"What are they doing right now? Why do you ask? What do mean, you can see it from your house? See what?"
—Candace
The pilot for Phineas and Ferb, and the set up for all the plots to follow. Enter the Flynn-Fletcher family, as the snarky red-head Phineas remarks that he doesn’t want to spend this summer lazing around, so he and his stepbrother Ferb set out to do something spectacular. And by spectacular, we mean build a roller-coaster. Meanwhile, their sister Candace, whose been put in charge (at least in the case of a crashed satellite) desperately tries to get her mom to see the unbelievable contraption they’ve built. Her attempts to do so are accidentally foiled by the family's pet platypus, Perry, who is actually a secret agent trying to thwart his nemesis Doctor Doofenshmirtz in his attempts to cover the entire Tri-State Area in tin foil. Why? Because he wants to use magnets to reverse the rotation of the Earth, duh.
Tropes:
- Absurd Altitude: The rollercoaster shoots them into space.
- Art Shift: A shot of the planet Earth and an overhead shot as the rollercoaster plummets to the ground are live-action photographs. All the tinfoil that Doofenshmirtz uses is live-action photos of foil.
- Bait-and-Switch Character Intro: In the first scene, Perry is depicted as an average, mindless pet, with Phineas stating "Well, he's a platypus. They don't do much." A couple scenes later, Perry stands upright and sneaks into an underground lair, revealing his true identity as a secret agent.
- Brick Joke:
- Candace asks Linda to put her in charge by asking, "What if a satellite falls out of orbit and crashes into the house?" Later, when the boys' coaster gets thrown into space, a satellite passes by, and Phineas remarks, "You know, if that thing crashes into earth, Candace is in charge."
- One of the Noodle Implements for the Rollercoaster that Phineas asks for is peanut butter. Peanut butter is not used in the actual rollercoaster, but later Ferb belches and Phineas laughs and says he can smell the peanut butter.
- Cutaway Gag: At the beginning of the episode, Phineas says that their lives should be like a rollercoaster, and not like the one they rode at the State Fair. The scene then cuts to the State Fair rollercoaster...which only has one short hill and lasts five seconds before the ride is over.State Fair Employee: Please exit to the left.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The cashier at Mr. Slushy Burger vaguely looks like Jeremy, except he has a different voice. In The Musical, it is revealed that he really was Jeremy.
- Katie and Ginger from the Fireside Girls appear but do not wear their uniforms.
- The music playing at the supermarket is "I'm Lindana and I Wanna Have Fun", which won't be introduced properly until "Flop Starz".
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Phineas has a wildly different personality, being very sarcastic and a little more antagonistic towards his sister Candace (even casually lying to her about what he and Ferb are doing), something that's still in the theme tune ("...or driving our sister insane!") After that, he's just upbeat about his projects and bears no ill-will to her or anyone (even going out of his way to help Candace on numerous occasions, and is innocently insensitive to her at the very worst).
- There are also hints that Phineas isn't nearly as bright, as his paperwork to the construction worker is filled out in crayon.
- Phineas actually charges people to go on his rollercoaster (something he wouldn't dream of doing later on), and appears to care more about profiting off his invention than just having the "best day ever", as evidenced by his line, "We should've charged more".
- It also lacks any sort of a song, Genre Savvy, or lampshading which made the show famous.
- Candace doesn't refer to getting her brothers in trouble as "busting", but just says that once she tells her mother, they are going "down, down, down!", which would become one of her Catchphrases. It's not until "The Fast and the Phineas" does she refer to busting for the first time.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Evil Plan is also much grander in scope (covering the Eastern Seaboard in tinfoil to reverse the Earth's rotation) than his usual focus on "the entire Tri-State Area" too, and the key device in his plan is not an inator (it's called the Magnetism Magnifier).
- Major Monogram's message to Perry appears to be prerecorded rather than a live video feed, as evidenced by the "Incoming Message" screen and Perry clicking an envelope icon to receive his mission. Another episode, "The Fast and the Phineas" also has this moment. Said message is also played relatively straightforward, whereas later episodes would throw in at least one funny moment.
- While the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building appears, it is not accompanied by the Evil Jingle.
- Doof has a bit of a vaguely European accent which is all but dropped in later episodes. He also has no sort of ridiculous backstory explaining why he wants to do his evil plan.
- This is all addressed in "Rollercoaster: The Musical!" where the more fleshed out characters redo this episode as a musical, with all of the aforementioned quirks and traits that were absent in this episode now made present, especially on the musical number side of things.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Phineas and Ferb are introduced sitting under a tree, with Phineas bored until he comes up with what he and Ferb want to do today. He also does all the talking in their first scene for Ferb, who's not much of a talker.
- Candace's first main appearance is telling the boys she's in charge, gabbing with Stacy on the phone, and when she sees the rollercoaster construction out back, she vows she is going to get them in trouble and tell Mom.
- Isabella's main introduction is walking into the backyard and asking Phineas what he is doing. She also has hearts in her eyes as the first indication of her no-so-subtle crush on Phineas.
- Perry the Platypus, aka Agent P, is shown sneaking away from Phineas and Ferb, suiting up in secret agent attire, and getting a mission briefing from Major Monogram in his lair.
- Dr. Doofenshmirtz's first scene is him expecting Perry, trapping him, and presenting his scheme of the day.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Perry flings a screw with his tail at Doofenshmirtz, which he manages to dodge on time, but then the screw bounces off all over the place and into Doof's foot, causing him to jump in pain and accidentally set Perry free.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- Candace gets so caught up in her phone conversation with Stacy that she fails to notice the boys going backwards and forwards with various rollercoaster-building supplies. And a lion.
- When Candace comes home with Linda near the end only for the boys to suddenly show up when Candace looks away for a moment, neither of them notice the coaster train flaming in the tree, right before them.
- Happily Adopted: This is one of the few instances in the show where any of the characters out-right refer to the fact that they’re a blended family.
- Idiot Ball: Candace has zero excuses to not take the advertisement of the Coolest Coaster Ever with her to bring to Linda as proof.
- Laughing Mad: The prospect of catching Phineas and Ferb not being home due to their rollercoaster running amok sends Candace into her signature demented chuckling.
- Newhart Phone Call: The first of several between Candace and Stacy, who, at this point, is The Faceless.
- Noodle Incident: Linda mentions how Candace tried to bust Phineas and Ferb for training monkeys to juggle bicycles.Candace: I still don't know how they cleaned up so fast.
- Over-the-Top Roller Coaster: Phineas and Ferb built one that starts with a massive drop, and cuts through the city, with many crazy and impossible turns. Then, due to Perry and Doofenshmirtz's fight, the entire track gets moved from its original position and as a result, the coaster car goes off the rails. It's thrown into the sky, is carried across the country into Mt. Rushmore, gets flung across the Atlantic into Paris, and then flies all the way into space, where the coaster then does a final descent towards the boys' home. "Coolest Coaster Ever" indeed.
- The Pilot
- Rapid-Fire "But!": Said by Candace after failing to bust her brothers, with Linda discovering that the boys are still in the backyard.
- Running Gag: Most of the running gags the show will be later known for are set up here.
- Scare Chord: Plays as Candace comes home and checks the backyard and sees the boys are missing.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: By the time Candace checks the backyard returning home, Phineas and Ferb are not there as expected. When Linda takes a peek, they're suddenly here.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The tree explodes from the rollercoaster.Candace: Mooooooom!!!Mom: Give it a rest, Candace!
- Suddenly Voiced: Ferb spends a majority of the episode being the Silent Bob, however, in the first of many instances, he suddenly says in a sophisticated British accent, "They're the only mammals to lay eggs", in reference to platypuses.
- Tree Buchet: There's also an Eiffel Tower-buchet, and a Statue of Liberty-buchet.Cashier: Welcome to Mr. Slushy Burger, may I take your order.Phineas: Anyone want fries?[...]French Vendor: Croissant?Phineas: Anyone want a (imitating French accent) "Cwawsson"?
- Vocal Evolution: This was recorded before both Vincent Martella and Thomas Brodie-Sangster went through puberty, though Martella still uses an affected voice. Ergo, both of their voices are a bit higher than they would be throughout the series.
- Wingding Eyes: Isabella's eyes have little hearts in them when she enters the backyard and greets Phineas, establishing her crush on him.
