[00:00:25] Speaker A: You.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Cosmic Cafe
[email protected]. Each week we talk to someone in the entertainment coverage world about a different fandom, usually a nostalgia fandom. And this week we're talking to Leah of the podcast she Will Rock You.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: About Phineas and Ferb.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: This is a Disney Channel show. It aired from 2007 to, I think, 2015 with a movie a couple of years ago as well. Yeah, it's a different kind of discussion we had, but it's pretty interesting, so I hope you enjoy it.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: So welcome. We have Leah here, as I already described in our introduction. But, yeah, we're talking Phineas and FERV today.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: I'm so excited. I even brought stuffed Perry to join us for the occasion.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Hopefully, if we ever post the video of this, you'll get to see him.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: He's here in spirit.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: We do record video for these podcasts. It's just sometimes it sucks and sometimes I don't know how to edit it. So you guys are getting the audio up first and we'll see if it ever gets the video. Maybe you're watching the video right now in the future. But yes. Denise and Ferb. And Perry. Perry is an important part of the show.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: He's a platypus. He doesn't really do much.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
So what is your history with Phineas and Herb?
This year is going to be the 15th anniversary, I think, in August because it's the same day as High School Musical, too. So August 17.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: That was a good time on Disney Channel. I remember watching the premiere because they hyped it up for weeks on Disney Channel.
We kept getting the teaser snippets. And I was very much a Disney Channel kid, probably well beyond when I should have been a Disney Channel kid to like 15 or 16.
But I remember watching the premiere and just thinking it was so funny and so different. And of course, it had, like, the Ashley Tisdale perk, too. So all the High School Musical fans immediately were like, well, we got to watch this.
And I rewatched the pilot to prep for this. And it's funny how not bad, but how aged the pilot looks now compared to how the animation looks in later seasons. But it's still funny. It's still cute. It's still just like the cutest concept. And of course, I was immediately obsessed with Perry, as was everyone. I remember you could go into Walmart and, like, half their merchandise was Perry the Platypus. I still have a pair of pajama pants that I stole from my.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: I.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: Mean, the show I still think about it almost every day when something will remind me of one of the songs that was in it or a joke that was in it. I live really close to an actual tri city area, so I always call it the tri state area.
And no one gets my reference ever. But I do think about it all the time.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's just stuff like it's kind of like SpongeBob, like early SpongeBob, where it's kind of seeded into popular culture with the references and references and the Dr. Doo stuff, especially. But you mentioned Ashley Tisdale and she was actually, like, my favorite Disney Channel person, I think I would say. I did a project on her when we had to do one celebrities when I was ten.
Yeah, that was pre phineas and ferb. But I was, of course, very excited she was on the show and I thought she was great as Candace.
Yeah, because it's crazy because it feels like High School Musical Two was, like, so long before Phineas and Ferb to me. But it was like, the same day. It feels like they're from two different eras.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: It really does, because there was overlap.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: With Phineas and Ferb and Kim Possible, even though it feels like KP is from a different era than Phineas and Human overlap, I found out. And yeah, it was just so weird because Phineas Ferb went on for so long.
[00:04:30] Speaker C: I didn't realize how long it went on because obviously I stopped watching as I got to be, like, 1718 and it would just maybe be on the background. My brother is watching it or something.
But now that's on Disney plus, I kind of want to work through all the seasons again just because they're so funny.
There's my cat.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Okay, we'll pause. Yeah, don't pause the recording. Oh, my gosh, it's a black cat.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Like, what's his name? Her name is Ahsoka.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Ahsoka. Hi, Ahsoka. Can she hear me?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: I don't know, because I have earbuds in, but she's trying to escape.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: I say hi. She's so cute.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: She's very small.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: She was stretching up. Okay, so the thing with Phoenix and Verb was it was like the one Disney Channel show actress stopped watching most of Channel. Like, I would still generally sort of keep up with unlike the live action ones, less so, but that one and I don't know if there's any there in animated ones at the like, I think if I saw a rerun of Kim Possible, I would probably watch that. Other than that, they kind of stepped.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: Away from animated shows right after this started. I can't think of a single currently running Disney Channel animated.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Mean. I can think of, like, Gravity Falls.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: Which came out oh, yeah.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: And then wander over yonder like Owl has his Disney. I still need to watch that.
