Flop Starz

How did you get a hit single?

Candace tries out for The Next Super American Pop Teen Idol Star, but Phineas and Ferb take another route to stardom. Meanwhile, Perry the Platypus tries to stop the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz from taking over the Tri-State Area with a giant building-shaped robot.

Episode Summary
Phineas, Ferb, Candace and their mother, Linda are watching television around the breakfast table. A commercial comes on announcing there will be auditions held for The Next Super American Pop Teen Idol Star at the Googolplex Mall. Candace is extremely excited and rushes upstairs to call Stacy with the good news. Phineas says that being a pop star would be fun at first, but would then get dull quickly. He laments that there isn't a way to do it just once and quit. Mom explains that he is talking about a one-hit wonder. A flashback reveals that Linda Flynn was once known to the world as Lindana. Her song I'm Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun! rose to the top of the charts - but she immediately threw a diva tantrum and her song soon became elevator music. She sang one reunion concert years later, and never sung again. She denies to the boys that this has happened, but have nonetheless inspired them. Phineas scribbles out a checklist of the steps needed to become a one-hit wonder. They now know what they're going to do today.

While Phineas and Ferb are working on writing their hit single (which,according to them, should be done by lunch), Stacy is helping Candace pick out her outfit for the audition. They go through lots of outfits (including something Candace found in her mom's closet: her Lindana outfit), finally ending with Candace's standard clothes, which Stacy says she should have tried on first. Taking the toilet entrance, Perry heads to his lair where Major Monogram is waiting for him on his big screen communication device. Major Monogram informs Agent P that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been buying up construction toys at an alarming rate. Perry's mission is to find out what he is up to and put a stop to it. On his way to his mission, Perry pulls up alongside Linda's car at a stoplight. she looks over, sees him, then does a double-take. Thinking quickly, he puts on a disguise: Groucho glasses. Luckily, she buys it.

Candace and Stacy arrive at the audition, and Candace is shocked to see so many people there. She gets even more stage fright when she looks behind her and sees the rest of the crowd. Stacy gives her a pep talk and Candace gets overly excited, leaving her hair in disarray. Just then, Jeremy Johnson, her secret crush, shows up. Candace fixes her hair and covers with, "And that is what a gorilla looks like when you try to take away its food." Jeremy explains that he is not there to audition, but to hear the hot new band, Phineas and the Ferb-Tones. The hundredth contestant gets to sing on-stage with the band.

By coincidence, Candace goes through the turnstile as the 100th contestant. She is rushed up on stage and finds out that PFT stands for "Phineas and the Ferb-Tones". Phineas is super excited to find out that Candace is the 100th contestant, proclaiming it will be "like a brother-sister thing." He hands her a sheet of music of their hit single, Gitchee Gitchee Goo, explains that the words are meaningless and not to worry if she gets lost. The band starts singing. Phineas is playing the guitar, Ferb is on keyboards and Isabella and the Fireside Girls are their backup singers. The crowd is really getting into it, and Phineas cues up Candace. She is furious that the boys have beaten her to her dream of becoming a pop star and refuses to sing. She then threatens to tell mom and storms off the stage. After the song, Ben Baxter from Huge-O-Records offers to talk about PFT's future. Phineas, showing how young he is, says, "Cool! He must be a psychic!" After rushing off, Candace drags her mom back to the audition stage. Trying to bust her brothers, she points to shadows behind a curtain and tells her mom it's them. The curtain pulls back to reveal Marty the Rabbit Boy and his Musical Blender. Not believing that the boys were ever on stage, Linda takes Candace to get her eyes examined.

Meanwhile, Agent P arrives at the building where Dr. Doofenshmirtz has set up a second office. Still wearing the Groucho glasses, Dr. Doofenshmirtz mistakes Perry the Platypus as his new temp. He explains to the temp that he is just in time for his latest maniacal plan to "unleash an unprecedented reign of terror upon the entire Tri-State Area." Dr. Doofenshmirtz is aghast when Perry removes his disguise. Still confused that Perry is a temp, he asks, "Are times that hard?" Candace steps into the parking lot wearing her new glasses, which she immediately rips off her face in disgust. There are advertisements all over town for the "PFT One City in One Day Tour". There's one on a bus that is driving away, but Candace is more interested in showing her mom the huge poster on the side of a nearby building.

