Phil of the Future

Phil of the Future is an American science fiction comedy television series that originally aired on Disney Channel from June 18, 2004, to August 19, 2006, for two seasons. The series was created by Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile and produced by 2121 Productions. It follows a family from the future that gets stranded in the 21st century when their time machine breaks down.

Phil of the Future
Genre	Comedy Science fiction
Created by	Douglas Tuber Tim Maile
Starring	Ricky Ullman Amy Bruckner Craig Anton Lise Simms Alyson Michalka
Theme music composer	John Adair Steve Hampton
Opening theme	"Phil of the Future", performed by Drew Davis Band
Ending theme	"Phil of the Future (instrumental)"
Composers	Christopher Brady (Season 1) Kenneth Burgomaster (Season 2)
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	43 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Douglas Tuber Tim Maile (both; entire run) Tom Burkhard Matt Dearborn Tim O'Donnell (all; Season 1) Michael Curtis Roger S.H. Schulman (both; Season 2)
Production locations	Occidental Studios Los Angeles, California
Camera setup	Film; Single-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company	2121 Productions
Original release
Network	Disney Channel
Release	June 18, 2004 (2004-06-18) – August 19, 2006 (2006-08-19)

Episodes

Main article: List of Phil of the Future episodes

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	21		June 18, 2004 (2004-06-18)	October 28, 2005 (2005-10-28)
2	22		June 25, 2005 (2005-06-25)	August 19, 2006 (2006-08-19)

Characters

Main

• Philip "Phil" Rupert Diffy (Ricky Ullman) (born 2107) is the main character in the series. He is a freshman in Season 1 and sophomore in Season 2, at H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High School. He seems to be the most "in tune" with how things work in this century. Phil frequently has to make up excuses to hide the fact that he is from the future. He is the best friend and later boyfriend of Keely Teslow. Phil is two years older than Pim.
• Pimilla "Pim" Nicole Diffy (Amy Bruckner) (born 2109) is Phil's younger sister by two years. She is a 7th (Season 1) / 8th (Season 2) grader at H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High. Pim is a mischievous girl who is constantly up to no good and is even prone to megalomania. Pim is especially known for liking to pull pranks on people, mainly on Phil, Debbie Berwick, and Vice Principal Hackett. In the second season, she hangs out with a young boy named "Li'l Danny" Dawkins. She also tries to avoid Debbie Berwick and Candida. Repeatedly in the show, she looks for ways to dominate the world and universe. Though Pim often causes trouble for Phil and has a tough attitude, she cares about her brother, but keeps it hidden most of the time.
• Lloyd Diffy (Craig Anton) (born 2074) is Phil and Pim's goofy dad, who is working on repairing the time machine. He was an engineer in 2121, and loves "older music." He is paranoid about the government (and Vice Principal Hackett) figuring out that his family and he are from the future. During the Diffys' stay, Lloyd and Curtis get jobs at the Mantis hardware store. Lloyd is two years older than Barb.
• Barbara "Barb" Diffy (Lise Simms) (née Speckle; born 2076) is Phil and Pim's mom. She is very interested in how things work in this century. Unlike other mothers, though, Barbara seems to let her kids figure things out on their own. She loves to cook the old fashioned way; however, her food usually ends up with something being wrong, because in 2121 they spray food out of a can. Promotional material described her as having an artificial body, but this was never seen in the series. She forces Pim to be friends with Debbie, though Pim hates Debbie. Her maiden name is revealed in the episode "Not So Great-Great-Grandpa."
• Keely Teslow (Alyson Michalka) (born March 1990) is Phil's best friend and later girlfriend. She is the only person who knows Phil and his family are from the future. Keely is an energetic and bubbly girl who aspires to be a news reporter. She starts to harbor romantic feelings for Phil during Season 2. She sometimes uses Phil's gadgets as a shortcut for schoolwork. She is notable on the show for her numerous hairstyles and colorful clothes. In the later episodes of the series, she hosts her own daily news program on the school's closed-circuit television broadcasting system. In the episode "The Giggle," she gets to look ahead at her own future and learns that she does, in fact, become a successful news reporter. It is also noted that she is wearing a wedding ring, but turns down the chance to see who her husband is. In the final episode, Phil and Keely finally reveal their feelings for each other and start dating after being voted "Cutest Couple" by their school. However, shortly after they begin dating, Pim helps Lloyd finally repair the time machine, and their relationship comes to an end as Phil returns to 2121.

