Why I Love Phineas and Ferb

There are lot of reason why I love this show, but I just wanted to briefly highlight one reason why I've added this show to my personal pantheon of great cartoon shows.  That pantheon of shows now only consists of "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", "South Park", and "Phineas and Ferb" ( BTW, I still believe that collectively, the timeless comic brilliance of the Warner Brother Bugs/Daffy/Elmer/Road-Runner/Porky/Sylvester/Tweety shorts tops any of those shows, but I kinda consider those shorts to be a different category than cartoon TV series. ).  All four of these shows are brilliant in ways that are similar ( They all are great in terms of musical numbers and pop culture references ), and each have a quality which distinguishes them from the others.  I think "The Simpsons" is the smartest show of the 4, "South Park" is the most topical ( Trey and Matt sometimes release a South Park episode that parodies things that had happened earlier in the week.  I'm still amazed that they can put together a topical cartoon that quickly ( I guess the simple animation helps ) ), and Family Guy is the best at hitting that hilarious sweet spot right on the edge of bad taste ( Some might think this best describes "South Park", but I think "South Park" sometimes goes to edge of bad taste for the sake of going to the edge, while "Family Guy" almost always goes to the edge to be funny.  If you want good example of "Family Guy" hitting that hilarious sweet spot on the edge of bad taste, get yourself a DVD with the uncensored version of the "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" episode. ).  I think what distinguishes "Phineas and Ferb" is heart.  Perhaps that shouldn't surprise me, considering that "Phineas and Ferb" is in the Disney stable, but this show is great at including little moments that can really touch your heart.  I was reminded of that when I was watching the end credits of a "Phineas and Ferb" episode today.  This particular episode ( It's one of the early ones, but I only got on the P&F train about a year or so ago ( thanks to an article in Wired magazine )) takes place in a Museum.  While the Flynn-Fletcher family was in the Museum, Lawrence ( Ferb's dad and Phineas'  step-dad ) had purchased an audio tour of the museum ( on an audio tape ).  In the end-credits, we find him in bed playing his favorite part of the audio tour over and over and again.  He repeats his favorite part out loud, and makes a "boop" sound each time rewinds the tape.  Just look at how his wife reacts when this wakes her up.



Rich

Edit: FYI, I just noticed that the director of the "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" Family Guy episode is one of the co-creator's of "Phineas and Ferb".

Edit 2: Oh, and both "Phineas and Ferb" co-creators met while working on "The Simpons" together.