Celebrate Summer With Phineas and Ferb! #PhineasandFerbEvent

We’ve been doing this for a decade and we felt like this is a good time–I feel like this show is still really good and really fresh. I’m really proud of most of the 4th season as much as I am of the first ones. And I felt like let’s go out before “before it starts feeling tired”

– Dan Povenmire

All good TV shows must come to an end. Sadly, June 12th is the end for the hit Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb. After 10 years, co-creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh are saying goodbye to their ‘baby’ with an hour-long, action-packed episode titled, “Last Day of Summer”. Phineas and Ferb was a part of my recent Inside Out Disney event. We were treated to a screening of the final episode, filled with hilarious antics, fabulous music and a heartfelt ending (I don’t want to give too much away!). The screening was followed by a Q&A session with Dan and Swampy who shared their feelings for the show. It was more than evident that this is a bittersweet moment in their lives. The emotion could be felt not only in their words but seen in their tears. The pair was quite choked up, which moved many to cry!

Salads and bbq! Perfect for kicking off the summer!

After the Q&A we moved on to a delicious BBQ lunch and photo ops with the guys (and Phineas and Ferb)! Dan sat at my table which gave me a chance to share pictures of Perry’s biggest fan, my 6 year old niece. Perry is her all-time favorite and has been a part of her birthdays, Halloween, and so forth. Most importantly, he helped her ‘heal’ when she broke her collarbone. My mother-in-law’s favorite is Dr. Doofenshmirtz. I couldn’t resist texting her when Dan broke into Dr. Doof’s voice. How cool is that?? Btw, you have to check out Dan’s cell phone case (it’s a picture of his ear, ha!!!).

Best cell phone case ever!

Best selfie ever — with Swampy and blogger buddies.

I love that the staff photographer captioned this perspective.

My adorable little niece with Perry.

I’m sure many Phineas and Ferb fans are just beside themselves. But don’t fret, you can prepare emotionally by tuning in today to Disney Channel for a Phineas and Ferb marathon! We had the best day celebrating Phineas and Ferb. Enjoy these highlights from our interview with Dan and Swampy. Thanks for the memories, guys!!

Make sure to tune in for an original, Special One-Hour Episode Premiere of Phineas and Ferb “Last Day of Summer” (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM ET/PT)

The summer season is coming to a close and it’s Candace’s last chance to bust her brothers. She is quickly foiled, but is presented with an opportunity to redo the day when she sets off Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s Do-Over-Inator, which results in other consequences like rips in the space-time continuum, the shortening of days and the disappearance of her brothers.
TV-G

A favorite Phineas and Ferb episode?

DAN: If I really pressed for a favorite it might be, roller coaster because it’s just the one that’s small. An idea of just by ourselves basically. But the one that, for me is “Summer Belongs To You”, which is our first hour long special. And it had Phineas and Isabella in Paris where Isabella’s trying to get him to see, how romantic it is and, and Candace and Jeremy decide to be boyfriend and girlfriend and then they all get stranded on the desert island and the last 11 minutes of “Summer Belongs To You” was maybe the best thing.

A Favorite Song?

Yeah. There’s a couple of ending songs: “Summer Belongs To You”, and the one that was just aired (Last Day of Summer). That I literally can’t watch without tearing up. When it was playing (today) I actually purposely took my phone out and answered e-mails so that I wouldn’t be red eyed.

Why end the show now?

DAN : Well we’ve been doing this for a decade and we felt like this is a good time–I feel like this show is still really good and really fresh. I’m really proud of most of the 4th season as much as I am of the first ones. And I felt like let’s go out “before it starts feeling tired”.

Phineas and Ferb changed people’s lives.
JEFF: you would be shocked at how many letters we get of people telling us you got us through a really dark time.

DAN: You inspire my kid to be more, more creative. Somebody sent us this letter I think to Gary Marsh the head of the channel just saying, before their kid was watching Phineas, they would sort of get through art class and would never draw anything, would never do anything you know. And she sent a picture that’s being drawn from before Phineas and it was like one line on a piece of paper.

And then a picture that he drew after he started watching Phineas and all the creativity that she saw coming out of him. That makes me proud, we get a lot of stuff like that.

When did the ‘end’ sink in?

