Grounded for Life should be considered among the best working-class sitcoms

Vulture

"Grounded for Life never quite found an audience," Emily Palmer Heller says of the 2001-2005 Fox-WB sitcom starring Donal Logue, Megyn Price and Kevin Corrigan. "It was brought in as a mid-season replacement in 2001 for the short-lived John Goodman sitcom Normal, Ohio on Fox, aired out of order, and was cancelled two episodes into its third season to make room for a new reality show called American Idol. It was then picked up by the WB for an additional two seasons, where its Nielsen rating never rose above 2.8. (All five seasons are now available on the free streaming service IMDbTV.) That’s a shame, because Grounded for Life is a solidly funny sitcom with a rock-and-roll spirit that deserves a spot alongside Sanford and Son, Roseanne, and The Simpsons as a working-class-family show that actually grapples with the reality of being a working-class family. The Finnertys don’t fail to make ends meet — but just barely. Money is a constant concern, and an unexpected expense could knock them off balance. To pay for a vacation, they take on extra shifts (Sean is an electrician with the MTA, Claudia works as a restaurant hostess), which has real consequences for their family. The closest the show comes to gliding over money issues is when Sean and Eddie buy a bar, in a third-season effort to give the show a refresh in the midst of falling ratings. It’s still a pretty traditional family sitcom, so each episode has to come to a (mostly) heartwarming conclusion, but Sean’s impulsive decision is nevertheless treated as just that — an impulsive decision that could easily bankrupt them."