page_title: Phineas and Ferb
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Phineas and Ferb / Plot
caption_attribution_description: English: View of downtown Mobile, Alabama. Taken from onboard the MS Holiday.
context_page_description: Phineas and Ferb is an American animated musical comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation. Originally broadcast as a one-episode preview on August 17, 2007, and again previewed on September 28, 2007, the series officially premiered on February 1, 2008, on Disney Channel, running until June 12, 2015. The program follows Phineas Flynn and his stepbrother Ferb Fletcher on summer vacation. Every day, the boys embark on some grand new project; these are usually unrealistic given the protagonists' ages, which annoys their controlling sister, Candace, who frequently tries to reveal their shenanigans to her and Phineas' mother, Linda Flynn-Fletcher, and less frequently to Ferb's father, Lawrence Fletcher. The series follows a standard plot system: running gags occur every episode, and the b-plot almost always features Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus Perry the Platypus working as a spy for OWCA, to defeat the latest scheme of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a mad scientist driven largely by a need to assert his evilness. The two plots intersect at the end to erase all traces of the boys' project just before Candace can show it to their mother.
context_section_description: The show follows the adventures of stepbrothers Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella) and Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Sangster), who live in the fictional city of Danville, in a (never specified) tri-state area, as they seek ways to occupy their time during their summer vacation. Often these adventures involve elaborate, life-sized and ostensibly dangerous construction projects.  Phineas's older sister, Candace Flynn (Ashley Tisdale), has two obsessions: "busting" Phineas and Ferb's schemes and ideas, and winning the attention of a boy named Jeremy (Mitchel Musso). Meanwhile, the boys' pet platypus, Perry, acts as a secret agent for an all-animal government organization called the O.W.C.A. ("Organization Without a Cool Acronym"), fighting Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
  Much of the series' humor relies on running gags used in almost every episode, with slight variation. Most episodes follow a pattern:
  Some incident gives Phineas an idea for a project, and he announces, "Hey, Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!"
  Meanwhile, Perry slips away, using one of many hidden tunnels, to a secret underground base. Phineas (or occasionally another character) remarks, "Hey, where's Perry?"
  Major Monogram briefs Perry (whom he calls "Agent P") on his mission; this sometimes amounts to nothing more than "Doctor Doofenshmirtz is up to something; find out what it is, and put a stop to it!"
  Candace sees what the boys are doing, and resolves to tell her Mom to "bust them".
  Perry breaks into the skyscraper office of Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc. (complete with its own easy listening jingle, and variations depending on location and time). Doofenshmirtz traps Perry and explains his current evil plan. Perry escapes the trap and they battle.
  Phineas and Ferb complete their project.
  Mom gets home and Candace thinks that, at last, Mom will see what the boys have been up to and believe her, but just as Mom is about to step into the back yard, all evidence vanishes, usually as a side effect of Doofenshmirtz's device.
  Doofenshmirtz, foiled again, cries out, "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!"
  Other running gags:
  An adult asks Phineas if he is rather young to be performing some complex activities; he responds, "Yes, yes, I am" (although the adult never tries to stop the boys from their fun, and Phineas usually has all legal clearance for his ideas to be executed, including building permits.)
  Doofenshmirtz's names for his contraptions all have the same suffix, "-inator", as in Shrinkinator, Giant Dog Biscuit-inator, "Eradicate Rodney's -Inator", etc. Eventually he starts calling them "inators" as a generic term.
  Doofenshmirtz has a daughter, Vanessa, who generally finds his work boring, but sometimes tries to prove to her mother that he is evil. Like Candace, she always fails.
  Ferb rarely speaks more than once in an episode.
  Garden gnomes are often seen or used as plot points.
  Isabella, who has a crush on Phineas, comes into the backyard and asks, "Whatcha doin'?" in a distinctive singsong tone.
  She does not like it when other characters (besides Phineas) say that line. For example, in "Suddenly Suzy", after both Suzy and Candace speak that line, Isabella grumbles "Uh, hello!?" and "Do I even need to be here?", respectively.
  Aspects of the show's humor are aimed at adults, including its frequent pop-culture references. Co-creator Dan Povenmire, who had previously worked on Family Guy, sought to create a less raunchy show that would make similar use of comic timing, metahumor, humorous blank stares, wordplay and breaking the fourth wall. Povenmire describes the show as a combination of Family Guy and SpongeBob SquarePants. Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, the other co-creator, said the show was not created just for kids; he simply did not exclude them as an audience.
caption: Povenmire drew inspiration for the show from his boyhood in Mobile, Alabama.[3]
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