Undaunted by the arrival of his nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz throws the lever to activate his giant robot building. It extends its arms and legs and starts walking, wreaking havoc on downtown Danville. It comes to the building where the PFT poster is hanging, but stops and turns around thanks to Agent P's quick rewiring job. In the meantime, Candace drags her mom out of the store to see the advertisement, but by the time they arrive, the building is gone. As it turns out, Phineas was allowed to put it up on the building for free because it was scheduled for demolition. On her way back into the mall to pay for the jacket she ran out with, the security guard recognizes her as Lindana, claiming to be a huge fan, but she still has to pay for the jacket.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz decides that he can't ignore Perry the Platypus any longer and traps him in a robotic type handcuff device. Thinking he's won, he relaxes with a "nice, tasty deli platter," which he offers some of to Perry, along with some freshly ground pepper. At Huge-O-Records, Ben Baxter is trying to negotiate a contract with Phineas and the Ferb-Tones. Part of the deal is for a follow-up single. This is when Phineas decides to throw his one-hit wonder diva tantrum and storms out of the office and into the elevator with Ferb and the Ferbettes in tow. Ferb pulls out the checklist and marks off "diva tantrum" and "elevator music." Baxter concocts a whole bunch of ways in which they can use the one tape of their performance into merchandise for the next twenty years. One of the executives then points out the giant robot heading in their direction.

Meanwhile, the doctor keeps grinding until there's a very tall pile of pepper on the plate, which Perry blows into his face. Unfazed, Dr. Doofenshmirtz laughs until he figures out it wasn't him, but the robot, that Agent P wanted to make sneeze. The giant robot sneezes and blows Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus into the Huge-O-Records building. On his way through, the tape gets caught up with them, out of the hands of Ben Baxter, and Perry uses it to grab hold of a flagpole and save himself. Dr. Doofenshmirtz lands on the top of a truck with a mattress on top of it. Unfortunately for Dr. Doofenshmirtz, it is from the Amazing Folding Mattress Company, which then proceeds to fold up with him inside. He is then squished by his own giant robot, shouting, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"

With Perry in tow, Phineas, Ferb, Isabella and the Fireside Girls hop on a bus back to the Googolplex Mall for their reunion concert. Marty the Rabbit Boy has just been announced as the winner. Jeremy talks some sense into a dejected Candace by explaining that if she wants to sing, she should just sing and not worry about busting her brothers and leaves. Phineas then calls out to Candace, asking her whether she still wants to help them sing as the one-hundreth contestant. She takes the stage, sings wonderfully with the band, and the crowd loves it. Candace thinks that Phineas and Ferb are going to be her ticket to stardom. She realizes that she's been looking at her brothers all wrong, and that they're not nuisances at all. It is at this point that Phineas announces to the crowd that this is the last time that PFT will be singing that song. Candace is crushed. Everyone leaves and the lights are turned off, leaving Candace alone in the dark.

Songs

 * Gitchee Gitchee Goo (Voted #1 on Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown)
 * I'm Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun!

End Credits
Back at home, Linda is watching television when a commercial comes on for a new compilation album: The Essential LINDANA: Still Fun... that is available in different languages. She turns it off just as Phineas and Ferb come into the room and ask what she was watching and she stated that it was nothing.

Perry's entrance to his lair
Perry flushes himself down a toilet and swims to his lair.

Evil Jingle
Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated!

Background Information

 * The magazine shown during Linda's explanation of a one-hit wonder is called Mono Tunes magazine. The name of the magazine may indicate that it focuses solely on one-hit wonders.
 * In the Huge-O-Records office, there is a copy of Linda's Lindana record marked 1985.
 * This is one of two times that Phineas has said 'No' in response to someone asking him if he was too young to be doing whatever he was doing - in this case, it was asking if he was too young to be a pop star.
 * Isabella has only one line of dialogue ("Wow, great painting! How did you get permission to make that?") in this episode.
 * The note that Ferb plays when Phineas asks him "How's the catchy tune coming?" is actually lower than the note the song starts on.
 * By production order, this is the first time the Evil Jingle appears.


 * Perry breaks the Fourth wall when he looks straight at the camera and raises his eyebrows.

Production Information

 * Episode description from the original Phineas and Ferbruary 2008 press release:
 * In the premiere episode [for the worldwide launch on Disney Channel], "Flop Starz," airing Friday, Ferb-ruary 1, Phineas and Ferb set out to become one-hit wonders by penning a hit tune which they perform on the show Super American Pop Teen Idol Star as Phineas and the Ferb-tones. When Candace auditions, she's mortified when she ends up on stage with her brothers. Meanwhile Perry the Platypus foils Dr. Doofenshmirtz's plan to have a giant robot take over the city, and it's revealed that the kids' very own Mom had a 1980s hit single.


