Phineas and Ferb

Phineas and Ferb is an Emmy-award winning American animated television series about two 9-year olds that do nearly impossible plans everyday, in which their 15-year-old sister tries to get them busted about. Also, a mad scientist pulls schemes while those two 9-year old kids' pet platypus tries to stop him.

Origins
Creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh met as layout artists on The Simpsons in the mid-1990's, where they sat across from each other as layout artists on that series. They bonded over a shared sense of humor and were eventually paired as a writing team on Rocko's Modern Life for Nickelodeon where they learned more and more aspects of the animation production business.

It was during this time that the pair started to develop a show that would allow them to continue working together as writers. At the Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, California, where they have butcher paper over the tables and crayons for you to draw with, Povenmire was sharing a meal with his wife when he drew the first sketch of a triangle-headed kid. Povenmire called Marsh that evening and told him the news: he had Phineas.

All the other characters grew from that simple triangle-headed kid. Phineas is a triangle, Ferb is a rectangle, and Candace is a half-circle. Then they decided to work geometric shapes into the background to tie the whole thing together. Marsh describes this homage to legendary Looney Tunes animator/director Tex Avery, "There's a little bit of Tex Avery in there — he had that very graphic style [in his later cartoons]. A lot of what I see now is borrowed from Tex."

The Family Guy Connection
Povenmire and Marsh were no longer working together. Marsh had moved to London to work on an assortment of films and series including Postman Pat and Bounty Hamster. Povenmire had started animating and directing Family Guy episodes, but continued to shop the show around to Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Fox Kids.

Studios were worried about the complexity of the plots for the time allowed. At Fox, there were a few meetings, but negotiations fizzled out. Nickelodeon kept sending it up higher and higher in the production personnel ranks, but it was eventually deemed too complicated to pull off. Their stubbornness and persistence paid off when Povenmire finally got a meeting with Disney. According to Povenmire, "Disney was the first to say, 'Let's see if you can do it in 11 minutes.' We did it in the pilot and they said, 'Let's see if you can do it for 26 episodes.'"

Disney Channel's Senior VP of Original Series Adam Bonnet was a fan of Family Guy and wasn't scared off by Povenmire's work on the series. In fact, it was because of his connections to the primetime Fox animated sitcom known for its gross-out gags and raunchy humor that Bonnet wanted to see whatever Povenmire was working on. Povenmire recalls about Bonnet, "He called me for a meeting when I was working on a different pilot for them just to tell me how much he liked Family Guy. When I came back to pitch my own show, I think he was more open to it."

Povenmire brought "some of that primetime animation timing without any of the raunch" to Phineas and Ferb. In fact, many of the blank stares and sight gags have a primetime and Tex Avery charm to them. "People think Family Guy is a success because of how raunchy the gags are. I don't think it would have been a success at all if the timing wasn't absolutely crystal pitch perfect -- if there wasn't just the right amount of pause before or after the line. Comedy is all about timing and I think that's what people are responding to."

Original Story Pitch


Unlike non-animated series, they didn't show them a script, they pitched a storyboard. A storyboard is a scene-by-scene visual breakdown of how the episode would look. When it came time to present it to the executives overseas, Povenmire edited the storyboards together into a film, adding music, sound effects and providing the voices for all the characters. This animatic can be found on the Phineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas DVD.

Plots
The plots grew from Povenmire's childhood in Mobile, Alabama. His mother was always encouraging them to do creative things rather than watch television. One of his activities was making home movies. Povenmire says, "My mom let me drape black material all the way across one end of our living room to use as a space field. I would hang little models of spaceships for these little movies I made with a Super 8 camera."

Phineas and Ferb Scenario
Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella) and Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Sangster) are stepbrothers who live with their older sister Candace Flynn (Ashley Tisdale) and their parents Linda Flynn (Caroline Rhea) and Lawrence Fletcher (Richard O'Brien) in the town of Danville. The brothers find themselves dissatisfied just spending their summer vacation outside of school, so they pull off unbelievable and often outlandish stunts (i.e. finding a mummy, getting a band back together, racing cars, constructing a giant roller coaster, just to name some), in order to make summer more exciting. Their sister, Candace, is aware of their unusual activities and tries to play spoil-sport by telling their mom, so that the adventures of Phineas and Ferb could be put to an end. Candace’s actions emerge mostly out of jealousy because she would not be able to get away with the same acts.