[00:05:52] Speaker C: I forgot about Gravity Falls. I never really got into Gravity Falls.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I didn't either. But I should. I should watch it.
Yeah, there's a lot I should watch because the Trifecta for a while was Adventure Time, gravity Falls and Steven Universe. Right. That was kind of the shows of the Phoenix Rural went on from, like, I think, 2007 to 2015. So that was quite a while. And then they did the movie, like the latest movie a couple of years ago.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: I didn't even know there was the latest movie until Dan Popenmeyer got on TikTok and was like, here's some behind the scenes of the latest Phineas and Ferb movie.
Everyone was like, what do you mean, latest Phineas and Fur movie?
[00:06:36] Speaker A: It was like this big deal on Disney Plus because this was before Disney Plus had more content. So it's like, we're doing a Phineas and Furb movie, and I'm pretty sure this was 2020. So Disney Plus had like, the Mandalorian High School Musical series and that was it.
I think they might do more of it because they did Milo Murphy's Law, which is the next show Dan Pavener and Jeff wampi Marsh did after Phoenix Verb, and they had like Doof was on it. Doof became like a main character on that show. I didn't see much of that show, but Doof became a main character. And I think Vanessa showed up as well at some point, and maybe Perry even. I don't know. But it's clearly they still like Phineas and Ferb. Everyone still wants more Phineas and Ferb. So I think they might find more ways of bringing it back. I don't know.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: There's such a resurgence with him being on TikTok, too, and giving us all this content that either didn't get used or just behind the scenes stuff. The comments are always just flooded with, this is my favorite show. You were my childhood, please come back. So I think it could get some footing if they did something with it on Disney Plus.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I think if they bring it back to plus, like, that would be treated like the headliner content, or people would treat it like the headliner content. I don't think Disney would, but I think the audience would, and then maybe the next season they would. I don't know if they want to do another movie. I'd rather see I feel like another summer of episodes or like based on their summer. I feel like that's the best format for the show, I think, because okay, so with Sidious and Ferb so here's what I noticed with that show. Because you saw the pilot, right? And you're like, it's very dated, right?
[00:08:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's more the animation style because I'm sure the budget was super low.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: Yeah, the pilot basically the first few episodes of the show are very basic.
There's this very clear formula, and I remember watching it and like, okay, well, this show isn't like this, that good. Or like, you could tell what's going to happen every episode, and then a few episodes in, they start playing around with it's like, yeah, you know the formula and we can play around within it a lot more. Like you have references and just mixing up the format and just doing silly things and being very meta about it.
And then they kind of broke off from it for some episodes, which I think was good, too.
I think that's what made it last so long. Because if they'd done the basic format, I think it maybe would have gotten maybe like two seasons, but they made it more fun and they really went off. They went in an unexpected direction. They're like, okay, so here's how it works, and then here's the parameters, and now we can just play around with it. And I think that's why it lasted so long. That music.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: The songs are so good. I sing the Aglet song anytime an Aglet comes up in conversation.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: When you mentioned that the things from the show just pop into your mind during regular life, that was the first thing I thought of.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: All the like, I wouldn't know what an Aglet was if it wasn't for the whole Phineas and Ferb song.
That and the Happy Birthday Mom song. I don't know why those are the two that stick most in my head, but they are my favorite song in.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: The whole show is Platypus Controlling Me. Do you know that one?
[00:09:50] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Okay. That's probably my favorite. I think it's just so random, like the whole scene. And I also like it because it kind of shows how Perry and Duf are sort of friends because Perry helps him out.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: They're work friends.
[00:10:04] Speaker A: It's so, like it's like frenemies and then people take it to a different direction, which I don't want to talk about because it makes me uncomfortable.
[00:10:14] Speaker C: Yeah, there's always that section of the.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Internet they're friends that are like, know.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: It'S a kids show.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Is there any standout moments to you or characters like that?
[00:10:30] Speaker C: I mean, Perry's always my favorite, but other than that, I love the background characters and they get a good scene. Like Baljeet, his whole anytime he's involved, it's just like the funniest episodes. Nothing specific is coming to mind. Exactly.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: I remember the one where he's in the band or like, he went to band camp and complained and he didn't like it because they weren't giving him grades.
