“The Fairly OddParents” premiered in early 2001 and holds the title as one of Nickelodeon’s longest running cartoon series. Now, I will give readers a fair warning: I am not fond of this cartoon. I may be slightly biased due to the series premiering on the same day as “Invader Zim,” just 30 minutes later, and obviously doing better in ratings. If you’re a fan of “The Fairly OddParents,” that’s fine – there are just a few problems I have with the show. Before we get into my opinion of the show, here is a brief history.

Similar to “Cartoon Network’s Big Pick,” which featured cartoon shorts that were then voted on to receive a time slot for production on the network, “The Fairly OddParents” first premiered as a short on Nickelodeon’s “Oh Yeah! Cartoons.” Nickelodeon saw great potential from the animated short and decided to pick up “The Fairly OddParents” as a full time series. The same airing date as “Invader Zim” is purely coincidence and mostly likely the most convenient for Nickelodeon, but I am, and will remain, bitter about the situation.

The popularity of “The Fairly OddParents” skyrocketed only after a year of being on the air. I remember Nickelodeon had a field day with “The Fairly OddParents.” Every commercial, special trip give away and promotional item had “The Fairly OddParents” stamped on it somewhere. The series was so popular, for a short while its ratings beat out “SpongeBob SquarePants,” Nickelodeon’s highest rated television series to date.

In 2006, the creator, Butch Hartman, announced that the series would be coming to an end after the premiere of the last Jimmy Neutron/Timmy Turner mash-up installment “Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators.” But alas, Nickelodeon had a change of heart after the ratings for “Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 3: The Jerkinators” and decided to renew “The Fairly OddParents” for 20 more episodes and to resume production immediately. To date, “The Fairly OddParents” has a total of 9 seasons and 3 films.

Though the show has won numerous awards based on its production quality and voice over acting, I feel that this show has been lacking from the beginning. The storyline is simple and pretty uneventful. The main character, Timmy, has been granted a set of fairy godparents who grant his every wish. The majority of the time, Timmy wishes for something selfish that ends with teaching him a lesson or Mr. Crocker is trying to capture his fairies. The other 10 percent of the time, there is some sort of story development that redefines the series in an unnecessary way, such as the introduction of the fairy baby, Poof. It’s this introduction of new characters that alter the whole feel behind “The Fairly OddParents” that reflects a cartoon that can’t hold its own. It’s understandable that cartoons have to adapt to the times if they wish to stay relevant, but “The Fairly OddParents” chooses to do this far too often and in the most random way possible.

Another reason for my dislike of the series is the fact that Nickelodeon has been milking this series dry from day one. As I stated before, for a period of time everything that Nickelodeon produced had “The Fairly OddParents” stamped on it. Another indicator is that they made 3 Jimmy/Timmy Power Hours. Though it was a great idea at first, repeating it two other times was completely uncalled for. Butch Hartman had the series ending, but Nickelodeon wanted it to continue for the ratings. This created a dry cartoon that lacked creativity due. This was further due to the creator’s involvement in other projects during the time of “The Fairly OddParents’” revamp.

As one of Nickelodeon’s longest running cartoon series, “The Fairly OddParents” lacks creativity. Like other Nickelodeon series, the networks over-promotion of “The Fairly OddParents” in its prime caused a lack of originality for the cartoon. This lack of originality, along with their triumph in ratings over “Invader Zim,” is why I dislike this cartoon.

If you would like to check out this cartoon for yourself, it is available on Hulu and Amazon.

Toon in next time for another cartoon favorite review.