After a tough day at work, nothing beats turning on the boob tube and watching something fun and entertaining. In my case, I’ve recently zoned in on the Disney original series Phineas and Ferb, which features two charismatic lead characters — Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella), and his stepbrother Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Sangster) who spend their entire summer cooking up different ideas and building complex projects in their backyard. Their sister Candace (Ashley Tisdale) meanwhile, lives to bust them. There is also a subplot on the secret life of their pet platypus Perry, who is an agent of the OWCA (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) and his mission to stop the evil schemes of Dr. Doofenschmirtz, which in most cases don’t really work out quite as well as he would like.

As I may have mentioned in the title, I am a big fan of this show and these are the reasons why:

1. There’s something for everybody. What I really love about Phineas and Ferb is that the show is about kids, but it would appeal to children and adults alike. For kids, it inspires them to be creative and to give their imagination free reign. Although most of Phineas and Ferb’s inventions are complicated and really almost impossible to accomplish for children of the same age, it still pushes them to explore their possibilities and have fun doing it. For adults, it is just awesome to see a show that is so light and yet packed with excitement and good natured fun. It really appeals to memories of childhood summers spent with friends and cousins doing a bunch of stuff.

2. Nothing beats family. I’m a sucker for family oriented shows and I’m happy that there is a kids’ show like this that promotes the same values. I love that even though Candace always tries to bust her brothers, they are always thoughtful of her and want to include her in their adventures because they love her. When push comes to shove, Candace for the most part, has shown that saving/protecting her brothers when they are in trouble is more important than proving that she was right in trying to bust them.

3. The love stories. The main love story here obviously is of Candace and Jeremy. Its very cute to see Candace try so hard to get Jeremy to like her even though its obvious that Jeremy already does and she is just oblivious to it because of her many hang ups (and her obsession with busting her brothers). Speaking of oblivious, Phineas shares the same quality with his sister because no matter how Isabella tries to get him to notice her as a girl, he just doesn’t seem to get it and treats her just like a pal (ring a bell, anyone?) Meanwhile, Ferb’s crush on Vanessa is just so British (I mean that in a good way). He’s just so calm and collected and he is adorable.

4. Befriending a bully. Bullies are often depicted as harsh, uncaring, unfeeling and violent, but Buford, a self declared bully and adopted member of Phineas and Ferb’s gang, is depicted as a tough kid who participates in the gang’s activities, even going so far as to enjoy it, He also makes friends with Baljeet, who in most cases, has the highest tendency to be bullied. I like that in some episodes, people are given insights as to why Buford is tough and why he is sometimes mean to the other kids and this balances out how people in general view the dynamics of children.

5. Perry vs Doofenschmirtz. I love the subplot of a secret agent platypus and an evil archrival. But most of all I like the fact that Doonfenschmirtz only plays at being evil, being more talk than substance when it comes to carrying out his evil plots to conquer the world, or maybe just the TriState area. While their face offs are a bit routine (sometimes, Perry ties himself up to a chair to listen to Dr. D’s monologue), their scenes are still very funny.

6. Musical numbers. Now this is something that any episiode of Phineas and Ferb cannot do without. There are great songs, okay songs and sort of meh songs that always has something to do with the adventures at hand but I’m always up for a colorful production number.

All in all, series creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff Marsh (who also worked on Rocko’s Modern World) did a fantastic job with this smartly written, adventure packed Disney series. No matter how far out Phineas and Ferb’s ideas are, no matter how you wonder where they get the money to finance their “projects” and no matter how you ask a million adult questions as to how they are able to pull off the things that they do at just the right time, you will surely be hooked to this show after seeing them at work in one or two episodes. The fun is just infectious.