[00:10:56] Speaker C: Yes. I thought he's just like such a stereotypical nerd. And then the whole side arc with their mom and the guy in love handle. It's hilarious to me. It's such an unnecessary arc. We never get arcs and cartoons about their parents and the life before the show when they have kids. But they set themselves up having it be a blended family with Stepbrothers. But then they went this whole other direction and gave mom a previous lover before even Candice and Phineas's dad.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Didn't she date Doof at one point? And that was like a thing.
[00:11:34] Speaker C: I think.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: That happened for, like, an episode. I mean, like, in the past. Mom has lots of exes in the.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Phineas and Ferb universe.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: And the mom was a pop star as well. And she had the Lindana song and for some reason, her singing voice was Vanessa, aka Olivia Olsen, also from Adventure Time.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: That's hilarious.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: But it's her like, I noticed Olivia Olsen who's like an amazing singer and the best singer on the show. She was singing a lot of the background songs as well, not just as her character, Vanessa. And I love whenever she would do that, I would get so excited.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: I didn't know that. That's pretty cool.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: No, I can tell it's her. It's like there was this weird song at one point, I remember, and it was like her and Dan Poppemeyer, who plays Doofy Schwartz, who's her dad in the show scene. And it's like, oh my gosh, they're like singing together but not as their characters. It sounds so but like I love it. And it's like I don't think because Dan Poppenmeyer I think sings some of the background songs as well. Yeah, kind of tells him I think.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: They had to use them whenever they didn't have budget to hire someone else. They're like, Dan can do it.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember having a lot of the demo re listening to a lot of the demos with him and with him singing because he came up with songs and so yeah, that was pretty cool.
Did you see any fandom based stuff like art fanfic as harrow for this show? Or was it more of just a different experience watching it?
[00:13:07] Speaker C: I feel like it was very much a fandom free thing, which maybe was a good thing by the time I got on Tumblr when I was 1819. You get the occasional pick set with a really good joke or something really funny or someone finally getting a joke. Because some of the jokes are kind of not adult humor, like not crude humor, but they're kind of advanced and you're not going to get it at seven, eight when you're watching the show and someone finally connect the dots and be like, oh, that's actually a really funny joke and I'm just now getting it.
But that was probably the extent. I never read like Phineas and Ferb fan fiction. I think that would be super weird, actually, if that exists.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: I read this. It's like mostly pretty wholesome.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: That's good because I feel like it could get really weird really fast.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: I think this show that you can easily like you're not missing out on any of the jokes you'll see on top one, you can get the joke even if you weren't like in the fandom or however doing the fan anymore. It's like just this show. It's like SpongeBob. Everyone kind of gets it right. And so it's nice because there's not a lot of discourse you have to deal with if you want to mention something. Because for example, if you want to mention something about Star Wars, like make a Star Wars joke, you know, there's going to be discourse about something. It's going to turn into that, but not with Vinny Sinford, which is really nice.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Yeah, you just get it. It's wholesome and you move on.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
I don't know. It's just like this most wholesome show. And they built, like, kind of there's like a sort of community around it with watching the TikToks and everything. But it's like a very wholesome one.
Because I feel like with a lot of other stuff we've discussed in the show there's been a lot of discourse and stuff, but not with this. It's just like, yeah, we like this, or whatever. It's good.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: Other than the first couple of episodes looking low budget because they probably were low budget, it's aged really well. There's nothing super dated. Like if you go rewatch sweet life of Zach and Cody. The fashion is so bad and so dated in those episodes.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw like I was watching the clip of Brenda Song talking about her career, and they were showing like the Prindall episode and it's like, oh my gosh, that outfit is like really two thousand s. I mean, it looks good on her, but still she could pull it off. But yeah, I was like, wow, people really wore this stuff.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: They did exaggerate a lot on Disney Channel, especially in Maddie's costumes. I feel like they'd have her wear like three ties at one time, which was completely unnecessary.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Disney Channel is crazy with the fashion. They like, layer.
[00:15:39] Speaker C: It was it was very much the dresses over jeans with a cardigan over it era.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Yeah. I think even on shows like Kim Possible where they did kind of have a few different outfits each, they switched around. The fashion is dated on that show, but it's not really dated on Phoenix and FERV.
[00:15:54] Speaker C: It's just like it's because it's super simple. It's like striped T shirt, blue shorts, you're done. That's your outfit forever.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: Kind of like looking kind of retro, but it's like subtle. I mean, even retro for 2007. It was like retro for like it looks almost like a go Vanessa's goth, but it's like a jumpsuit kind of it's like not like a weird, really.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: Obvious yeah, it's not like a goth.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Like a Hot Topic goth.