 * The Disney managers loved the song Gitchee Gitchee Goo so much, that they requested a musical number in every episode after this.
 * By broadcast order, although he first appeared in the previous episode, this is Jeremy's first speaking role.

International Premieres

 * December 31, 2007 (Disney Channel Latin America)
 * February 1, 2008 (Disney Channel Netherlands/Flanders)
 * February 2, 2008 (Disney Channel Brazil)
 * April 18, 2008 (Disney Channel Spain)

Errors

 * When Candace brought their television along with her while running, the screen didn't move anymore.
 * When Candace is freaking out about the long line and Stacy shakes her by the shoulders, Stacy's eyes flicker from brown to blue, back to brown and then blue again.
 * In the UK and Sweden, some scenes of the episode are in black and white, including the scene where Perry rides to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, having put on fake glasses.
 * When the intercom voice says the mall is closing, the mall immediately closes but doesn't give people any time to leave.
 * During Gitchee Gitchee Goo, Isabella's Fireside Girl uniform changes throughout the song.
 * Before Phineas has the diva tantrum, Isabella's bow is red. When they're walking towards the elevator and in the elevator, her bow is pink again.
 * Milly 's patches are missing frim her sash before Phineas has the diva tantrum. After that, the patches return.
 * Before Phineas and the Ferbtones get on the bus, Ferb's eye at the front become bigger than his eye at the back. It was the same when Ferb is sitting on the bus.
 * In the ending credits, a language "Tag Log" was also included. However, the spelling is obviously wrong. It should be "Tagalog", the official language of The Philippines.
 * At the same time Isabella's bow is red, Phineas' shirt is missing an orange strap.

Continuity

 * Gitchee Gitchee Goo is played in several more episodes.
 * The folding mattress truck Dr. Doofenshmirtz falls on is seen for the second time in "Ready for the Bettys", while Stacy and Candace are cleaning the outside parts of the Betty's truck.
 * Isabella is first seen with a orange-ish bow and her Fireside Girl uniform on, but no beret. This is exactly like Candace Loses Her Head, when she wore her regular pink bow with her Fireside Girl uniform without the beret when we first see her. In both situations, she is seen in the rest of the episode wih her signature pink dress and pink shoes on her. She later has it this way in We Call it Maze.
 * Dr. Doofenshmirtz traps Perry using the "arms" device, as in "Rollercoaster".

Allusions

 * American Idol - The show in the episode is called Super American Pop Teen Idol, a spoof on the show.
 * The Village People - When Candace is trying on outfits, she is seen wearing a sailor suit, a biker outfit, Native American clothes, a policeman's uniform, and construction worker clothes, the outfits worn by the five members of the 1970s disco group, the Village People.
 * Pop Stars - The episode title is called "Flop Starz", a pun on the term.
 * The kid singing in the commercial at the beginning looks like he was drawn in the style of Hey Arnold.
 * The Rockettes - The Ferbettes are most likely a reference to the precision dance group founded in 1925.
 * Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - When Phineas says "Good day to you, sir!", this is a line by Willy Wonka in the movie.
 * Madonna - Linda's One-Hit Wonder alias is "Lindana", a play on the singer.
 * The Essential...CDs - The CD for "Lindana's" hit, it is called the Essential Lindana.
 * Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun - Lindana's One-Hit is "I'm Lindana and I Want to Have Fun".
 * Groucho Marx - Not only does Agent P don the Groucho glasses to avoid being recognized, when he is invited in by Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Agent P breaks the fourth wall and waggles his eyebrows while looking at the audience, in the same manner as Groucho Marx.
 * Johann Strauss II - Marty the Rabbit Boy plays "The Blue Danube" on his musical blender.
 * Japanese monster movies - A Huge-O Records executive reacts to the approaching building robot in the same way that people do in films like Godzilla.
 * The Jetsons - After trying on several outfits, Candace eventually decides to wear her normal clothes. This is similar to what Judy Jetson did in A Jetson Christmas Carol.
 * There is also a strong parallel with A Date With Jet Screamer. Judy wins a musical contest and a song is performed for her based on nonsense words created by her little brother Elroy -- the song is Eep Opp Ork Ah Ah, and the lyrics say these words mean "I love you."

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
 * Richard O'Brien as Dad
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry
 * Kelly Hu as Stacy
 * Jeff Bennett as Ben Baxter
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford
 * Additional voices by: Dee Bradley Baker, Jeff Bennett, Kelly Hu, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Vincent Martella, Mitchel Musso, Richard O'Brien, Dan Povenmire, Caroline Rhea, Ashley Tisdale


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode