Povenmire and Marsh conceived the characters while working together on animated programs The Simpsons and Rocko's Modern Life in the 1990s, and were inspired by the summers of their own childhoods.

Phineas and Ferb is produced by Disney Television Animation, and was originally broadcast as a one-episode preview on August 17, 2007, following the premiere of the made-for-television film High School Musical 2.

Often these adventures involve elaborate, life-sized, and ostensibly dangerous construction projects, which are usually unrealistic in scale given the protagonists' ages (and sometimes physically impossible).

[8] The two plots intersect at the end of each episode, erasing all traces of the boys' project just before a dismayed Candace can show it to their mother and destroying Doofenshmirtz's evil contraption; either occurrence usually indirectly leads to the other's in some way.

The series' main characters live in a blended family, a premise that the creators considered underused in children's programming and that reflected Marsh's own upbringing.

[5] While attending the University of Southern California, Povenmire started a daily comic strip called Life Is a Fish, and received money from the sale of its related merchandise.

He eventually dropped out and started drawing people on street corners to make a living, until he was finally called by Tommy Chong to work on a short bit of animation in the film Far Out Man.

[3] While eating dinner at a Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, Povenmire drew a quick sketch of a "triangle kid" on butcher paper.

[17] The writing duo's early attempts to pitch the show failed and, though they remained committed to the concept, Povenmire and Marsh began to drift apart after their work on Rocko's.

However, Disney Channel senior vice president of original series Adam Bonnett was a Family Guy fan who appreciated Povenmire's connection to the show and received his pitch well.

[24] 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.

One of the things that I think works so well is that the characters are so bright and candy-colored and our backgrounds are a much more realistic depiction of the world: the soft green of the grass, the natural woods for the fence.

[29] The rest of the cast includes Ashley Tisdale as their sister Candace; Bobby Gaylor as Buford van Stomm, who has a tendency to bully but is kept distracted by being included in the adventures; Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet Tjinder, a very intelligent boy who avoids being Buford's main victim by their participation in the adventures; Dee Bradley Baker as Perry the Platypus; Caroline Rhea as Linda Flynn-Fletcher, Phineas and Candace's mother and stepmother to Ferb;[28] Richard O'Brien as Lawrence Fletcher, Ferb's father and Phineas and Candace's stepfather;[30] Jack McBrayer as Irving, who admires Phineas and Ferb, and is the creator of the Phineas and Ferb fansite; Kelly Hu as Candace's best friend Stacy;[29] Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz; Marsh as Major Monogram; Olivia Olson as Dr. Doofenshmirtz's daughter Vanessa; Tyler Mann as Carl, Major Monogram's goofy super genius intern; Alyson Stoner as neighbor Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, a sweet Mexican/Jewish girl with a crush on Phineas; Mitchel Musso as Jeremy, Candace's crush and later her boyfriend; and Madison Pettis as Adyson Sweetwater, a member of Isabella's Fireside Girls troop.

[31] Other guest stars include Tina Fey, Seth MacFarlane, David Mitchell, Jaret Reddick, Clay Aiken, Chaka Khan and Kevin Smith.

We've done every genre known to man: ABBA, Broadway show tunes, 16th-century madrigals" Phineas and Ferb follows structural conventions that Povenmire and Marsh developed while writing Rocko's Modern Life, whereby each episode features "a song or a musical number, plus a big action/chase scene.

[35] The title sequence song "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day", performed by the American group Bowling for Soup, was nominated for an Emmy award in 2008.

[8][33] The creators originally wrote a slower number more in keeping with a "classic Disney song", but the network felt that changes were needed to especially appeal to children and commissioned the rock version that made the final cut.

[36] This clip show spawned a sequel, "Phineas and Ferb Musical Cliptastic Countdown Hosted by Kelly Osbourne", which aired on June 28, 2013.

"[24] Whitney Matheson wrote in her USA Today blog Pop Candy that the series was an achievement in children's programming, applauding the writing and calling the show "an animated version of Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

"[23] Notable celebrities identified as fans of the series include Bob Eubanks, Anthony LaPaglia, Ben Stiller, Chaka Khan, Jeff Sullivan and Jake Gyllenhaal.

... Phineas and Ferb though, managed at the same time to be wildly imaginative and slavishly formulaic, using its repetitive structure not as a crutch, but as a sturdy framework on which it could hang all kinds of fantastic new ideas."

"[61] The first episode, "Rollercoaster", garnered a total of 10.8 million viewers when aired as a preview on August 17, 2007, holding onto more than half of the record-setting audience of its lead-in, High School Musical 2.

[62] When Phineas and Ferb officially debuted in February the next year, it proved to be cable's number-one watched animated series premiere by tweens.

[104] In January 2011, Gary Marsh, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide announced that early development on a theatrical feature film adaptation of Phineas and Ferb had commenced.

[109][110] On April 11, 2019, it was announced that a film, titled Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, would be released on Disney+ within a year of its launch; it would eventually premiere on August 28, 2020.

[119] It features Marvel Comics superheroes Iron Man, Spider-Man, the Hulk and Thor and the villains the Red Skull, Whiplash, Venom and M.O.D.O.K.

The entire Phineas and Ferb cast reprised their roles for the episode, with the exception of Thomas Sangster, the original voice of Ferb, who was instead voiced by David Errigo, Jr.[124] Before the crossover aired, Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz cameoed at the end of the episode "Fungus Among Us"; following the crossover, the characters Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Perry, Major Monogram and Carl joined the cast of Milo Murphy's Law in a recurring capacity.

The performers wore prosthetics to make their characters resemble their cartoon counterparts—mostly head pieces, but a full body suit in the cases of Buford and Perry.

Disney has licensed a number of products from the show, including figures and plush toys of characters Perry, Ferb, Phineas and Candace.

Some reviewers were displeased that the discs covered selected episodes rather than the entire series, but noted that Disney does not generally release full-season DVD sets.