The WORST episodes of Grounded for Life

Every episode of Grounded for Life ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Grounded for Life!

Having started procreating at a young age, Claudia and Sean aren't sure they're ready for parenthood - even after having three kids. This series tells the story of kids - as well as the adults - growing up.

Last Updated: 12/7/2024Network: FOXStatus: Ended
You Better You Bet
star
7.00
26 votes

#1 - You Better You Bet

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/2004

Claudia is upset with Sean when she finds out he gambled the money for the baby's crib and used the winnings to buy a new TV. When Claudia accidentally breaks the TV, she convinces Eddie to bring her to the track so she can win money to repair the set. Meanwhile, Jimmy must endure a painfully long day of father-son bonding to keep Sean from finding out about the broken TV, and Lily enrolls in a Big/Little Sister program, but is dumped by her Little Sister.

Directors: Sean Lambert
Watch Now:Amazon
In My Room
star
7.09
180 votes

#2 - In My Room

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/17/2001

Sean inadvertently finds a fake ID in Lily's bedroom. Sean and Claudia confront their daughter about her rebellious behavior, but they get few answers. They decide to hack into her e-mail to find out more about Lily's trouble-making friends. While they are checking, an e-mail comes in from a ""SweetandNastee."" Sean responds, pretending to be Lily. SweetandNastee gives Sean an address to a rave party in Yonkers. Sean and Eddie go to the address which turns out to be a dry cleaners. Convinced the rave is really at the dry cleaners, Sean and Eddie try to gain access to the party but end up getting beaten up by the dry cleaners' owner. Back at home, Sean and Claudia confront Lily, but she slams them for invading her privacy. Turns out she knew they broke into her e-mail account because she was online at a friend's house when she saw her name logged in. Lily made up the rave to teach her folks a lesson about snooping.

Directors: Paul Lazarus
Watch Now:Amazon
Your Father Should Know (1)
star
7.09
56 votes

#3 - Your Father Should Know (1)

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/2003

After Sean confronts Brad's father, who's boasting that Lily and Brad have slept together, he confronts Claudia -- and finds out she already knew too. So when Brad mysteriously gets injured by an airborn Christmas decoration, everyone thinks Sean finally lost his temper. Meanwhile, the boys have spent Sean and Eddie's Liberty quarter collection, and Eddie is disgusted. So Eddie takes the boys out to teach them a lesson about stealing from other people -- by stealing a toy machine that Henry loaded with quarters.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Oh, What a Knight
star
7.10
20 votes

#4 - Oh, What a Knight

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/16/2003

Sean joins the Knights of Hibernia in order for Lily to compete in their beauty pageant.

Directors: John Putch
Watch Now:Amazon
Psycho Therapy
star
7.11
56 votes

#5 - Psycho Therapy

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/2004

Brad and Lily fight it out in a race for student body president...but it seems all the sniping and mudslinging is a mask to hide the former lovers' true feelings about each other. Meanwhile, Eddie is depressed and seeks the help of a quack psychiatrist...and Claudia tries not to learn the baby's sex, wanting to be surprised.

Watch Now:Amazon
I'm Looking Through You
star
7.12
57 votes

#6 - I'm Looking Through You

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/2004

Sean's old friend Dave is in town, a children's performer who goes under the name ""J.J. Bodybuddy"". He lets Dave stay at his house...but it isn't entirely altruistic. He's promised the school that he can get J.J. Bodybuddy to do a show for the kids. The problem is, Dave--a recovered alcoholic who hasn't touched the stuff in ten years--gets too drunk to do the gig, and Sean has to put on the Bodybuddy leotard hismelf. Meanwhile, Lily is jealous of the new baby, and is letting her feelings be known vociferously.

