I’m still only a few episodes in, but I’m finding Luke Harrington’s observations about Phineas and Ferb to be right on the money. The show really does get at the jubilant and often frenetic spirit of creating things:
It’s not uncommon for the end of conflict to spell the end of a show’s appeal. (How many TV series have been killed dead when their central will-they-or-won’t-they couple finally got together?) But the opposite proved true with Phineas and Ferb: the more innocent and wide-eyed the show became, the more I found myself yearning to return to the Flynn-Fletchers’ backyard.
(Read more on Christ & Pop Culture. Hat tip to Wendy Barrie and Charlotte Greeson for the link.)
It’s ultimately kind of audacious to want to make things, especially on your own or on a small team. You have to have a little wide-eyed innocence, I think.
Are there other characters that capture for you something essential about the nature of the creative process?
Many of the characters in Sports Night come to mind for me, and I particular love William H. Macy’s pivotal “glass tubes” speech about being a role-player.
I also think this question is what animates some of the best scenes in music biopics, even if they’re probably more fiction than fact. (The scene in Ray, where Charles supposedly writes “What’d I Say?” on the spot is a great example.)
What fictional creators/creations inspire you?
