Ready for the Bettys

Just me, you and The Bettys!

Candace and Stacy get to travel with their favorite band only to find out that they're real snobs. Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb become secret agents for a day after finding one of Perry's secret lair entrances. Now Perry has to protect the boys while trying to stop Doofenshmirtz.

Episode Summary
Candace and Stacy are listening on Candace's radio about The Bettys. There's a contest in which one of the callers to the station will win a trip with The Bettys. They both win, and Candace talks about how much she loves it and more importantly how she doesn't need to think about Phineas and Ferb.

Everyone says goodbye to Candace as she gets on the bus. Stacy and Candace are very excited and Stacy thinks the bus driver will be a "spaced out rocker," who turns out to be a normal man called Dennis. He also introduces them to Sir Bacon, a pig. They enter The Betty bus and drive off. They open a curtain where the back of the bus is, which is a huge mess. They still love it anyway. Candace and Stacy go crazy when they see The Bettys and their musical instruments. Crash tells them they are writing a song, so she tells Candace and Stacy to be quiet. When Candace and Stacy don't keep quiet, they trick them into "helping" them write their song by asking them to clean up the bus.

After saying goodbye to Candace, the boys go into the backyard to discuss what will they do. As Perry goes on a mission, Phineas asks Ferb where he thinks Perry goes everyday as he puts his hand on the tree. That trips a switch to Perry's lair, and the door in the tree opens. They enter his lair and become surprised with the weapons, armor and the hovercraft car. Phineas thinks Ferb put the whole thing together. Ferb tries to tell him he didn't, but is interrupted every time he tries to explain. They sit on Perry's chair for the briefing. As Perry enters his lair he hides behind a chair to keep his secret identity a secret from the boys. Major Monogram sends Phineas and Ferb the coordinates for Dr. Doofenshmirtz's lair, not noticing who they actually are. He notices after the coordinates are sent. After they leave, Major Monogram warns Perry that the boys are in danger. Perry chases after them.

After Candace and Stacy finish cleaning, Crash asks them to shred the fan mail. Candace finds a letter from her, and is sad that the band didn't read it. Stacy reminds her that they are helping The Bettys write a song and Candace calms down. Then she sees Phineas and Ferb as they fly past and starts to freak out, but Stacy says that she's probably just imagining it. After shredding the letters, The Bettys ask them to clean the outside of the bus and in the process the girls almost get hit by a truck. Candace starts to think that the Bettys are just taking advantage of them. Stacy disagrees.

Perry approaches the doctor's lair and does judo on Doofenshmirtz nose. It is not long, however, that the doctor gets Perry in a pickle with a tennis ball server and Perry accidentally activates the 2nd Destruct-inator ray. Instantly, Perry notices the boys approaching and locks Doofenshmirtz in his closet and shoves a mop in his mouth to keep him quiet just before either the boys or the doctor can meet each other. Phineas still says to Ferb that he put the whole thing together.

The Bettys ask Candace and Stacy to scrub the toilets. Stacy agrees, but Candace tells them she's tired of doing their chores for them. She talks to them and then goes and sits down. The Bettys apologize to Candace. Later, Dennis comes in and Candace asks him who's driving. He shows them and tells them that it is on auto pilot.

The 2nd Destruct-inator ray fires at the bridge that the bus is gonna travel on. So the boys are on their way to save the bus, secretly followed by Perry after he ties Doofenshmirtz up and uses the automatic tennis ball machine with mops to gag him (preventing him from finishing his catch phrase), and destroys the ray.

The driver sees it and faints. Candace tries to stop the bus, but both normal and emergency brakes are broken, so she tries to turn off another way. The bus falls down, but the boys arrive just in time and use the magnet ray, but it isn't strong enough to pull it up. So Perry flies off down to the bottom of the bus and use the mechanical hands and rocket to help them. They succeed, and ride home, but Perry uses the magnet ray and drops them into Isabella's pool. She asks them what are they doing in a serious tone, Phineas replies "That my friend is classified information". They both go home. When Phineas tries to say to their mom, Linda Flynn, what they did, Linda humorously refuses to believe any of it other than when they fell in Isabella's pool.

After the boy's rescue, The Bettys think that Candace did save them, and asks that what they can do. At first Candace asks them to clean up her room, but later The Bettys bring her and Stacy onstage to sing Ready for the Bettys.

Songs

 * Ready for the Bettys (Voted #10 on Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown)

End credits
Last verse of Ready for the Bettys (during the end credits when broadcast by itself)

The "Too Young" Line
None.

Perry's entrance to his lair
After Phineas accidentally puts his hand on the switch to the backyard tree entrance, Phineas and Ferb go into Perry's lair and Perry's entrance is not shown, but he is seen falling behind them from the pneumatic tube.

Background Information

 * This episode is mostly about Candace and Stacy while Phineas and Ferb's idea was a side story.
 * This episode features much alliteration with Betty, e.g. "The Betty brake broke."
 * Phineas and Ferb almost found out Perry's secret.
 * Isabella is seen wearing a swimsuit again, but it is a purple-ish color compared to the red one she had on in "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror".
 * The line that Major Monograms said, "Oh no, they didn't!" sounds somewhat similar to a quote that Candace said, "Oh no, you didn't!" in "The Magnificent Few".

