While there are more than 104 episodes of Phineas and Ferb, there are always more summers to catch everyone’s favourite stepbrothers. It was one of the greatest children/teen shows I ever watched, next to SpongeBob SquarePants. Both of these shows were amazing because it was funny for both kids and adults, never afraid to make jokes that went over my head as a kid. The battles between Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus were what I lived for. All episodes are available on Disney+.
CGMagazine had the opportunity to revisit the multi-generational childhood classic TV series Phineas and Ferb with the creators and mind-mappers behind the musical-comedy show, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh. Povenmire and Marsh conceived the characters while working together on animated programs, The Simpsons and Rocko’s Modern Life, in the 1990s, and were inspired by the summers of their own childhoods.
They developed the series together and pitched it to networks for 16 years before successfully selling it to The Walt Disney Company. The series originally aired on the networks for four seasons between 2007 and 2015, and returned for the first of two additional seasons in 2025. When Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe was dropped in 2020, I lost my mind because the series ended in 2015.
Phineas and Ferb have one of the most iconic opening themes in TV history, performed by Bowling for Soup. Were they the band you originally wanted?
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: Oh, yeah. They’re right in line with that kind of crunchy pop stuff that we love. That was an easy decision on which way to go with that, and they killed it. They still do. Nothing is more fun to me than watching those guys break into that song on huge stages all around the world, and hearing an entire audience sing along. That’s so cool.
Definitely makes me sing along whenever it’s on in my household. Delving into character building, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is one of the most complex characters in Phineas and Ferb. He’s Perry the Platypus’ foe, had a rough upbringing, but is still an upstanding father. What was the inspiration for his character?
Dan Povenmire: He’s always trying to be a good father. Vanessa was originally drawn as his henchwoman. One of the storyboard artists did this badass-looking henchwoman, and we’re like, “I don’t think [Dr. Doofenshmirtz] is successful enough to have anybody on payroll.” But it would be funny if this were his teenage daughter, and she came to visit.
So, we just put in that line at the end of that episode, where she’s like, “I’m out of here.” And he says, “Alright, tell your mother you had fun,” because he’s sharing custody of his daughter. We loved that, and that became a great character thing for him because every dad is trying to do the best for their kid. Whether they do evil or not, they’re still trying to be a good dad.
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: It’s more fun to make that choice. The rest of his life is kind of a mess, but he’s trying not to mess this up. It’d be really easy to write his relationship with his ex-wife as being dysfunctional. But it’s much more fun if that’s not the case, because it’s not what you’d expect. They all get along, share custody, and have respect for each other. It’s not what you’d expect from Doofenshmirtz.
Dan Povenmire: His backstories were not even made by Swampy and I. When we made the show, we just gave an episode to one of the first storyboard teams and said, “He’s just trying to get rid of all the lawn gnomes in town.” And then, they asked, “Why?” I said, “I don’t know. If you want to answer that question, feel free.”
Then, they pitched us this lawn gnome backstory of him and Gimmelshtump and stuff. We were in tears laughing at it. We said, “Oh, that’s great.” The next time somebody pitched a thing on where’s his tragic backstory? Why is he doing this? We told them, “We drew it, but we thought it was too long.” But then, we brought it back in.
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: I also loved the first time they were trying to dovetail and make sense of the backstory. We said, “No, no. They don’t have to work together.” It’s almost funnier if you think maybe none of this happened. Maybe they did.
Dan Povenmire: It’s hard to come up with a timeline of his backstories. Like, ‘When was he being raised by ocelots?’
Amazing. And circling back to the music for the original Phineas and Ferb run and the new season, were there any unreleased songs you had?
Dan Povenmire: No, there are only a few songs that we’ve written that didn’t get put in the show. It was either cut for time or because they weren’t working in the context of the show. There’s one that comes to mind, and we don’t even remember the original song because “brick, brick, brick, brick, brick, brick, briiick,” it’s funnier!
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: We recently wrote one that we ended up completely changing.
Dan Povenmire: Yeah, there was another one of those that I found a copy of for the ‘Playtpus Hunter’ episode. We either had the song we did or threw it out for another song. It’s very rare. They started trusting us early on.
That’s awesome to know. One of the coolest parts of Phineas and Ferb is how it can balance education and entertainment at times, like learning what an aglet is. How did you both find that balance between an educational show and an entertaining one?
Dan Povenmire: Haha, that’s probably the most educational the show has gone! But it’s really had an effect on the world. An entire generation knows what an aglet is because that’s never happened before.
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: We just wanted to make sure that the show was smart and intelligent. We didn’t want to cut things because somebody thought our audience wouldn’t understand it. As long as that’s not all we’re doing, and not alienate [the kid viewers]. But, the occasional joke now and again that shoots over their head and hits the parents, the grandparents, the aunt, the uncle, the older brother, or sister, whatever it is.
Fine, it gives the kids something to stretch to; there’s a conversation to be had. I think that’s what people would consider educational about Phineas and Ferb. It’s okay that we make a joke about existential philosopher trading cards. You don’t have to know what they are to get the joke, but if you do, there’s a little bonus.
Right. And last question, what advice can you give to aspiring animators today?
Dan Povenmire: Just keep creating and keep working at your craft. Keep trying to stretch yourself into other, different parts of the craft. Swampy and I write, do voices, direct, and write songs. We do all these things because that’s how we would do it if we were making the show in our garage. It took a lot of convincing to allow us to do all those things on the show because they had not had people who wanted to do all of that, or at least not people who were loud enough about it that they let them do it before. But now, they’re much more open to people wearing more than one hat.
Jeff “Swampy” Marsh: Be versatile. Be ready to take whatever opportunity you get in this business that opens for you, because the hardest job to get is the first one. That [first one] will be the one that takes you everywhere else.