[00:16:23] Speaker C: It's not a specific silhouette that you're going to think looks terrible in ten years.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: All the Love Handle characters are dated on purpose.
It just really works. Even the music. Most of the music isn't dated unless they want it to be.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: Yeah. Like the Love Handle songs are obviously hairband Knockoffs, but sometimes they do like 50 style songs.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: It's supposed to be very intentional and otherwise I don't want to say generic, maybe timeless. Yeah, definitely not generic, but yeah. So did you end up watching the end of the show?
[00:17:00] Speaker C: No, and I feel like I don't want to.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: You didn't see Actor age.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: No.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, okay. Because I was going to ask about that because I don't know if that was probably the most controversial moment and even then it wasn't even that controversial. But it was cool. You got to see Dan Swampy showed up on the show and they introduced the episode and it's like they're going to see them as teenagers now. And then they're teenagers. And I think the discourse was Ferb dating Vanessa, even though Vanessa would have been like, a certain age. Although it's like, he's 18 now. It's okay.
That was like the discourse. I don't know. Or if Denise and Isabelle didn't get together the correct way. I don't know what they wanted. But yeah, that was probably the most discourse. Every episode of the show that was right before the end.
[00:17:46] Speaker C: I kind of hate when shows take ageless characters and age them up for no good reason. Like, the only time it ever really worked was Rugrats because they made a whole series out of Arthur, which we.
[00:17:58] Speaker A: Have an episode about this show. I had that with Sarah from not Disneysider. Boardwalk times.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Yeah, they didn't do that well at all.
They did them dirty.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Do not watch the Phineas and Ferb then, because you might be disappointed.
[00:18:15] Speaker C: It's an endless summer to me. They're going to say the same age ten forever.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Yes, please.
I don't know. I think it's crazy that episode happened because people were begging for it for years, had the idea for years, but it's like, should it have happened? I don't know.
It was very fancy, basically.
I like the way the show ended, mostly with this was like Duke and kind of turning to a good guy. And then they started working for Alca, and then they had the Alka file special. And that's why Duke's kind of good. I mean, he was never really that evil.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: No, he was terrible at being able.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: I still don't get why they did that. I have to watch that show because I don't understand.
[00:18:58] Speaker C: I need to watch it now that you've told me about it.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: He's not on it from the beginning, but he gets on it after a while and then he just becomes a regular character. It's really random.
It's like he wormed himself on the show. I don't know. Yeah. Any other thoughts on Phineas and Ferb?
[00:19:18] Speaker C: I wish they would bring back the Merch. I feel like now that I can afford it, it's not available or it's stupid expensive on ebay. Like, my dog chewed a hole in my pants. My pajama pants that I have. I was like, how much is another pair of these? And it was more than you should pay for pajama pants from Walmart.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Well, I'm going to have to log off this thing and say, oh, they just left. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I'm recording this in a different space today, a more semi public space in my building. So if people come in, people come in. So that's what happened. But this was great. This was fun.
This just episode just made me realize how undiscoursey and problematic and fandom like this show is. You could easily appreciate it without getting into it, which is the same with a lot of things. But for such a fandom based show, this is this isn't like a fandom based series. And that's kind of nice.
[00:20:10] Speaker C: Yeah. As someone who is a major Star Wars fan, it's nice to have something that you like that's not scrutinized in every little aspect.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah. I think for me, that was, like, the one Day at a Time Ruby, which had a fandom, and I shared stuff on it, but there wasn't, like, a ton of discourse. It was just mostly people appreciating it. And I really like, like, you need that kind of thing. It's like a healthier way to consume.
Healthy way. Especially if you're so deep into something else, you need things that aren't. And I have trouble because I always want to Google everything and know about everything about everything. But, yeah, it's nice to have, like, a more casual show. Yes.
So thank you so much for joining us, Leah.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks for having me.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Thank you so much to Leah for coming on the podcast to talk Phoenix and Ferb. We had a great time.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Like I said, a bit of a.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Different podcast, but I think it was pretty cool. You can follow Leah at Leah Elizabeth J on Twitter as well as she will rock you, pod. And you can follow the cosmic circus on Twitter as well. And also visit our website for our other podcasts and all our articles and yeah, thank you for listening.
