Ferb comes from a blended family, a premise the creators considered underused in children's programming and which reflected Marsh's own upbringing.[4] Ferb's birth mother is never revealed,[5] but the series shows that both Ferb and his father Lawrence hail from England.[6] Lawrence married Ferb's step-mother Linda after meeting her at a 1990s concert by the fictional band Love Händel.[7] Marsh considers explaining the family background "not important to the kids' lives. They are a great blended family and that's all we need to know." Ferb and his family live in the fictional town of Danville, in a large, suburban neighborhood.[8] Throughout their summer vacation, Ferb and Phineas conceive outrageous schemes to defeat boredom while sitting lazily beneath a tree in their backyard.[9][10] Phineas mainly conceives each project while Ferb spearheads its construction.[6] Their activities are almost always beyond the capability of a typical child and have included toy design (in "Toy to the World");[11] treasure-hunting (in "The Ballad of Badbeard");[12] engineering (in "It's About Time!");[13] and restaurant management (in "Chez Platypus").[14] Ferb's step-sister, Candace, is always trying to get the two in trouble with their mother for their schemes, but is never able to.[6] Ferb talks very rarely, usually having only one line per episode. He speaks with a British accent. There are a total of 11 episodes in which he had no lines and the longest he ever spoke was in "The Lizard Whisperer" when he gave a speech which totalled 129 words.