Recurring

• Curtis (J. P. Manoux) (born around 30,000 BC) is a caveman (Cro-Magnon, as mentioned in the episode "Dinner Time") who stowed away in the Diffys' time machine when they went back to visit the Stone Age. The Diffys struggle to make Curtis seem like a normal person, and often pretend he is Phil's uncle. Throughout the series, he learns more English.
• Vice Principal Neil Hackett (J.P. Manoux) (born 1969) is the Vice Principal at Phil, Keely, and Pim's school, H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High School. In the school, he is also Phil's teacher in science and Pim's teacher in history. He is often found snooping around the Diffys' house as he tries to figure out where they are really from, though he believes they are aliens. He is the main antagonist of the series. Other than Keely, he is the only person to find out that Phil and his family are from the future. This is short lived however as The Diffys travel back in time before they ever told him.

Season 1

• Deborah Hortence "Debbie" Berwick (Kay Panabaker) (born 1990) is the complete opposite of Pim and she has a very happy attitude towards life. She hardly ever gets mad and is very nice. Debbie also considers Pim to be her best friend. Because of this, Pim likes to take advantage of Debbie's good-natured personality. She lives with her grandma and teaches a yoga class. Her other friends are Neckbrace Lana and Silent Judy. Debbie used to date Bradley until Pim broke them up by changing Debbie's personality but Debbie went back to normal. Debbie enjoys singing and is in the school band. She was written out of the show after Season 1. It was revealed in the Halloween special that she was a "happy" cyborg made by a cyborg-making company. She was intended to only do good and be always happy, until finally having a malfunction and turning evil and attempting to "nicely" enslave the world (starting from her schoolmates) into baking cupcakes for charity. At the episode's conclusion, Phil was forced to melt her. She appeared afterwards in the episode "Neander-Phil".
• Bradley Benjamin Farmer (Rory Thost) is Pim's rival in Season 1. He is made fun of his short height (constantly being called a munchkin by Pim). He dated Debbie but Pim broke them up and he became infatuated with Pim.
• Neckbrace Lana (Carlie Westerman) is a girl who did the school news and was in Pim's grade. She and Pim hated each other. She always wears a neckbrace, as she had pinched a nerve at some time in the past.
• Tia Deanna Fedichelli (Brenda Song) is Keely's best friend. She is popular and friendly. She also seems to be rich. Though she can be spoiled and snobby sometimes, she is friendly and described as the girl next door by Phil; replaced by Via in Season 2, due to Brenda Song leaving the show to star in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
• Seth Wosmer (Evan Peters) is the nerdy friend of Phil, Keely, and Tia. He is a member of the H.G. Wells billiards team, and the first student at the school to befriend Phil. His role was replaced by the more suave Owen in Season 2.
• Ms. Guinevere Winston (Suzanne Krull) is a second-grade teacher in Season 1 (whose writing class Phil had to attend in the episode "Tanner"), as well as Pim's teacher.
• Tanner Kirkpatrick (Chris Hunter) is a crush of Keely's in the episode "Your Cheatin' Heart" and was in the show most of the season. Phil seems to dislike him and sometimes cracks jokes about him and vice-versa, especially after Phil caught him cheating on Keely.