Directors: Keith Truesdell
Watch Now:Amazon
All the Young Nudes
star
7.13
56 votes

#7 - All the Young Nudes

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/12/2003

Sean and Eddie hire strippers for the bar to help make ends meet -- then wind up being protested by the PTA. But what's most shocking is who set the PTA on their tails. Meanwhile, Brad asks Lily to break up with Dean. Lily doesn't want to hurt Dean, but agrees, only to find that he takes it far easier than she expected.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Cat Scratch Fever
star
7.23
57 votes

#8 - Cat Scratch Fever

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/3/2002

Things get tense at the bar when Sean hires his high school fantasy girl as the bartender. And Lily freaks out when she tells Dean she loves him at a concert and can't hear his reponse.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Tom Sawyer
star
7.24
55 votes

#9 - Tom Sawyer

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/7/2005

Lily becomes insecure when she learns that she's ""not school smart."" So when Brad snags an interview at Yale, she becomes jealous and connives to land her own interview. Sean takes a second job as a limo driver, to avoid doing work at home. Claudia tries to convince her neighbor, Arianna, that the Finnerty clan is not trash. Jimmy seeks advice from his uncle Eddie for his debut in the school production of Tom Sawyer.

Directors: John Blanchard
Writer: Chris Kelly
Watch Now:Amazon
Eddie Said Knock You Out
star
7.31
26 votes

#10 - Eddie Said Knock You Out

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/20/2002

Sean accepts a challenge from his obnoxious neighbor, Mr. O'Keefe, for a boxing match. But he has second thoughts when he discovers Eddie's tried to fix the fight. Meanwhile, Claudia becomes enraged when she learns about a rumour that she's had breast enhancement surgery.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Let's Talk About Sex, Henry
star
7.38
32 votes

#11 - Let's Talk About Sex, Henry

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/2/2002

After Henry unexpectedly catches Sean and Claudia having sex, Sean is determined to handle the inevitable topic of the birds and the bees with Henry in a better way than Walt did with he and Eddie. After having a father/son talk with Henry about sex, Sean feels good about how he handled things. When Sean and Claudia catch word that they have a ""reputation"", they discover that Henry told his entire class about what he caught Sean and Claudia doing, forcing them to do some damage control.

Directors: Peter Lauer
Watch Now:Amazon
I Wanna Be Suspended
star
7.40
118 votes

#12 - I Wanna Be Suspended

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/24/2001

Jimmy's science project, a model of the solar system, is due and he's eager to get back from the street fair to finish it. However, when Sean and Claudia find out The Ramones are playing, Jimmy's science project is forced to wait. Sean decides to write a note to Jimmy's principal, Sister Helen, to explain that he felt it was more important for Jimmy to attend the concert than to finish his science project. The note only ends up getting Jimmy suspended. To make it up to him, Sean and Eddie take Jimmy to the Statue of Liberty -- again with disasterous results.

Directors: Ken Kwapis
Watch Now:Amazon
The Policy of Truth
star
7.40
85 votes

#13 - The Policy of Truth

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/2004

Brad, after admitting he hooked up with his space camp buddy, Lana (guest star Mila Kunis), begs for forgiveness from Lily until he learns of her infidelity.

Directors: John Blanchard
Writer: Chris Kelly
Watch Now:Amazon
Lily B. Goode
star
7.40
211 votes

#14 - Lily B. Goode

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/10/2001

In a desperate attempt for attention, Lily makes out with the nerdish next-door-neighbor, Brad O'Keefe, in his car. Sean, who went to get a bucket of chicken, is out walking the dog when he spies his daughter and the neighbor boy. So Sean responds in a very unorthodox way -- by lobbing fried chicken at the car. Elsewhere, Walt babysits Jimmy and Henry, and decides to teach them how to dig a hole. And Eddie stays in the house and tries to illegally hook up cable so that he and Sean can watch soft-core porn.