Production Information

 * Episode description from the original Phineas and Ferbruary 2008 press release:
 * Lucy Davis ("The Office," British version) guest stars as Crash, the lead singer of The Bettys in "Ready for the Bettys," airing Saturday, Ferb-ruary 16. Phineas and Ferb accidentally stumble upon Agent P's secret lair, and Phineas thinks that Ferb has set the whole thing up to surprise him. They set off on their own spy mission, and it's up to Perry to rescue them and protect his secret identity. Meanwhile, after winning a chance to join her favorite band, The Bettys, on their tour bus, Candace is trying to keep her mind off what her brothers might be doing.


 * Some episode listings call the episode "Secret Agent". YourTV.com.au in Australia shows it as "Secret Agent Episode".
 * This episode (along with the accompanying episode, The Flying Fishmonger, and the song in the Cliptastic Countdown) no longer airs in the United States due to an issue with a real-life band also known as The Bettys, of whose existence the writers were unaware of at the time. However, the episode is still available on services such as iTunes and Netflix while still airing in other countries.

Errors

 * When the Bettys sing, you can see Stacy's skull on her t-shirt disappears for a second then back.
 * When Phineas looks down at the co-ordinates for Doofenshmirtz's cave, Major Monogram's arm can be seen on the screen. Then, Major Monogram disappears again when the camera zooms out, and finally Major Monogram pops up from below the screen.
 * In some scenes of the song, Crash's gloves disappear.
 * After Ferb says "I give up!" his mouth continues to move as he walks offscreen.
 * When Crash strums her guitar for Candace, it sounds like a bass but it's actually a regular electric guitar.
 * Also, when Candace mentions the "Betty Bass Guitar" it's actually Tink who has the bass.
 * In Britain the episode has a few subtitling issues. On one occasion "Betty brake" is misspelled as "break", and "bass guitar" is consistently misspelled as "base".

Continuity

 * When Candace and Stacy clean the outside of the Betty Bus, they are shown to almost be crushed by a van from the "Amazing Folding Mattress Company", which also appeared in "Flop Starz". The mattress is still folded and arms can be seen sticking out.
 * Candace's room is decorated with Betty stuff, but in future episodes it's not there.
 * Apparently, Phineas and Ferb like cupholders. This is also shown in "Greece Lightning".

Allusions

 * Star Trek - When Phineas says "Can you give me! Any more power!" to Ferb while trying to raise the Betty Bus, he says it in the broken cadence of Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
 * James Bond - When Isabella asked "What are you doing?," Phineas says "that my friend is classified information" in an accent very similar to James Bond, specifically Sean Connery's portrayal of the character.
 * The Spice Girls - The Bettys are a clear reference to the famous British pop girl band.
 * The Veronicas - Both The Veronicas and The Bettys are girl bands named after characters from Archie Comics, also Candace and Stacy act similar to Betty and Veronica.
 * Thunderbirds - The setting, the style of the bridge, the fact that the bus is set to an automatic pilot and certain scenes seem to reference to the mono-rail crash from the Thunderbirds episode "Brink of Disaster."
 * Sir Francis Bacon - The bus driver's pig's name, Sir Bacon, may be a reference to Sir Francis Bacon, an English scientist.
 * The Twilight Zone/Nightmare at 20,000 Feet - When Candace looks out the window and sees Phineas and Ferb flying in the Hoverjet and she tries to alert Stacy.  When Stacy looks up the boys have moved out of her view leading her to believe Candace is hallucinating.  This is similar to the plot of the episode were William Shatner's character tries to warn a group of passengers that a Gremlin on the wing of the plane but no one believe him.

Trivia

 * This episode holds the second most lines (6) Ferb has said in one episode, albeit short lines. The record is broken with nine lines in "Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!".
 * This episode is the first time Ferb gave up.
 * Second episode to have a song with the same name as the title. The first was "S'Winter"
 * Doofenshmirtz builds another Destructinator, like in "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror".
 * This is the first time Phineas and Ferb enter Perry's lair. The second time is in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension.
 * Candace doesn't try to bust her brothers for the fifth time ("Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror", "Lights, Candace, Action!", "Are You My Mummy?").
 * The Bettys' singing voice is Olivia Olson, making them the third character whose singing voice is Olivia  (Vanessa; Linda) but only the 2nd one that only the singing voice is by Olson, being the speaking voice other actress (the first is Linda)
 * First appearance of Carl, Monogram's intern.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram, Additional Voices
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry, Sir Bacon, Additional Voices
 * Jane Carr as Grandma (Winifred), Additional Voices
 * Malcolm McDowell as Grandpa (Reginald)
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Tyler Mann as Carl, Additional Voices
 * Kelly Hu as Stacy
 * Lucy Davis as Crash, Additional Voices
 * Olivia Olson as Crash (singing voice) [Uncredited]
 * Additional voices: Corey Burton, Pierra Coppola


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode