| "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Phineas and Ferb episode | |||
| Episodeno. | Season 1 Episode 2b | ||
| Directed by | Dan Povenmire | ||
| Written by |
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| Featured music | "Backyard Beach" | ||
| Production code | 102b | ||
| Original air date | September 28, 2007 (2007-09-28) | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| Phineas and Ferb(season 1) | |||
| List of episodes | |||
"Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" is the second half of the second episode of theanimated television seriesPhineas and Ferb, as well as the second episode of the series to be broadcast. In the episode, stepbrothersPhineas andFerb construct an elaborate beach complex in order to survive the intenseheat wave that has struck their city. Meanwhile, the boys' petplatypus,Perry, successfully halts the destruction of all thelawn gnomes in the tri-state area by his nemesis,Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
"Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" was written by series co-creatorsDan Povenmire andJeff "Swampy" Marsh, who collaborated with Bobby Gaylor andMartin Olson, and directed by Povenmire. The episode originally aired onDisney Channel in theUnited States on September 28, 2007, as the second of two previews for the series. Since airing, the episode has received generally positive reviews, especially for the originality of its title. Fan reaction was also favorable, and the featured musical number "Backyard Beach" was voted the number 2 song in the series by viewers during the "Phineas and Ferb's Musical Cliptastic Countdown" event.
| External videos | |
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 The Backyard Beach Episode S1 E2 Full Episode Phineas and Ferb @disneyxd — Official upload of the episode ontoYouTube |
Due to an intenseheat wave striking Danville,Phineas andFerb are exhausted and do nothing but rest in their backyard. Eventually, they decide to build a beach in their backyard to spite a morningradio DJ.Candace wants to expose them to their mother for doing so, but she only sees their initial draft of a small sandbox with water and brushes it off. Some time later, they successfully construct a full-scale beach, to which everyone in the neighborhood, includingIsabella and her troop of girl scouts the Fireside Girls go to cool off and enjoy themselves. Candace sees this and once again is set to inform their mother. When her friends Stacy and Jenny came over to the backyard beach, this mood soon changes when she finds out that Jeremy, a boy for whom she has romantic feelings for, will be coming to the beach tosurf so she decides to stay. She finds pleasure in the beach after being crowned "Queen Wahini" following an accidentally flawlesslimbo performance and catches the attention of Jeremy.
Meanwhile,Perry investigates the recent theft oflawn gnomes across thetri-state area byDr. Doofenshmirtz. He enters Doofenshmirtz's underground lair and is immediately captured where Doofenshmirtz explains via video that his family fell topoverty during his youth which results in the repossession of their lawn-gnome which protects them fromblack magic. Believing his family to be unprotected, Doofenshmirtz's father forced his son to dress as a lawn gnome and stand in front of their garden the entire day, unable to move. For his hardship, Doofenshmirtz seeks revenge and plans on destroying all of the lawn gnomes he has stolen uses his new invention: The "destruct-inator" while Perry bites Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Father's left arm in screams. Perry soon breaks out of his traps, and begins to brawl with the mad scientist, which inadvertently causes the machine containing all of the gnomes to malfunction.
The machine releases all of the lawn gnomes and they erupt onto the beach. The beach goers flee in panic of "gnomeageddon" and the beach is destroyed. Candace does not realize this as she is trying to convince her mother not to come in and ruin her good time, so when she tries to justify the beach's existence, she finds nothing but their normal backyard. She is depressed, but the boys find the day to be a successful one. Candace is helped inside by Isabella and Linda. At the end, the DJ from the beginning congratulates Phineas and Ferb and also says that tomorrow will be hot and sunny too, but then Ferb adds "with a slight chance of scattered lawn gnomes", to which Phineas laughs. There is then a zoom-out as the gnomes that crashed into the Flynn-Fletcher household roof are seen.
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"Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" was written byPhineas and Ferb co-creatorsDan Povenmire andJeff "Swampy" Marsh, who collaborated with Bobby Gaylor andMartin Olson in order to pen their script. Povenmire would also continue to provide direction based on the teleplay.[1] It was originally broadcast as the second of two special previews of the series onDisney Channel on September 28,2007, at 10:45 p.m.,Eastern/Pacific Time.[2]
Disney Channel released apress release for the episode on September 19, 2007. The announcement contained a summary of aB-Plot which did not appear in the episode's final broadcast. The plot detailed the boys' father, Lawrence, taking advantage of the recent inclusion of sand in his backyard to search for a rarebottle cap. In doing so, Lawrence forms a bond with the boys' friend Baljeet, who is also a collector of such rare novelties.[2]
ActorVincent Martella, who voices Phineas, cited "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" as a highlight of working on the series. In an article forPopstar! Magazine, Martella detailed an experience onNew Year's Eve, where while watching a repeat of the episode with his family members, he noticed both his ten-year-old brother and his adult relatives laughing. He opted that the experience "the greatest thing in the world."[3]
The episode was among fourPhineas and Ferb episodes that were adapted for the 2008 Disney Channel special event "Spot the Diff."[4] The event featured Doofenshmirtz using his "Change-inator-inator"[5] to alter scenes from selected episodes of the series, which the viewer was urged to notice in order to participate in an online quiz.[5] When aired in the marathon, the episode was unaltered, but was preceded by a changed episode entitled "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Error."[4]
"Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" became available on theDVD compilationPhineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas in 2008, along with fellow first-season episodes "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!" (which had not yet aired in the US) "The Fast and the Phineas," "Are You My Mummy?" "Flop Starz," "Raging Bully," "Lights! Candace! Action!" and "It's About Time!"[6][7][8][9] A bonus feature on the DVD consisted of a game based on the episode entitled "Whack-A-Gnome," in which the player hits gnomes as they pop up from a machine in the style ofWhac-A-Mole.[10] The officialPhineas and Ferb soundtrack, released in 2009, featured the song "Backyard Beach" from the episode.[11][12] In 2009, the online retailerZazzle released several pieces of merchandising materiel based on the episode.
"Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" received generally positive reviews from television critics. Several critics praised the unique and obscure title;DVD Talk reviewer David Cornelius wrote that it "wins major awesomeness points."[6] Similarly, Jim Thomas of DVD Verdict observed that no "description could possibly do justice" to it.[7] Writing for DVD Town, reviewer James Plath considered the flashback to Doofenshmirtz's youth as a lawn gnome an example of "the deliciously twisted humor of Povenmire and Marsh."[13] In contrast, however, Ed Liu of Toon Zone was critical of the episode and other early episodes available onThe Fast and the Phineas, calling them "way too manic for their own good, never giving a gag enough time to develop a proper laugh before ripping off to the next one, and refusing to sit still for any length of time."[14]
Fan reaction for the episode was considerably positive and the song "Backyard Beach" has been considered a "popular number"[12] from the series wide variety of musical pieces.[12] In the 2009 television event "Phineas and Ferb's Musical Cliptastic Countdown," voters ranked it the series' second best musical feature.[15]
