There’s 104 days of summer vacation, and in 2015 it wasn’t school that came along to end it, but Disney Channel. Now, almost exactly 10 years after ending with Season 4, “Phineas and Ferb” is back.
The fifth season of the animated series hit Disney+ on Friday, with 10 episodes —and 30 more to come — an order that thoroughly surprised creators and showrunners Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh. According to the duo, there’s always been “murmuring” about more, which resulted in two TV movies. So, they thought Disney was approaching them just for another film.
Instead they were told “we think we should never have stopped doing this show” -and from that came the deal for not one but two more seasons that continue directly from the original.
And that original set a high bar. During its 2007-2015 run, “Phineas and Ferb” became the most successful animated series for viewers aged 6-14 in Disney Television Animation history, spawning a live touring show, junior novels, and a now-defunct attraction in Disney World. It also won 5 Emmys.
But, according to Povenmire and Marsh, they felt no pressure making the new episodes (at least until we mentioned that viewership stat).
“Now I’m terrified!” Marsh joked with TheWrap. Speaking seriously, the duo had a simple goal.
“What we’re trying to do is just make the show that we were making before,” Povenmire explained. “We would like it to be that, if you were watching the show, and you watch fourth season and went into fifth season, you wouldn’t notice a difference. And the good thing is, because it’s animated, you can do that. None of the characters have aged, we can make them as much the same as possible.”
It helps that nearly every actor from the original series — Vincent Martella, Alyson Stoner, Ashley Tisdale, Caroline Rhea, and Dee Bradley Baker — is returning. According to Marsh and Povenmire, they never wanted to change the cast, and it was a very easy yes from each of the actors (which also include the duo themselves).
“I was joking earlier, this is the most stable relationship I’ve been in,” Alyson Stoner, who plays Isabella, told TheWrap. “It’s the longest relationship I’ve been in, and it’s just something that I hold very close.”
It’s also something fans hold close. “Phineas & Ferb” taught an entire generation what an aglet is — it’s the plastic piece at the end of the shoelace, and it got an entire song devoted to it in the original series, though Marsh lamented they didn’t score free aglets for life — and recently got a second life on TikTok, with sound bytes from the series turning into lip syncing trends.
Among those longtime fans is David Errigo Jr., who also happens to be the only newcomer of sorts to the cast. He’s taken over the voice of Ferb Fletcher, joking that he’s “the transfer student” of the group. But, he noted he’s a “fan first.” As such, he never had any intention of trying to put a unique spin on Ferb.
Thomas Brodie-Sangster, best known for “Love Actually” and the “Maze Runner” films, originated the character, but Errigo stepped in for an episode of the since-canceled series “Milo Murphy’s Law” in 2017 and then again for “Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe.”
“I don’t think I try to make him my own, to be honest,” Errigo told TheWrap. “I really, really want to honor everything that Thomas did and brought to it, and everything that was in those scripts and those episodes.”
In fact, Errigo noted that he managed to get his voice so close to Brodie-Sangster’s that when the casting director layered his audition tape over a sample from the original show, the two files nearly matched. So, he joined the Flynn-Fletcher family.
Meanwhile, Stoner, Tisdale and Rhea have been in the general Disney family for decades now. Rhea admitted that her “favorite thing” is when people come to her stand-up shows with parents, with each knowing her from a different project.
Stoner started out on “Mike’s Super Short Show,” which ran during commercial breaks on Disney Channel in the early 2000s, and eventually went on to star in “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” the “Camp Rock” films and more. But they’re pretty glad that “Phineas and Ferb” is the one that’s legged out, both for the “goodness” it brings to the world and the example her character sets.
“One of the beautiful gifts of playing this character is that I was actually getting my first map of the world when I first booked the role,” they said. “And so, credit to Dan and Swampy, who gave me a template for what a young girl, young woman, can be in the world, and I didn’t have to think twice.”
“I saw Isabella providing solutions to problems. I saw Isabella not hesitating to join in on the fun. And I think that paved the way for me to see my daily, real self, as capable of doing the same things,” Stoner continued. “And now looking back, it feels really heartwarming to know that they were doing something for a whole demographic of people. They were thinking about these things way ahead of time.”
For Tisdale, who voices Phineas and Ferb’s big sister Candace, the return of the series has reminded people of just how many beloved projects she’s also been in, and marked her only major acting job in about five years.
“It feels great. I feel finally seen as the Disney icon that I am,” she joked, breaking into laughter before she could even finish the sentence. “I’m just kidding!”
Ironically, the very first episode of “Phineas & Ferb” previewed back in 2007, immediately following the broadcast premiere of “High School Musical 2,” in which Tisdale starred as Sharpay Evans. She doesn’t remember the specifics — she was insanely busy at the time — but she noted there was trepidation from the network around both projects.
“Dan and Swampy had just said earlier that Disney had been like, ‘This is not a typical show for us … and we don’t know how it’s going to do.’ And that’s actually something that I knew about ‘High School Musical,’” she recalled. “They did not think ‘High School Musical’ was going to be as big as it was, because it was their first musical on the channel.”
“I remember they didn’t put a lot into ‘High School Musical,’” Tisdale added of the marketing. “And it was the success of it that they were like, ‘Oh, my God!’ And that is by far the coolest stuff to be a part of.”
Even without a clear idea of how it would perform, Disney generally allowed Povenmire and Marsh to do their thing on “Phineas and Ferb.” In fact, there were times where the duo themselves would cut moments from the show that the network had already approved.
“Phineas and Ferb” was also quietly a bit more mature than many animated series on the channel, with the duo crediting their time writing on “The Simpsons” and “Rocco’s Modern Life” for that.
“At the time [of ‘Rocco’s Modern Life’] Nickelodeon was trying to get eyes on there, and they were being a little more sensational. They let us get away with a lot more,” Marsh recalled. “Animation was really just being discovered. And at the time, ‘Ren and Stimpy’ was going on, it was kind of wild and crazy out there.”
“And I think a lot of our experience on that is what led us to making the decisions that we made when we got to ‘Phineas & Ferb,’” he added. “Of saying, ‘Hey, you know, we’re at Disney now, let’s see if we can still make a show that’s fun and edgy and cool, but without using any of those tools.’”
One tool they insisted on keeping though, both then and now, is intelligent humor.
“We kind of made the commitment not to cut something simply because somebody thought it was too smart for the audience,” Marsh said. “That’s not a valid reason to cut it. It’s not the only jokes we’re making. They’re not all way up here, but it’s OK to have jokes for mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt, cousin.”
“Yeah, if they said ‘I don’t know if our audience is going to get it,’ we’d always say, ‘Well, as long as it doesn’t make your audience change the channel, we’re playing to the adults in the room,” Povenmire agreed.
As an added bonus, the show also encourages kids to get outside and play, which Stoner, Errigo and Vincent Martella, who voices Phineas, love just as much.
“I think giving a show to these families that can inspire them in these ways, and show them a world of possibilities, and encourage that, is a very good thing,” Martella said. “And it’s going to be cool for families to watch this who have never seen a show that encourages that so much.”
“I think there’s something tremendous about the the idea that ‘I’m going to do,’ as opposed to, ‘I’m going to be a viewer of’ or ‘I’m going to let others do, and then I’m going to experience secondhand,’” Errigo agreed.
But really, beyond inspiring kids and families, the “Phineas and Ferb” gang just want to put some joy in the world.
“In my dreams, this new series will heal the world and bring us all closer together,” Marsh said with a laugh. “I say that jokingly, but I do think that there’s something to be said for having something out there that is a kind, understanding world, you know?”
“Phineas & Ferb” is now streaming on Disney+.
