“Phineas and Ferb” returning after a decade away feels right! Fans have another 104 days of summer vacation to look forward to. The show premiered for four seasons on Disney Channel, with the final episode airing in 2015. The revival of this beloved show returns this summer on June 5 on Disney Channel with new episodes premiering on Disney+ the next day.
This award-winning series has shaped a generation of kids who grew up watching it, and with its return, it has the potential to shape another one. The “Phineas and Ferb” creators discuss the show’s return.
“Phineas and Ferb:” No Desire to Change What Works
The new season of “Phineas and Ferb” will follow the inventive stepbrothers as they tackle another 104 days of summer. Candace is more determined than ever to finally bust her little brothers while their pet platypus, Perry, continues to lead a double life as the suave Agent P, whose sole mission is to thwart Dr. Doofenshmirtz from taking over the tristate area.
During a press junket, creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh were asked how they balance bringing the show to a new audience while also maintaining what was loved about the original run.
Povenmire says:
Well, we really just wanted to make more of the same show. We tried not to make it feel different, but we wanted it to have sort of, you know, a fresh energy. About half the writers’ room are writers who were originally on the show, and half the writers’ room are young writers, a lot of whom grew up watching the show. The people who have had a break from the show for a while all came in with great new ideas. There’s a bunch of stuff that was like ‘Oh, why didn’t we ever think of doing this back in the day?’ So it’s- we’re just trying to keep the feel of the show, ’cause that’s what I think the fans love about it.
“We didn’t want to reinvent everything. It was working fine before, and we just thought we should just keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Marsh added.
The Legacy of “Phineas and Ferb”
When asked about the legacy of “Phineas and Ferb” and what it means now versus back when the show first aired, Swampy said:
It’s kind of funny for us. When Dan and I first started doing the development here, there was a lot of people at the channel who really liked the show and said it was funny but had said to us, “I don’t think it’s gonna make it on Disney Channel.” Um, it was very different from what was being produced at the time and the, you know, the behind-the-scenes opinion was it’s not really a Disney show. It didn’t look like anything else.
Swampy continues:
And it was so wonderful, personally, to—a year after the show premiered—to have people tell us that Phineas and Ferb was being held up as kind of the perfect vision of a Disney show. And that just brought ultimate joy to my heart, ’cause- ’cause we always thought it was. I always thought it had the virtues that, you know, the family viewing, all that stuff, that we grew up with, like people Dan and my age, you know, watching The Wonderful World of- of Disney. And so to have that turnaround was really, really gratifying.
Check out a sneak peek of Season 5 of “Phineas and Ferb!”
