Original Pitch

 

Phineas and Ferb construct a roller coaster from their backyard out to the whole city for themselves and the neighborhood kids. Meanwhile, Perry the Platypus attempts to thwart Dr. Heinz Mittleshmirtz's evil plan to halt the Earth's rotation.

Summary

Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh describe how they created Phineas and Ferb and how they sold it to the Disney Channel. Instead of selling them a script, they pitched a storyboard, which is a scene-by-scene visual breakdown of how the episode would look. When it came time to present it to the executives overseas, Dan edited the storyboards together into a film, adding music, sound effects and providing the voices for all the characters. Jeff notes that after seeing it, Disney realized that they didn't want Dan to be the voice of Isabella.

The show is inspired by Dan's summers growing up where his mom would encourage him and his siblings "to do something creative instead of sitting around bored." His mom would say, "Summer's short. You gotta make every day count."

In the original rollercoaster, Phineas is shown having a hot dog, so that means that the idea of bending off a tree and ordering from a restaurant in the middle of the woods was kept.

Transcript

Read the transcript of Original Pitch.

Gallery

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Background Information

• Some of the pictures in the Original Pitch were used during the title sequence in lieu of having an animated sequence. If one looks closely, several of the pictures can be seen scrolling from right to left behind Phineas and Ferb as they dance to the music near the end of the production title sequence. In Season 2, they are replaced by various still shots from Season 1.
• According to a short video before the pitch, Jeff added "Swampy" to his name so that it would be fifteen letters long, "bigger than most other names", including Dan's, which is only twelve.
• Characters were in different colors. Phineas wore a red and yellow shirt with green shorts, Candace had dark red hair and green clothing, Isabella had brown hair, a yellow bow, and blue clothes, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz wore a red shirt instead of a black shirt. He also had blonde hair. Doof's original name was also Dr. Heinz Mittleshmirtz.
• Mr. Slushy Burger was originally spelled Mr. Slusee Burger. Dan pronounced it the same as in the final release, however.
• The pitch reel features some extended scenes and dialog that were cut or altered from the pilot, "Rollercoaster".
• The title sequence includes two lines that were not included in the final version:
  • ...or giving a monkey a shower.
    Phineas: "Don't try this at home."
  • ...or driving our sister insane.
    Phineas: "It's a short drive."
    Candace: "Phineas!"
• Despite there being only two lines not present in the final release, the original theme song sounded almost completely different from the final one, being slower and more classic. This was likely changed because Disney Channel wanted it to be more modern.
• During many scenes following the rollercoaster ride, the song "Mister Go" can be heard in the background, a song Dan Povenmire help create as part of the band Keep Left. Sections of it were also later used in Milo Murphy's Law the show he worked on after Phineas and Ferb.

Differences from pitch to pilot

The pitch reel and the pilot episode have several differences of note.

The first is that Phineas has more of an adversarial role when interacting with others. Examples:

• The sardonic "it's a short drive" comment that is in the theme song after "driving our sister insane".
• After Candace points out that it's summer, Phineas says "Fine. You wait 'til the last minute then." "Fine." is said with a bit of defiance.
• When Isabella says she thinks that building a roller coaster is kind of impossible, Phineas responds "Is there something I can do for you?" in a slightly annoyed fashion. He also seems to be annoyed about her trying to drop romantic hints when she comes into the backyard.

The second is that a plot point of creating androids was removed. This was later explored in "I, Brobot". Plus, Linda says "Most boys just build forts." This was later explored in "Thaddeus and Thor".

Finally, some of the dialog was removed because they appear to be at more of an adult level than what you might typically expect from a Disney cartoon:

• "I still don't know how they cleaned that up so fast. I mean, the poop alone should've taken..."
• "Their butts are mine now. Mom!" (Later changed to "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Mom! Mom!")
• "My, you can be awfully helpful when you are having a psychotic break!"

Production Information

• The Original Pitch was the "pitch reel" that Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh used to sell Phineas and Ferb to the Disney Channel. It is one of the bonus items included on the Phineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas DVD.

Cast

• Dan Povenmire as himself and all voices in the pitch reel.
• Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as himself.