Premise
While on a time-travel vacation, teenager Phil Diffy and his family from the year 2121 become stranded in the fictional town of Pickford, California, in the present day when their rented time machine malfunctions. Phil's father Lloyd, an engineer, works to repair the machine while the family attempts to blend in as an ordinary suburban household. Phil and his younger sister Pim enroll at H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High School, where Phil befriends and later falls for his neighbor Keely Teslow, the only person outside the family to learn their secret. The family also harbors Curtis, a Cro-Magnon caveman who stowed away in the time machine during a visit to the Stone Age. Much of the show's humor derives from the family's reliance on futuristic gadgets—such as the "Wizard" (a multipurpose handheld device), the "Skyak" (a flying vehicle), and spray-can food—which frequently cause complications in their efforts to remain inconspicuous.
Production
Development
Creators Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile, who had previously worked as writers on Lizzie McGuire , [1] developed the series under the working title The Out-of-Timers, inspired by the Elvis Costello song "Man Out of Time." Tuber conceived the time-travel premise while browsing a record store that sold Costello's album, thinking, "What about if it's a kid out of time?" [1] The year 2121 was settled on as the family's home era after a Disney Channel executive felt that the creators' initial idea of setting it in the year 2525—a reference to Zager and Evans' 1969 song "In the Year 2525"—was too far in the future. [1]
The series was produced by 2121 Productions, a division of Brookwell McNamara Entertainment, the company behind other Disney Channel series including Even Stevens and That's So Raven . [1] Tuber and Maile served as executive producers throughout the series' run, with additional executive producers including Tom Burkhard, Matt Dearborn, and Tim O'Donnell in Season 1, and Michael Curtis and Roger S.H. Schulman in Season 2.
Casting and character changes
Lead actor Raviv Ullman, who was credited as "Ricky Ullman" during the series, was a high school student in Fairfield, Connecticut, when he was cast. He booked the role and filmed the Disney Channel Original Movie Pixel Perfect before beginning production on the first season. [1] Aly Michalka, credited as "Alyson Michalka," was 13 at the start of filming and later formed the musical duo Aly & AJ with her sister Amanda. [4]
Several character changes occurred between seasons. The character of Barbara Diffy was originally conceived as having a detachable head and artificial body. Creator Tim Maile explained that "in the pilot, mom had an artificial body. So her head was real," and actress Lise Simms wore chokers and turtlenecks throughout the first season to conceal where the head was supposed to detach. [1] In a 2019 interview, Ullman recalled that scenes were filmed with the concept but it did not work as intended: "I think we had shot the entire first season that way... Then for the second season, we actually had to end up going back and reshooting a bunch of things." [4] Between seasons, Brenda Song departed to star in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody , and her character Tia was replaced by Via (Juliet Holland-Rose). Similarly, Evan Peters' character Seth was replaced by Owen (Michael Mitchell), and Kay Panabaker's character Debbie was written out after Season 1.
Theme song
The theme song, also titled "Phil of the Future," was written and composed by John Adair and Steve Hampton, and performed by Loren Ellis with the Drew Davis Band, who also performed the theme song of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody .
Reception
Phil of the Future aired for a total of 43 episodes across two seasons on Disney Channel from June 2004 to August 2006.
Critical reception was mixed. Common Sense Media gave the series a rating of 2 out of 5 stars, describing it as "harmless but unpleasant" and criticizing the "hackneyed situations and endless cheesy sound effects," while noting that Pim's antagonistic behavior was "so nasty, rude, and antagonistic that it makes the show nearly unwatchable." [5] On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has limited critical coverage, with only one professional review aggregated for its first season. [6]
Home video
A DVD of the series titled Gadgets & Gizmos was released on August 16, 2005, containing four episodes: "Double Trouble," "Age Before Beauty," "My Way," and the then-unaired "Team Diffy." [7] The episode "Christmas Break" was released as a bonus feature on the Disney Channel Holiday DVD compilation on November 1, 2005. [8] The complete series became available to stream on Disney+ in the United States when the platform launched on November 12, 2019. [2]
Video game
A video game based on the series was released for the Game Boy Advance on August 22, 2006, in which players help Phil stop Pim's clones of a futuristic pet called "Blahs." [9]
Books
Disney Publishing released a series of tie-in books throughout the 2000s, each adapting two episodes into novelized form. Titles include Stuck in Time, The Great Fake-out, Blast from the Past, and Far-out Phil.
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