Hartman lands Simmons, Stanley for ‘OddParents’
By Chris M. Junior
Source: KOL
Source: KOL
While working on a three-part, prime-time Fairly OddParents special, creator/executive producer Butch Hartman and head writer Scott Fellows had a big decision to make concerning a plot point involving main character Timmy Turner.
“Timmy was going to find this wand, and we needed a guardian for the wand,” Hartman said earlier this week. “And we were thinking, ‘Who could guard this wand — a metal dude? What if it was a rock band, like [the wand] was guitar? That would be kind of cool.’
Hartman and Fellows, both longtime Kiss fans, considered creating a Kiss-like band for this key moment in The Fairly OddParents: Wishology because they initially thought they’d never land the real thing.
“The name of the band we were going to use was called Smooch, and they were going to have heart makeup on their faces,” Hartman said.
Nevertheless, they decided to “put the feelers” out to the Kiss camp, just to see if there was any interest in being part of Wishology.
“Not only did they say yes,” Hartman said, “but we got to use ‘Rock and Roll All Nite,’ and Gene Simmons gave us the rights to the makeup designs.”
Simmons and fellow Kiss mate Paul Stanley lend their voices and appear as their animated selves in the first and third episodes of Wishology. In the trilogy, Turner is anointed The Chosen One, and he goes on a whirlwind search for a magic wand that will help save the universe. He crosses paths with Simmons and Stanley – the Galactic Guardians of the White Wand – at the Middle-Aged Rock Festival in Las Vegas.
“We did our best to honor them and to make them look good,” Hartman said of Simmons and Stanley. “If you look at the designs, they look really super-awesome and muscular. When you think about Kiss, they’re kind of like cartoon characters or superheroes in the first place. Even though they’re people, they always wear the outfits.”
Wishology contains a brief tribute to one of Simmons’ most famous attributes.
“We have one bit where Timmy’s playing guitar and he uses his tongue to lick the guitar, and Gene says, ‘Dude, that’s a long tongue.’”
The Fairly OddParents: Wishology will air at 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday on Nickelodeon.
