen and we’re done, and that was a hard decision to make, to walk away from a show like that because it was working so well, but you know what, like I said, I just knew it was time.”

While he’s leaving Nickelodeon, Hartman is going to stay extremely busy and wanted fans to know a few of the things he will be doing in the future.

“So I am still going to be making animation,” Hartman said. “I’m going to keep selling shows. I’ve got my own app the Noog Network. I do all kinds of brand new original stuff on there, go check that out. I’ve got a cool sketchbook that I am selling on Amazon. I’ll be doing more books. Self-publishing books and getting books published by other people as well. I’ve got a lot of projects I’m working on right now but I’m under contract to a company called Pocket Watch that I’m working with. That was announced so I can say that, but I can’t tell you what I’m working on just yet because I am like I said, I am bound to a contract. Can’t release it yet, but when I’m allowed to I will tell you guys everything I promise.”

You can watch the full video above.