DAN: A couple of weeks I was waiting outside courtroom for Jury Selection. I was on Jury Duty and I looked at my phone and Cecilia had sent us the link. “Oh hey it’s finally announced.” I knew it was being announced that week, but I didn’t know what day and so I, so I tweeted it because you know people on, on Twitter sort of suspected the show was over for a while. So I said, “Okay it’s finally been announced.” There were hundreds of people saying wonderful things about the show. Some of them were saying things like, “This is the show that got me through PTSD. This is the show that got me through chemo with my kid, because it was the one thing that would make him smile.” They’re all these kind of things… and I started crying like I’m doing right now.

I went into the bathroom to splash water on my face ’cause I gotta’ go in and, and answer jury questions and I looked at my face and I just looked like a crazy person. I was like, I should just go in like this. It’ll get me out of Jury Duty.

There’s all these lasts that happen in animation. And we’ve been through all of those, but it didn’t occur to me that there is this whole community of people out there — now was the first time they realized it was over, so sorry. I don’t mean to cry in front of you guys.

What’s Next?

Dan: We just sold another show to, to Disney that they picked up called Mikey Murphy’s Law and we’re in the start of that right now. I can feel that ramp upcoming again and you know we’re not quite in that crazy area yet ’cause we’re just writing it, but we’re starting to hire Artists and stuff like that. So a month from now we’ll just be frantic again for hopefully a long time.

What is your main goal for the next show?

DAN: I feel like this is a good follow up to Phineas ’cause it’s it’s in a completely different show, but it has the same sort of positivity that, that Phineas does. Mikey is a kid who is the grandchild of Murphy from Murphy’s Law. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. So whatever can go wrong does go wrong around him constantly since he was a a little kid. But just as if you were born with one arm you learn to do everything with one hand and it you don’t think of it as an imposition.

JEFF: If you ask Mikey he’d say he’s lucky because his life is filled with adventure and excitement every day.

DAN: So he takes everything with the most absolute optimism and positivity and he puts a positive spin on anything and he just copes with it as it comes because this stuff has happened all the time. He’s got a back pack with you know a helmet and surgical tape.

Would you like to see Phineas and Ferb make an appearance down the road?

JEFF: Never say never.

DAN : Yeah we’ve thought about it, but these kind of things have a life of their own. So I could imagine 10 years from now them sort of dusting it off and wanting, wanting to do more with or without us you know. I’d never say no. Yeah. I would probably be up for it. I was ready to step away for a while but I already miss those characters. I miss voicing Doof. I just miss spending time with them. And you know now when funny things happen in my life or I get an idea, for the last year I haven’t been able to go and put it on TV. There’s something really great about, “oh I’ve got this really funny idea. I can put it on TV for the whole world.”

Want do you want people to know about this series, about this show?

JEFF: The thing that I want people who are making programs to get out of this is that you can never go wrong over estimating the intelligence of kids. That’s what I hope people get. You can make poor shows that appeal to everybody from adults, to teenagers, to middle– middle kids, all the way on down without being mean. Uh without having you know the shows filled with jerks and idiots and that you can put big words in and it’s okay.

And you can do classical music and jazz music and folk music, and rock and roll, and rap, and all of that and kids’ll get it. And if you can just stop people from dumbing down the subject matter that they feel they need to put in front of kids this whole thing will be a success.

DAN: We made a lot of choices early on about making sure that Phineas and Ferb are never disobeying their mom. They may be doing things that will get them in trouble, but they don’t know that they would get them in trouble you know. It’s like mom doesn’t say don’t, don’t build a roller coaster in the back yard. She says, “Stay out of trouble.”

They don’t really have a frame of reference for trouble since they’ve never really been in trouble. And Candace is not trying to hurt Phineas and Ferb she just wants– she’s going for fairness. “If I did this mom wouldn’t get mad at me. So I just need mom to see this.” And, and they’re very subtle differences uh and then just like having everybody be sort of nice to each other. Nobody’s ever motivated by meanness. These are all very subtle things that we thought would go over the heads of the, of the audience but just to have a nice feel. And people have written all sorts of articles about the show in which they get all of those things. I’m just thrilled that it actually came through and, and that you know it feels like it’s a kinder, gentler show than a lot, than a lot of other shows out there.