Emma Polen | News Editor
The fan-favorite Disney show “Phineas and Ferb” will return soon for 40 more days of summer vacation.
Ayo Davis, president of Disney Branded Television, officially announced the show’s revival at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. There will be 40 new episodes, divided between two seasons, Davis said.
D23, the official Disney fan club website, collected quotes from the press tour.
Dan Povenmire, co-creator and executive producer of “Phineas and Ferb,” will be leading the project for the show’s revival.
“Dan is renowned for his ability to create universally beloved stories and characters with both heart and humor,” Davis said at the press tour. “We couldn’t be happier to continue our collaboration with him and bring back the iconic ‘Phineas and Ferb’ in a big way.”
During its original run, Povenmire voiced several characters for the show. Most memorable is his character Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, an evil scientist who was always creating “-inators” with a conveniently placed self-destruct button.
In addition, Povenmire wrote several songs and scripts and also illustrated for the 200-some total episodes of “Phineas and Ferb”. He has continued to produce this creative content on his own social media platforms, most notably TikTok where he has 6.3 million followers.
“It has been the greatest pleasure of my career to see how an entire generation of kids and parents have embraced the characters and the humor of ‘Phineas and Ferb,’” Povenmire said at the press tour. “I’m eagerly looking forward to diving back into the show for them and for a whole new generation.”
While “Phineas and Ferb” await their episodic adventures to return, plenty of content remains available for fans of the show’s family-friendly story, rockstar cast and catchy tunes.
The show’s debut was in 2007, and ran until 2015 on Disney television channels.
All episodes of “Phineas and Ferb,” with additional content including the unreleased “O.W.C.A. Files” show about Perry the Platypus and his crew of animal agent friends, are available on Disney+.
After 2015, several other Povenmire-led projects were released to Disney channel and streaming services.
“Candace Against the Universe” was an hour-and-a-half movie featuring the storyline and characters of “Phineas and Ferb” released August of 2020–a welcome sight for fans stuck at home during the pandemic.
In addition to the adventures of “Phineas and Ferb,” the show was also made worth the watch for its voice actors.
Main leads who returned every episode included Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella), Candace Flynn (Ashley Tisdale), Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Linda Flynn (Caroline Rhea), Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz (Dan Povenmire, co-creator) and Major Francis Monogram (Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, co-creator). The show also featured celebrity guest voice appearances including Corbin Bleu and bug adventurer duo Napoleon and Wendell, played by J.K. Simmons and Josh Gad respectively.
Povenmire, Marsh and the rest of the main crew will return for the new seasons, said Davis.
In case fans ever get bored rewatching their favorite “Phineas and Ferb” episodes, Disney has also released several series involving Povenmire, Marsh and their animation team.
The 2016 show, “Milo Murphy’s Law,” starred “Weird Al” Yankovic as Milo, a surprisingly optimistic middle schooler with a lot not going his way. “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong” was Milo’s catchphrase due to Murphy’s Law, a curse that affected all of the men in his family.
In August, the series “Hamster and Gretel” premiered on Disney Channel. Gretel (Meli Povenmire) is a young girl gifted superpowers by aliens. By some strange events, her hamster, cleverly named Hamster, was also gifted superpowers and together the two save the city. A second season of the new Povenmire show was promised for renewal at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
In addition to iconic episodes and catchphrases, “Phineas and Ferb” has a long list of catchy tunes that have remained popular since the show’s last episode aired.
Songs like “S.I.M.P (Squirrels in My Pants)” by 2 Guys n the Parque and “Busted” by Candace and Vanessa (voiced by Ashley Tisdale and Olivia Olson) have remained popular on music streaming platforms. “S.I.M.P (Squirrels in My Pants)” experienced an interesting revival last fall as a TikTok dance trend. The Spotify artist “Cast of Phineas and Ferb” has almost 170,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
“Phineas and Ferb” did more than grace the screen. The show’s influence on pop culture and its creative team have continued to remain relevant after the show originally stopped airing new episodes. Now, fans will see a revival that brings their favorite characters back to life.