Directors: Gary Halvorson
Watch Now:Amazon
Man, I Feel Like a Woman
star
7.41
83 votes

#15 - Man, I Feel Like a Woman

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/2004

Sean's feeling sick, and Eddie convinces him that he has sympathetic pregnancy syndrome. Brad and Lily decide to just be friends but their hormones get the best of them. Jimmy tries to impress the new neighbor girl by pretending to be a sports fanatic. Eddie resumes his relationship with his ex, Faye, who's become more bitter and angry than ever.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Devil with a Plaid Skirt
star
7.43
110 votes

#16 - Devil with a Plaid Skirt

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/31/2001

Jimmy's claim of demonic possession and Lily's skirt length prompt Sean's perceived battle with school head Sister Helen

Directors: Craig Zisk
Watch Now:Amazon
Smells Like Teen Spirit
star
7.45
82 votes

#17 - Smells Like Teen Spirit

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/7/2003

Sean talks to Jimmy about the birds and the bees; Brad accidentally sees Claudia naked.

Watch Now:Amazon
Me and Mrs. O
star
7.47
79 votes

#18 - Me and Mrs. O

Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/20/2004

When the Finnerty's throw Brad a birthday party to take his mind off his parents' recent breakup, Sean secretly invites Brad's dad to the party as part of his ""plan"" to reunite him with his wife Connie (guest star Nancy Cassaro). Unfortunately, Connie has taken Claudia's (Megyn Price) advice to ""get some,"" which prompts her to pursue Eddie.

Watch Now:Amazon
You're So Vain
star
7.47
78 votes

#19 - You're So Vain

Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/16/2004

Claudia's father, Tony, has returned to the Finnertys for and operation, and the rest of the family is very sympathetic, except for Sean.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Safety Dance
star
7.48
25 votes

#20 - Safety Dance

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 3/6/2002

While Sean and Claudia are chaperoning at Lily's school dance, Sister Helen catches Lily and Dean red-handed with a bottle of liquor while they are making out. Lily insists she is innocent and that the booze is not hers. But it comes as a surprise to both Lily and Sister Helen when the real culprit is revealed. Meanwhile, Eddie has taken to using Walt as his goon to shake down his shady business associates.

Watch Now:Amazon
Baby Come Back
star
7.48
54 votes

#21 - Baby Come Back

Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/14/2003

Sean becomes jealous when Claudia is asked to do some modeling for a fashion photographer. So she storms out, leaving him to deal with a bath products party that she'd organized. Meanwhile Lily recieves her yearbook photos, which are terrible.

Watch Now:Amazon
Ticket to Ride
star
7.48
85 votes

#22 - Ticket to Ride

Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/31/2003

After a night of partying, Lily wakes up with a nasty hangover, her car parked on the porch and no memory of how she got home. To teach Lily a lesson, Sean and Claudia decide to sell her car and have her sign a contract that she will call them when she is too drunk to drive. Angry at losing her car, Lily pretends to be drunk night after night in order to make her parents give her a ride home. Meanwhile, Eddie makes a huge profit when he sells Lily's car for Sean.

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
I Saw Daddy Hitting Santa Claus
star
7.50
34 votes

#23 - I Saw Daddy Hitting Santa Claus

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/19/2001

Sean gets ticked off with Walt, who's playing Santa Claus, when he promises Henry a $350 Astro Jammer Battle Buggy for Christmas. So Sean responds by bringing violence to Santaland. Meanwhile Lily tries to figure out if the blurry giftcard on her boxershorts reads ""from Brad"" or ""from Dean.""

Directors: John Blanchard
Watch Now:Amazon
Oops!...I Did It Again
star
7.52
25 votes

#24 - Oops!...I Did It Again

Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/8/2002

A home-pregnancy test in the trash has Sean convinced Lily is with child, but it may be Claudia who has something unexpected to tell him. Meanwhile, Lily learns the truth about the musical circumstances surrounding her birth; and Jimmy sings the blues about the zit that is taking over his face.

Watch Now:Amazon
Tonight's the Night
star
7.59
58 votes

#25 - Tonight's the Night

Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/9/2003

Lily winds up with the strangest bedfellow after Dean fails to pitch enough woo on her monumental 16th birthday. Meanwhile, Henry and Jimmy put Sean's shoddy fathering skills to the test with a con-game and a hot-wings binge.

Watch Now:Amazon