The butchering of Grounded For Life (1 Viewer)

[Marc Bax]

WTF happened here? I'll admit GFL was a favorite guilty pleasure of mine, as I'm a big Kevin Corrigan fan and also like Donal Logue. But Fridays 5th season premier was a disaster. They decided to stop shooting in front of a studio audience and WAAAY over-used the canned laughter which was bad enough. But it appears as if they've pulled the sitcom killing stunt of not bringing back one of the child actors. Jake Burbage who played the youngest child Henry (and was damn funny in his own right) is nowhere to be seen. Not a mention of him anywhere and he's been edited out of the opening. They didn't get a replacement, didn't write him out, just *poof*. It's very odd especially how the plot line in this show is a continuous one. Also the writing was just plain bad, not nearly as funny as it once was. The WB really dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Jordan_E]

Man, I used to think the mom on that show was SO hot, (a sure sign of getting older, when you find mothers on sitcoms hotter than their "daughters") but when it changed to the WB I sort of 'lost' the show. Actually, I'm surprised that it has lasted this long jumping networks.

 

[Brad Porter]

...and there's a baby on the way...

Cut bait and run now.

Brad

 

[Shea]

I watched the show on Fox and really liked it..took a long time before I realized it wasn't cancelled and was on the WB..managed to catch one episode there last year..and planned to maybe start watching it again..after seeing this, I think not.

 

[Roger_C]

I thought it was cancelled as well. I just read a fall preview that listed it on WB. I'm disappointed that it sounds like it's gone crappy. Nothing fixes TV shows like a good re-tooling!

 

[Marc Bax]

Well they at least made reference to Henry twice on tonight's episode but he was still MIA. When Sean was looking through the old baby stuff he said "all we have are these pacifiers that Henry bit the nipples off of", later they showed a flashback where Claudia was pregnant with him. It's like a damn mystery trying to figure out what happened to him. Someone put that kid on a milk carton.

 

[Rob P S]

Here's some info on what happened to him:
http://www.tvguide.com/search/articl...amID%3D2857114

 

[Marc Bax]

Thanks for the info it was buggin me.

 

[Marc Bax]

Well they did it to themselves but GFL is dead. The WB didn't pick up any more episodes. There was 13 shot for this season so that'll be all she wrote.

 

[Randy B A]

I saw previews of the new John Goodman show and it looks like the kid is in that show. I think it is called center of the universe

Just checked imdb, and I guess that is not the same kid. Sorry, Randy B A

 

[Rob P S]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...on_grounded_dc

 

[Mark Hedges]

I kind of liked this show. I think it is much better that the other crap they have on friday night (Reba and What I like about you)

 

[Robert Ma]

I love this show even though its not as good as it used to be. I must be a minority in taste because I loved Ed and it's gone also.

 

[Marc Bax]

Well as much as I hated the changes made this season I was still sad to see the show end tonight. Really it's amazing it made it as far as it did given the constant shuffling at Fox, the network change, and the fact it never had very good ratings. Glad to see the WB gave it a proper send off and let em tie up all the loose ends. They even joked about the Henry situation a bit, although it would have been much better if he would've actually been there.

GFL was one of the only sitcoms I watch anymore and despite the changes I always looked forward to having the episodes on my Tivo every Friday night. I sure hope Donal Logue and Kevin Corrigan get new gigs soon as I think they are both wonderful comedic actors.

Also I'm glad to hear that ABC Family has aquired syndication rights there's a few unaired episodes and I missed numerous episodes along the way especially in the early seasons, so that'll be nice to see finally see them.

My favorite episode I can remember has to be season 3's "Henry's Been Working for the Drug Squad" where Henry finds the marijuana plant in the backyard. Gotta love a show who's theme music is performed by Ween .

 

[RyanAn]

I am not a WB watcher by any means, but I was surprised to see that one of my favorite Fox shows was still going "strong" on another network. According to www.imdb.com - The cast often refers that they have 3 children even though Jimmy? is gone. Grandpa was a great character and it is just not the same without him.

Ryan

 

[Marc Bax]

Ryan I wouldn't exactly say going strong being as last nights episode was the series finale. It was "Henry" who left the cast. Jake Burbage's parents were unhappy with the education he was receiving on set and rather then deal with it the producers told them to accept what they offered or leave the show. His family decided education was more important so they moved back to the east coast.

As for Grandpa Walt although at one time he was written out of the show he has been in several episodes since and had a large role in the series finale. He had one of my favorite lines in the finale when introducing the family to his fiance "Henry's around here... somewhere". And that's pretty much how they played it all season, Henry was around somewhere but no one ever knew or bothered to ask exactly where.