Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh

TV Kids Weekly, October 21, 2008

Creators, Phineas and Ferb

When Phineas and Ferb premiered on Disney Channel, it ushered in a very different style of animation, with multiple high-action story lines and a quirky sense of humor that immediately set it apart from the usual Disney animated fare.

The series features stepbrothers Phineas and Ferb, who are determined to beat boredom each and every day of their summer vacation. Keeping busy includes building a backyard beach complete with a surfing competition, creating a new season—one with both sun and snow—called “swinter,” assembling a theme-park roller coaster across their town and becoming overnight pop-music sensations with the song “Gitchi-Gitchi-Goo (I Love You)”.

Their sister Candace keeps trying to fink them out to their mother, but is never able to and gets more and more incensed at them. And all the while their pet platypus, Perry, hangs around making strange purring/chirping sounds, appearing to be an ordinary domestic pet, but in reality is a secret agent, reporting to the authoritative Major Monogram, and battling the evil genius Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Needless to say, the series quickly became a top-rated show on Disney Channel, and this kind of zaniness emerged from the fertile imaginations of Dan Povenmire, who previously worked on Family Guy, The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants and Rocko’s Modern Life, and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, who has also worked on The Simpsons and Rocko’s Modern Life and had spent six years working in the U.K. on various projects for the BBC and ITV.

The two had collaborated 16 years ago and enjoyed the experience so thoroughly that they came up with the idea for Phineas and Ferb as an opportunity to work together again. “I actually drew the first Phineas on a paper napkin at a restaurant one night, then went home and drew three more characters,” says Povenmire. “I brought them to work and said, ‘This is the show,’ and Swampy said, ‘Ooooh yes!’ and we came up with ideas of how they were all interrelated.”

“We wanted a show with multiple story lines, a little bit like The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” adds Marsh. “We wanted to have different adventures happening at the same time.” Various story lines are not usual for an animated kids’ show, and that was one of the reasons the series took so long to be picked up by a channel. “We’ve always been firm believers that you shouldn’t talk down to kids and that’s part of the trouble we had selling this show,” explains Povenmire. “At most of the networks we pitched, it would get way up in the echelons, because they liked the initial idea, but the reason they would give us for not picking up the show would always be, ‘It seems too complicated.’ And I would always answer, ‘Too complicated? Really? You think your kids are that dumb?’ I think that kids like shows that challenge their brains just a little bit. They like to see stuff from a lot of different of angles.”

And as Marsh explains, if there is something that doesn’t make sense to the audience, it stimulates them to figure out what a word means or what a reference is about. “We remember listening to Monty Python records when we were kids and not having any idea of what half the stuff was but the more we learned about it, the more we realized how clever the humor was and the more it made us want to learn more,” says Povenmire. “We should never talk down to kids in a way that assumes that they’re not going to learn any more than what they know right now.”

Finally, Disney did pick up the show, mainly, explains Povenmire, because they wanted one with boys in lead roles. “And as soon as they took the pilot and showed it to kids, it tested through the roof.”

For Povenmire and Marsh, part of the fun of the show is being able to write a song for nearly every episode, something they had done together when they worked on Rocko’s Modern Life. “I can remember songs from shows like the Flintstones or The Archies, although I can’t remember a single actual story line!” says Povenmire. “But we both remember the songs and we feel that if we write a song for a show that can get stuck in a kid’s head [for life], that’s the sort of this immortality that we like!”

Povenmire and Marsh are intent on making the show funny and entertaining, but as parents, they want to make sure they are producing a series that is appropriate for kids. As mischievous as Phineas and Ferb are, they are never disrespectful of adults.

“This was a decision we made early, early on because we’ve both worked on a lot of different shows, and one of the easiest ways of writing comedy is to go to the mean place, especially with kids,” explains Povenmire. “We decided never to have Phineas and Ferb sniping at Candace, never do that brother-sister-yelling-at-each-other thing.”

And despite the outrageous grandiose schemes they keep concocting, they have no clue that they are doing something wrong because Phineas and Ferb never get in trouble. “We decided to make them complete innocents, and it was very hard at first for the writing staff to get the gist of that,” recalls Povenmire.

“We had to convince them that you can be edgy without being mean. And you can. It’s just harder,” adds Marsh. “Once they got used to it, we got all sorts of great humor out of Phineas and Ferb without the meanness.”

As much as Povenmire and Marsh relish this opportunity to work together once again, the show offers them a special bonus. As Marsh explains, “one of the most rewarding things I’ve read on blogs is that the reason moms like Phineas and Ferb is that after their kids watch an episode they’ll seem to be inspired to go out and use their imaginations and create something. I get choked up when I read that stuff.”