| Series: | Phineas and Ferb |
| Season: | 1 |
| Episode: | 45 |
| Director: | Dan Povenmire |
| Music: | "The Good Life" "Little Brothers" "Chains on Me" |
| Production: | 116 |
| Airdate: | (Disney XD) (Disney Channel) |
| Guests: |
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| Prev: | Out to Launch |
| Next: | Unfair Science Fair |
| Season Article: | Phineas and Ferb (season 1) |
| Episode List: | List of Phineas and Ferb episodes |
"Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!" (broadcast outside the United States and Canada as "At Last") is the 45th broadcast episode of the first season of the animated television series Phineas and Ferb. The episode aired on Disney XD on February 16, 2009 and on Disney Channel on March 13, 2009 in the United States. The episode follows Phineas and Ferb finally being caught by Phineas' mother (and Ferb's father) and sent to a reform school, where a harsh and cruel sergeant attempts to destroy their imagination by sitting them down to a commercial about good boys that mind-controlled them into the obedient drones. Candace goes to save them after she sees a news report about their horrible condition.
The episode's story was written by the writing team Martin Olson and Bobby Gaylor and constructed into storyboard by Jon Colton Barry and Piero Piluso. Dan Povenmire, co-creator of Phineas and Ferb, directed it. Talk show personality Geraldo Rivera and veteran actor Clancy Brown guest star as television reporter Morty Williams and the school sergeant, respectively.
Phineas and Ferb rebuild their mother's station wagon into a flying car, called the "Flying Car of the Future, Today", and build a giant tower. Candace shows Linda (this time successful), who is furious, and Phineas confesses that they've been doing similar things all summer, as Linda apologizes to Candace for not believing her. Lawrence goes outside and sees the tower and Linda asks Lawrence if he knows about what the boys did as he denies about it. Candace suggests several different punishments to the boys and Lawrence reluctantly agrees. The tower collapses, destroying part of the house. Linda and Lawrence send the boys to the "Smile Away Reformatory School" run by a drill sergeant, unaware that it is a prison where kids are brainwashed to remove their creativity.
Candace enjoys fun activities with Stacy and Jeremy, but after a few days is bored and haunted by the sad consequences of busting Phineas and Ferb, realizing that she loves her brothers for their genius skills. She and Jeremy take the flying car to save her brothers, disguised as reporter Morty Williams and his cameraman. Linda and Lawrence at the same time, conclude that the severity of their punishment was worse than it should've been, and they make the decision to have the boys taken out of the reform school. They choose to get to the school by means of the flying car, but are impeded when they discover that it's gone. Once Jeremy and Candace get into the school, she secretly tells Phineas and Ferb to escape with them.
At the flying car, they see Linda and Lawrence, but the sergeant arrives to put Candace and Jeremy in the school as well. With a giant robot spider, Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus knock the sergeant off the cliff to his death. Phineas and Ferb are juggling corn dogs, Linda and Lawrence turn into marionettes controlled by a giant Baljeet, who turns into one as well, controlled by a talking zebra, and Jeremy proposes to Candace.
It turns out it was all Candace's dream all along and that the events of the episode never happened, which she tells her family at breakfast, even revealing Perry's secret identity. However, Major Monogram bursts in with an army of O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) agents to relocate Perry and mind-erase the Fletchers and Flynns.
Perry wakes up in Phineas's bed, the events of the entire episode having all been just a bad dream and didn't really happen at all. Phineas reassures him, telling him to go back to sleep, which they both do.
"Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!" was written by Bobby Gaylor and Martin Olson as a story, but the storyboards were adapted and constructed by Jon Colton Barry and Piero Piluso.[1] Robert F. Hughes and Zac Moncrief as well are apple credited for additionally writing for the episode.[2] Dan Povenmire, the show's co-creator and executive producer, directed the episode.[3]
The episode is titled "At Last" when broadcast outside the United States and Canada.[4] Latin America labels the episode name in its end credits for the episode, despite entitling it "Al Fin";[2] however, "Al Fin" literally translates to "At Last."[5]
Geraldo Rivera guest starred as the voice of investigative talk show host Morty Williams. Clancy Brown, known for his work in The Shawshank Redemption, and SpongeBob SquarePants provided the voice of the drill sergeant.[6] "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted" was originally broadcast in America as the premiere of season two on Presidents' Day, February 16, 2009, on Disney XD,[7] at 4:30 PM Eastern/Pacific Time.[6] It was followed by first season reruns aired in a marathon.[7]
When the episode broadcast on Disney Channel on March 13, 2009, it garnered a total of 3.7 million viewers, 1.4 million of them ages 9–14. It was the series second most watched telecast, behind only "Flop Starz," and was the top-rated for Kids 6-11 in almost 6 months, ranking in Phineas and Ferb's top four most watched in the category. Moreover, it was the day's most watched in Tweens 9-14 and Kids 6-11 and the most watched for cable television in total viewers.[9]
Matt Blum of Wired wrote about the episode, "if it’s any indication, the second season will be even more brilliant than the first season was." Blum as well praised the appearance of Clancy Brown as a guest actor.[7] One of the songs in the episode, "Little Brothers" was voted #4 on Phineas and Ferb's Musical Cliptastic Countdown.[10]