Phineas and Ferb

Phineas and Ferb is an American animated musical-comedy television series created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh for Disney Channel and Disney XD. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series was originally broadcast as a one-episode preview on August 17, 2007, following the premiere of High School Musical 2, and again previewed on September 28, 2007; the series officially premiered on February 1, 2008, on Disney Channel, and ran until June 12, 2015.

The program follows Phineas Flynn and his stepbrother Ferb Fletcher, who are between eight and ten years old,during summer vacation. Every day, the boys embark on a grand new project, which is usually unrealistic in scale given the protagonists' ages (and are sometimes physically impossible). This annoys their controlling older sister Candace, who frequently tries to reveal their shenanigans to her and Phineas' mother, Linda Flynn-Fletcher, and less frequently to Ferb's father, Lawrence Fletcher. The series follows a standard plot system; running gags occur in every episode, and the subplot almost always features Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus Perry working as a spy named "Agent P" for the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) to defeat the latest scheme of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a mad scientist driven largely by a need to assert his evilness who is often defeated by his own ineptitude. The two plots intersect at the end to erase all traces of the boys' project just before Candace can show it to their mother, which usually leaves Candace very frustrated.

Povenmire and Marsh had previously worked together on Fox's The Simpsons and Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life. The creators also voice two of the main B-plot characters, Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram. Phineas and Ferb was conceived after Povenmire sketched a triangular boy – the prototype for Phineas – in a restaurant. Povenmire and Marsh developed the series concept together and pitched it to networks for 16 years before securing a run on Disney Channel. On January 13, 2023, Disney Branded Television announced at the Television Critics Association that the show would be revived with two seasons, containing a combined total of 40 episodes.

Storyline[]

The show follows the adventures of stepbrothers Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, who live in the fictional city of Danville in an unspecified tri-state area, as they seek ways to occupy their time during their summer vacation. Often these adventures involve elaborate, life-sized and ostensibly dangerous construction projects. Phineas' older sister Candace Flynn has two obsessions: exposing Phineas and Ferb's schemes and ideas, and winning the attention of a boy named Jeremy. Meanwhile, the boys' pet platypusPerry acts as a secret agent for an all-animal government organization called the O.W.C.A. ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym"), fighting Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Much of the series' humor relies on running gags used in almost every episode, with slight variation. Certain aspects of the show's humor are aimed at adults,including its frequent pop-culture references. Co-creator Dan Povenmire, who had previously worked on Family Guy, sought to create a less raunchy show that would make similar use of comic timing, metahumor, humorous blank stares, wordplay and breaking the fourth wall. Povenmire describes the show as a combination of Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants. Co-creator Jeff "Swampy" Marsh has said that the show was not created exclusively for children; he simply did not exclude them as an audience.