It’s not too often that parents and kids can sit and watch television together. Sporting events, maybe some of the tamer reality shows like American Idol or Dancing With the Stars (sans Lil’ Kim’s near wardrobe malfunction).
But Phineas and Ferb can get the whole family laughing on the couch. The show, which premiered in 2007 and is now on Disney XD, is the creation of Dan Povenmire (Family Guy) and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh (Rocko’s Modern Life), who met while work-ing on The Simpsons. Their joint venture has all the craziness of their more adult shows, but it replaces the ribaldry with a secret agent pet platy-pus and floating baby heads. Trippy!
On the occasion of a new episode premiering today on the Emmy-nominated show, we had a chance to chat with Povenmire and Marsh about the show :
How does a guy who worked on the cutting-edge Family Guy wind up doing a show on Disney?
Povenmire: Well, I also worked on SpongeBob SquarePants and I like to think that Phineas and Ferb is the exact artistic midpoint between Fam-ily Guy and SpongeBob. I’m not even sure what that means, but it does seem true.
What’s the difference between do-ing a show like Family Guy and doing Phineas and Ferb?
Povenmire: Well, the language, of course. But the actual biggest differ-ences are the budget and schedule. Prime time animation like Family Guy just has a lot more time to spend on a project. At Phineas and Ferb, we do in a week what would take months when I was on Family Guy so we’re sort of going full steam ahead con-stantly.
Will there be a Star Wars take off on P&F like there was on Fam-ily Guy?
Marsh: We’ve got an episode com-ing up that lampoons a few of our favorite sci-fi films. There are more than a few Star Wars references, but it’s definitely not a full “take-off.” We got Lorenzo Lamas to do a voice for it!
What’s up with the giant floating baby head that appears from time to time?
Povenmire: That came from one board panel drawn by Mike Diederich and one of our directors, Rob Hughes, thought it was hilarious and made a whole bit about it. Now it shows up all the time.
Marsh: We try not to think too much about the floating baby head. It makes us laugh. ‘Nuff said.
Povenmire: Well, I also worked on SpongeBob SquarePants and I like to think that Phineas and Ferb is the exact artistic midpoint between Fam-ily Guy and SpongeBob. I’m not even sure what that means, but it does seem true.
What’s the difference between do-ing a show like Family Guy and doing Phineas and Ferb?
Povenmire: Well, the language, of course. But the actual biggest differ-ences are the budget and schedule. Prime time animation like Family Guy just has a lot more time to spend on a project. At Phineas and Ferb, we do in a week what would take months when I was on Family Guy so we’re sort of going full steam ahead con-stantly.
Will there be a Star Wars take off on P&F like there was on Fam-ily Guy?
Marsh: We’ve got an episode com-ing up that lampoons a few of our favorite sci-fi films. There are more than a few Star Wars references, but it’s definitely not a full “take-off.” We got Lorenzo Lamas to do a voice for it!
What’s up with the giant floating baby head that appears from time to time?
Povenmire: That came from one board panel drawn by Mike Diederich and one of our directors, Rob Hughes, thought it was hilarious and made a whole bit about it. Now it shows up all the time.
Marsh: We try not to think too much about the floating baby head. It makes us laugh. ‘Nuff said.
