Thanks to the cast of Disney's Phineas and Ferb: The Best LIVE Tour Ever! for this picture wishing us a Merry Christmas. And we thank you for supporting us in 2012 and look forward to serving you on 2013. Have a wonderful holiday from everybody at the Tri-State Gazette and the Phineas and Ferb Wikia.
A few times a year we try to give the wiki a theme to match the holiday or occasion. As you can see, right now we have a Christmas theme, with the added bonus of snowfall via some directions provided on Wikia's Community Central.
This is also the first time we've tried this since Wikia changed how the web pages are positioned on the screen. How far down the page the wordmark starts depends on which page you're looking at. For example, as I am editing this page to write the newsletter, the wordmark (which has Candace, Ferb and Phineas around the Christmas tree), is right underneath the Wikia banner with the Video Games, Entertainment and Lifestyle menus. When I look at the main page, it's about 1½ inches below that banner. All other pages are about half-way between those two. If you're on the main page, there's usually an ad filling at least part of the gap.
It's something we will have to factor in for the next time we do a custom theme, especially since there's a limit on the file size of the background image we can have. What we have now is just under that limit. Some of you with larger monitors, like myself, also see a blue area below the two sides. Simpler designs with solid backgrounds work better for filling out larger background areas.
I bring this up because Christmas and Halloween are kind of givens that we will do a custom theme. But are there other times of the year you'd like to see us add one? If so, or you have an idea about how to update an existing theme, drop us a note in the comments below.
Bonus issue
One of the other traditions we've had for the past few years is the bonus issue of the Gazette. Invitations will start going out tomorrow. This year, it's primarily going to be new artists. As before, if an artist happens to draw a character that isn't featured as much, like Ginger, Pinky, Sherman or even the actors themselves, so much the better.
Bonus issue #3 should be available right at the end of the year.
Odds 'n' Ends
The merchandise review will return next issue. If you get something for Christmas that's Phintastic or Doofalicious, share it with us.
Don't forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter.
In light of the events that occured in Newton, Connecticut recently as 20 young lives (along with six teachers) were lost due to an shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementry School, the Phineas and Ferb crew recently made paper snowflakes with the characters on them. Thanks to Aliki Theofilopoulos Grafft's Twitter, we saw how they are easing the pain and grief for those people.
Aliki's snowflake.
John Mahot delivers a snowflake.
Dan Povenmire did a pair of snowflakes
Lauren Crist designed glittery Ducky Momo and Agent P snowflakes.
If you want to join in, please send your snowflakes to:
Well it looks like Agent P got an early Christmas gift at Disneyland, and Phineas and Ferb - along with sixteen, count 'em, sixteen Fireside Girl dancers - will be part of the annual telecast of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade on your local ABC affiliate this coming Tuesday, December 25th. Check your local listings for air times.
Retro Review: The episodes you can't see any more
We're approaching the end of the year, a time when we look back at what's happened and look forward to what might be. This issue's episode review looks back at two episodes you can't see any more in the United States.
A radio contest to win tickets to The Bettys' concert starts off "Ready for the Bettys". Candace and Stacy, two of the band's biggest fans are the winners, and as they meet Missy, Tink, and Crash, they have a real fangirl moment. Crash thinks they're being a bother and comes up with a plan to have them clean up the bus under the guise of being a part of the "music making process".
At first, Candace and Stacy are overjoyed to be helping, but Candace comes to realize The Bettys are taking advantage of them, and has to remind the band that they should be appreciative of their fans. Due to some external forces they're not aware of, Candace ends up stopping the bus from crashing and she's repaid by being asked to join the band on stage at the concert.
So what were those external forces? Just Phineas and Ferb, who have stumbled into Agent P's lair. Even though Major Monogram accidentally gives them the mission, Perry's cover isn't blown because Phineas thinks Ferb built everything. Agent P spends the rest of the day making sure the boys don't see him or Doctor Doofenshmirtz, then gives them an assist in rescuing The Bettys' bus. And poor Doctor Doofensmirtz learns that a tennis ball launcher works just as well if you load it with mops.
You wouldn't know it to look at him now, but Grandpa Reginald was a daredevil when he was younger. "The Flying Fishmonger" is not only the episode that shares this bit of his history with us, but it's also the name he used for his act, the name of his motorcycle and the name of the updated version of his anthem. He thought those days were long behind him, especially with his various health problems, but Phineas and Ferb show him that you can try to recapture your glory days as they rebuild his motorcycle and set up a new attempt at the only jump that ever defeated him.