Agent P Sub-Plot
Phineas and Ferb's pet, Perry the Platypus (Dee Bradley Baker), is actually a secret agent named "Agent P". Normally, Perry's first appearance in a story is after someone (usually Phineas) notices his absence, and asks "Hey, where's Perry?". After the question is asked, the scene usually changes right to Perry entering secret chutes or entrances that bring him to some underground headquarters where he recieves instructions, via a monitor, from his boss Major Monogram (Jeff "Swampy" Marsh). Major Monogram then assigns Perry some mission that generally involves Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Dan Povenmire), and his nefarious plans to wreak havoc on the tristate area (though this is not always the case). A majority of the Perry subplot involves him battling Dr. Doofenshmirtz in knowingly hackneyed fashion (such as Doofenshmirtz's long monologues about his plans to Perry). Inevitably, these battles are brought very near where Phineas and Ferb are doing whatever plan they had for the day, and generally aid in the removal of all evidence related to what they were doing before Candace can show her mother what Phineas and Ferb have been up to.

Candace Sub-Plot
Occasionally, there are subplots relating to Candace during the stories. They generally involve either Candace chatting or hanging out with her friend Stacy (Kelly Hu), or attempting to get the attention of her crush, Jeremy (Mitchel Musso). These subplots commonly weave in with Candace's many attempts to bust Phineas and Ferb.

Songs

 * see also: List of songs

Every episode has at least one musical performance, and some have two or three in a row. The episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together" has the current record, with 5 different songs. The music on Phineas & Ferb goes from the whimsical to heavy metal. All genres are included, but pop is the most frequent. Some are just little jingles which lasts for only a few seconds, while others are full songs.

Povenmire recalls, "When we were writing Rocko, we always had one of two things, sometimes both: usually a song or a musical number, plus a big action/chase scene. Phineas and Ferb gave us a chance to write a song for every single episode, starting with the second episode, "Flop Starz". We played it and Perry's [secret agent] theme for the Disney executives. We were a little trepidatious because Disney has a big history of music —-- what if they hate it? The reaction was, "These are great -- can you write a song for every episode?"

Running Gags

 * Phineas and Ferb attempt to build something that day in order to do everything during the summer.
 * Candace tries to foil the boy's plans by yelling, "Mom, Phineas and Ferb are..." but by the time Mom comes, the thing that Phineas and Ferb were doing is either gone, or it is turned into something else.
 * Dr. Doofenshmirtz is always building an evil machine ending in -inator. (e.g., "The Misbehavinator"), though in one or two episodes, Doofenshmirtz gives his weapon a name not ending in -inator, giving Agent P the reason for his not doing so by saying that he has worn out the -inator name too much.
 * When Phineas and Ferb are asked (usually by Isabella), or ask someone else with the phrase, "Whatcha doin?"
 * Phineas asks "Hey, where's Perry?"
 * There is a song that is played at one point in the show. (e.g.: "Squirrels In My Pants","I Ain't Got Rhythm", etc.)
 * Dr. Doofenshmirtz has plans to use his invention in the "tri- state area".
 * Ferb usually remains silent until the end of the episode, where he usually touts a humorous line.
 * Dr. Doofenshmirtz always says "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!!" after his plans are ruined, or some other alternations.
 * Perry normally has a unique secret entrance to his hideout every episode (e.g.: Tree door, Trick walls, Magic hat)
 * People ask Phineas if he is a little young to be doing what he is doing. (e.g.: Aren't you a little young to be using an arc welder?)  His response varies from "I don't think so" to "Yes, yes I am", and once "..No..."
 * Dr. Doofenshmirtz usually doesn't recognize Agent P if the latter is not wearing only his secret agent hat.
 * Phineas says "There you are Perry" when Perry is back from being a secret agent.