{"id":29829,"date":"2025-06-06T10:32:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T09:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:33:13","slug":"dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Povenmire & Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh Talk Phineas and Ferb Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phineas and Ferb<\/em> hit the airwaves on Disney Channel in 2007, bringing kids into a wild animated summer vacation filled with the titular stepbrothers\u2019 silly antics and crazy inventions. Four seasons ran through 2015, before the franchise went on a hiatus. It briefly returned in 2020 for an exclusive Disney+ movie, but now, five years later, the series is finally returning for a fifth season, filled with the antics and silliness familiar to fans of the beloved show.<\/p>\n

While revivals often see updated character looks, animation styles or story updates, the new season of Phineas and Ferb<\/em> strongly resembles the first four.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t trying to do a different Phineas and Ferb<\/em> show,\u201d says Dan Povenmire, co-creator of the series. \u201cWe felt like everybody already loves Phineas and Ferb<\/em>. And it was important to the executives. They said, \u2018Look, we don\u2019t think it\u2019s broken. You don\u2019t have to fix it. We just want more of this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Povenmire and fellow co-creator Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh worked with the writers\u2019 room to ensure the new episodes felt the same. They peppered the season with what they call \u201cevergreen\u201d episodes that \u201cfollow a formula,\u201d Povenmire says, but they also played with episodes and storylines that broke the mold.<\/p>\n

As an example, Povenmire and Marsh point to one episode that spends its entirety following one of the boys\u2019 inventions. \u201cThey invent a giant zoetrope\u2014a big, spinny thing\u2014and it turns on its side and rolls out of the yard just as mom\u2019s coming home, and then we just follow it for the whole episode,\u201d Povenmire explains. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have sentience but has its own hero\u2019s journey. It\u2019s sort of like Wilson the Volleyball in Cast Away. You felt that was a real character. We\u2019ve done that with this non-sentient zoetrope just rolling around town. He gets his own song, solves crimes and falls in love with a Ferris wheel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mention of an original song should come as no surprise\u2014the initial four seasons featured plenty of catchy songs performed by the characters. From \u201cGitchee Gitchee Goo\u201d and \u201cSquirrels in My Pants\u201d to \u201cBusted\u201d and \u201cBackyard Beach,\u201d earworms abounded in those first seasons. That\u2019s not to mention, of course, the theme song, performed by Bowling For Soup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said that Dan and I are genetically incapable of creating a show that doesn\u2019t have music,\u201d Marsh quips. \u201cI\u2019ve tried. It\u2019s always been a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSwampy and I always felt that putting a song in a cartoon is the closest thing you get to immortality because we still remember \u2018sugar, ah, honey, honey\u2019 from The Archies,\u201d Povenmire says. \u201cI don\u2019t remember a single plot line from The Archies, but I remember several songs from The Archies. Once you get that in people\u2019s heads\u2026 We\u2019ll be long dead and there will still be people who, if you say, \u2018There\u2019s 104 days\u2019 in front of them, will sing the rest of that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

(As someone in the prime demographic when Phineas and Ferb<\/em> first aired, I can confirm that my brain did, in fact, complete that sentence\u2014and then some.)<\/p>\n

The zoetrope isn\u2019t the only \u201ccharacter\u201d who gets a song this season. There is what Povenmire describes as a \u201cthrashy\u201d song for the Fireside Girls, \u201ca big Broadway show tune\u201d for guest star Alan Cumming and so much more.<\/p>\n

Cumming isn\u2019t the only big-name guest star of the new season (or the only one to get their own song). Michael Bubl\u00e9, Brendan Hunt, Megan Rapinoe, Cristo Fern\u00e1ndez and Meghan Trainor are part of the packed lineup of guests who join series regulars Vincent Martella, Ashley Tisdale and David Errigo Jr., among others, for an episode or two.<\/p>\n

Getting this kind of star talent\u2014and so much of it\u2014wasn\u2019t too tricky at this point in the show\u2019s arc. \u201cThe show is now well-known enough [that] even people who\u2019ve never seen the show have at least heard of it,\u201d Povenmire says. \u201cThat helps a lot. We just think, who would be the best person to do this? It\u2019d be cool if we could get Alan Cumming. Do you think we could do that? Let\u2019s ask. And then he does it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people even reach out to them first. Michael Bubl\u00e9 \u201cfound me on TikTok, and he told me what a huge fan he is of the show and [asked if] we could have lunch,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had lunch, and he said, I would love to do anything with you guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe often have trouble getting music acts to come in and perform because their label will say, Oh, no, we don\u2019t do it for less than [X amount]. And there\u2019s a very set amount that we\u2019re allowed to pay for that. If you can strong-arm your label and say, No, no, this is something I want to do, we will write a song for you! [Bubl\u00e9] was like, I will absolutely do that. So, we wrote a song, and he texted me and said, You would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting with my manager where I said that what I want to do at this point in my career is sing a song called \u2018Tropey McTropeface\u2019 for a cartoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsh adds, \u201cWe\u2019ve been really lucky, again, with the success of the show. It\u2019s a well-loved show by adults and children, so most of the time, when we ask people, they say yes. Occasionally, no, but we get a lot of yeses. We just want to work with people we like, whose talents we admire and who are good folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing songs and getting star talent attached were only part of the puzzle of putting together the fifth season. Planning for the story arc was slightly different from what it was for the first four, what with the advent of Disney+ since the last time the show aired. After season five premiered on Disney Channel yesterday, the first ten episodes dropped at once on Disney+ today, allowing for a binge model that wouldn\u2019t have been possible the first time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little weird,\u201d Povenmire says. \u201cTV is done so differently now than it was even ten years ago. For years and years\u2014almost a century\u2014it was done the same way. Cable came around with more channels, but it was still done the same way. Now, it\u2019s not. We thought about that a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not necessarily a serialized show, so they didn\u2019t have to worry about a big, overarching story that might affect viewing, Povenmire says. But half of the season dropping now and the other half dropping later gave them something new to consider.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did have to think, when is this [episode] coming out?\u201d he says. \u201cIs it going to be readily viewable before this one? Can we reference this before that? If we\u2019re doing one that then plays into another one, is it in the same drop? You want to keep those around [each other]. Or do we get more out of waiting between the two to build up some anticipation?\u201d<\/p>\n

As to what they\u2019re most excited for fans to see, they both rave about one in particular: \u201cWe have a Lord of the Flies episode with the Fireside Girls,\u201d Povenmire says. \u201cThey\u2019re usually so cooperative and sweet to each other, and it goes the wrong way. It\u2019s one of my favorite things we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The co-creators of Phineas and Ferb on bringing the show back for a fifth season after ten years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":29834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,21],"tags":[187,188,189],"class_list":["post-29829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-dan-povenmire","tag-jeff-swampy-marsh","tag-phineas-and-ferb","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nDan Povenmire & Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh Talk Phineas and Ferb Revival - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dan Povenmire & Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh Talk Phineas and Ferb Revival - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The co-creators of Phineas and Ferb on bringing the show back for a fifth season after ten years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-06T14:32:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-09T13:33:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/Disney-PhineasandFerb-0625.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/\",\"name\":\"Dan Povenmire & Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh Talk Phineas and Ferb Revival - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-06T14:32:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-09T13:33:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/dan-povenmire-jeff-swampy-marsh-talk-phineas-and-ferb-revival\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dan Povenmire & Jeff \u201cSwampy\u201d Marsh Talk Phineas and Ferb Revival\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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