Normally, digging a gorge into the backyard would attract Candace's attention, but she's off at the mall with Grandma Winifred and her parents to buy new clothes. She does sense that's something's going on back home, so a quick call gets Stacy to help her with some long-distance busting.
Major Monogram is incapacitated with back problems, so it's up to Carl to give Agent P his briefing. Instead of breaking right in, Agent P tries a stealth approach, but Doctor Doofenshmirtz is a bit impatient today. He wants revenge on a childhood bully that he's learned has moved to Danville: you kicked sand on me everywhere I went (except the beach), so I'll bury your house in sand. It all goes awry, and Doofenshmirtz helps fill the gorge back in just after Candace gets home.
I started this review by saying you can't watch these episodes in the United States anymore. That's partially correct. You won't find it on Disney Channel or Disney XD, but you can buy them from iTunes and you can watch them on Netflix's instant streaming service.
During any given month on this wiki, we usually get a few "episodes" created that are actually fan fiction. Occasionally we also get people who say, "I've got this idea for an episode" and they list what it is.
Both of these tend to get deleted pretty quick. It can give the impression that we're being overly strict and fan fiction killjoys. So why isn't fan fiction allowed on this wiki? It isn't hurting anything, is it?
There's three reasons why we do this.
The first is that we have a separate Phineas and Ferb Fanon wiki where you can post your stories, characters and other things related to fan fiction. You can get there via the link I just provided, or by going up to the "Misc. & Community" menu and selecting "Community" and then "Fanon & Sister Wikis". If you're trying to direct someone over to the fanon website, you can use the {{PF Fanon}} template to give them the link. We created that wiki not long after this one so that we can concentrate on what's an official part of the Phineas and Ferb universe.
The second reason is actually related to vandalism. Some of the people who create fake episodes and fan fiction aren't doing it just because they want to add something they thought of to Phineas and Ferb. They're actually doing it because they want to cause problems, and if they keep at it, it becomes vandalism. Fortunately, this doesn't happen very often, but if it does, we usually do a pretty good job of curtailing it before it gets too far along.
The third reason may be the most important. Occasionally, people that help create the show have stopped by here to share little tidbit and facts. We don't know, of course, how many might be visiting and just reading our wiki. Because they stop by every so often, we can't have any fan fiction here in case they might accidentally see it.
Last year, people started noticing that "Ready for the Bettys" and "The Flying Fishmonger" weren't being shown any more. There were lots of theories, but Aliki Theofilopoulos Grafft let us know that a real-life band from New York that is also called The Bettys thought the episode was based on them. Aliki and everyone else hadn't even heard of this band before, but since a fictional all-girl British band whose members go by one name was too close to a real-life all-girl American band, "Ready for the Bettys" is now off the air. And since it is paired with "The Flying Fishmonger" and the song was featured in the "Cliptastic Countdown", both of those are off the air as well.
Our FAQ says that if you wanted to send a story idea to Dan or Swampy, you have to find out what Disney's legal requirements are for doing so. When a writer on a TV show writes an episode, they have to do similar things. For example, if they have a character named Gunstadt Flipplehipper who is a dancer, the Legal department for that show has to do research to see if there is anyone else by that name, and if so, are they in the same profession as the character. If the answer is yes, the character's name and/or job is changed.
Now, taking that same idea back to fan fiction, if you posted a story about how Phineas and Ferb meet Gunstadt Flipplehipper and he teaches them a new dance style that the boys are able to turn into the latest dance craze, and someone on the writing or artist staff who was working on a similar type of episode happened to read it, then they would have to cancel the episode, rewrite what the episode is about and/or any characters similarly-named, or take other steps to make sure that there wouldn't be any kind of lawsuit or argument about where the idea for the episode came from.
If you think that's an exaggeration, it's not. It happened to the show Babylon 5. Read the "Sending my idea to Dan or Swampy" section of the FAQ if you want to see what it took to get that episode back into production.
So, while on first impression it might not seem very friendly that we're deleting fan fiction, please understand why we do it and know that doing this actually helps protect the show so that we get to enjoy everything that Dan, Swampy, Aliki and everyone else connected with the show want to create for it.
Coming in two weeks:
Hands-on with the New Merchandise
Our number cruncher, Ryan Stoppable, breaks down 2012 with his Year-In-Review-Inator.