Season 2

• Candida (Spencer Locke) is the "mean" girl that excludes Pim and insults her by frequently referring to her as "Pim-ple." She is referred to as one of the "fashion zombies" by Pim.
• Li'l Danny Dawkins (Brandon Smith) has a crush on Pim and always gets involved with her antics. Pim does not seem to show affection for him, with the exception of when they danced at the dance in the episode "Get Ready to Go-Go."
• Joel Messerschmitt (Joel Brooks) is Phil and Keely's teacher who takes pleasure in giving extremely difficult assignments that most of his students will fail. He has a sister named Bettina (also played by Brooks) and a nephew, Nathan (Josh Flitter), who both shockingly carry the same family trait of having a mustache. He reveals in the episode "The Gile" that his parents were acrobats.
• Owen (Michael Mitchell) is Phil's friend who replaced Seth. He is not that smart and is laid-back, also constantly trying to hit on girls (though he never succeeds).
• Olivia ("Via") (Juliet Holland-Rose) is a girl from England who transferred because her father is in the military. She became friends with Keely after Tia moved. In the episode "Get Ready to Go-Go," Phil went to a Sadie Hawkins dance with her, after a near-miss in returning to the future ruined his plans to go with Keely.

Production

Phil of the Future's working title was The Out of Timers. The theme song for Phil of the Future was written and composed by John Adair and Steve Hampton. The theme song was performed by Drew Davis Band who also performed the theme song of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

Awards and nominations

• Directors Guild of America

2007 - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs - Fred Savage for episode "Not So Great Great Great Grandpa" (Nominated)

• Writers Guild of America

2007 - Children's Episodic & Specials - David Steven Cohen for episode "Broadcast Blues" (Nominated)

• Young Artist Awards

2006 - Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Leading Young Actress - Amy Bruckner (Nominated)

2005 - Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama): Leading Young Actress - Alyson Michalka (Nominated)

2005 - Best Performance in a Television Series: Recurring Young Actor - Rory Thost (Nominated)

2005 - Best Performance in a Television Series: Recurring Young Actress - Kay Panabaker (Nominated)

Related media

A DVD of the series titled Gadgets & Gizmos was released on August 16, 2005. It contains four episodes: "Double Trouble", "Age Before Beauty", "My Way" and the then-unaired episode "Team Diffy". The episode "Christmas Break" was released as a bonus feature on the Disney Channel Holiday DVD compilation, released November 1, 2005.

A video game based on Phil of the Future was released for the Game Boy Advance on August 22, 2006. In the game, Pim uses a cloning machine to create clones of a pet from the future called "Blahs" and it is up to Phil to stop them.

Book series

Disney Publishing released a variety of Phil of the Future-related books throughout the 2000s, including:

No.	Title	Based on
1	Stuck In Time	Part One: Future Tutor Part Two: Future Jock
Part One: The Diffy family are stranded in the 21st century; Lloyd and Barbara decides for Phil (9th grade) and Pim (7th grade) to attend H.G. Wells Junior/Senior High School. Phil tutors Keely on Algebra; Pim competes with Debbie for chalk-monitor. Part Two: Phil cheats so he can try out for the Gymnastics team to impress Keely, but Pim figures it out.
2	The Great Fake-out	Part One: You Say Toe-Mato Part Two: Corner Pocket
Part One: Four-toed Phil uses fake fifth toes to fit into tomato-stomping, but Keely finds one - and the Diffy secret; Pim and Debbie help Mr. Hackett pay for an operation, until they learn it's for a hairpiece. Part Two: Phil helps Keely convince her mom she's a cheerleader; Pim learns that Debbie's allergic to raisins.
3	Blast from the Past	Part One: Meet the Curtis Part Two: Pheremonally Yours
Part One: The Diffys meet a time-machine stowaway who later saves Mr. Diffy's life; Pim reluctantly attends a sleepover. Part Two: A 9th-grade southern belle takes Phil's politeness the wrong way; Pim worms her way into the junior-high Orchestra.
4	Far-out Phil	Part One: Unification Day Part Two: We'll Fix it In Editing
Part One: Phil must decide between the school's party-of-the-year and his family's Unification Day, for which Pim makes a giant meatloaf. Part Two: Phil is too much the perfectionist in directing a short film that leaves his friends short with him; Pim enters a fast-walk competition - and wins!

Home media

The series became available to stream on Disney+ in the United States when it launched on November 12, 2019.

External links

• Official website
• Phil of the Future at IMDb