Phineas And Ferb’s fifth season started out with quite the bang, as a preview hit the internet that made audiences believe that not every character was making it out of the Disney series alive. In a dramatic moment, Linda Flynn-Fletcher was hit by a beam of energy that was inadvertently fired her way during a fight between Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus. Luckily, Linda didn’t meet her end, but rather, was transformed into a cloud, which still made for quite the challenge for the core cast. Recently, we spoke with co-creators Jeff “Swampy” Marsh and Dan Povenmire at this year’s Savannah College of Art and Design Animation Festival about this wild storyline.
In speaking with the animators, we asked if Povenire and Marsh had seen the backlash following the preview clip that hinted at Linda’s demise. Dan confirmed that while they were busy in the build-up to ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Mom‘, they were happy to see the response, “We were busy at the time, but we are glad to see such a strong response to it. That’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done, the ending of that episode, because I’d shown it to like five different people who weren’t part of the show. Even if they weren’t big fans, they were all just laughing, and then that happens, and their jaws drop open!”
Linda is Still Amongst Us
Marsh added his commentary, noting that he loved seeing the various ‘reaction videos’ that had made their way online, “I really loved seeing all the reaction videos because everyone was so happy that the show was back, only to go ‘AAAAA’!” Povenmire hilariously noted, “She disintegrated so fully that people were like ‘there’s no coming back from that!’ What’s fun is that for all the press before that, people were asking us what to expect from season five and I’d say, ‘well we’re going to kill off a main character in the first episode, and then later this season, Phineas and Ferb will build a bookshelf with their dad. Both of those things really happened!”
Luckily, the fifth season isn’t the last time we’ll see Phineas and Ferbas the sixth season has already been confirmed for next year. Povenmire discussed what fans can expect in the series’ return next year: “We’ll make Irving the main character. We’re just having more fun like we did with the fifth season. I think there are some episodes that will be quintessential, touchstone episodes for people. Fans will watch season six and go ‘Oh my God, this happened in this episode!’ We’re playing a lot more with the conventions of the series and how we can sort of put those on its head while still staying true to the show.”
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