Grounded for Life Characters

Grounded For Life

This is Sean, Eddie, and Jimmy as shown in the opening credits.

Regular Characters
Sean Finnerty (Donal Logue) He has been raised by his kids since day one of the show. At first he was an electrician, then he became a bar owner in Season III. Sean and Claudia are the only TV couple I remember being this hot for each other, and best friends.

He cheated as a referee at Henry's soccer game so Henry would win, then cheated so they would lose a game later. He took his sons to see a high rise blown up in Season I, and got way too close to the explosion.

Claudia Finnerty (Megyn Price) Now expecting baby number four. She is taking some college classes. Like Sean, she is raised by her kids.

A "fashion photographer" interested in discovering her as a model was really a public school photographer in Season IV. Claudia plagiarized a paper from Lilly, who had just bought it online.

Eddie Finnerty (Kevin Fitzgerald Corrigan) He is generally up to no good. He is mysterious and he had wilder hair at first. You can't get a straight answer out of him on many things.

Recently he stared at a humidifier and ended up seeing a shrink. In Season II he tried to tell Sean "in Africa, the river beds are full of diamonds.... there you can use diamonds as aquarium gravel." He drives a tiny electric car.

In Season IV, he dumped someone by saying "It's not me, its you."

Lilly Finnerty (Lynsey Bartilson) This is probably one of the most convincing teenage girls I have ever seen on TV. The "Big Spender" talent show was hilarious in Season I.

In some episodes Brad is distracted from Lilly by Claudia. In Season IV, Lilly came home to find a smelly bum sleeping in her bed.

In Season I, she had progressively worse flashbacks of her conversation with Frank, the hot dog guy, after buying a hot dog and Diet Coke from him. She was thinking of hearing "...and a Diet Coke" which became "and a *Diet* Coke" then "and a "*DIET* Coke (with a sneer)" and finally "Dear Lord you are so freaking fat!"

Jimmy Finnerty (Griffin Frazen) He grew an "afro" the past few years. Later seasons seem to show more of him, though in Season I he really kicked some butt in one episode.

He's now the only Finnerty son on the show. He couldn't sleep after Sean and Claudia were walked in on by Henry in his bed! In Season IV, he smelled like the inside of a cab in one episode.

Henry Finnerty (Jake Burbage) (1/2001 - 5/2004) Was the most optimistic of the family. No longer on the show, because Jake Burbage's family moved back east during the summer of 2004. This is why no one saw Henry on Season V.

One of his funniest moments was walking in on his parents when they were in Jimmy's bed, while having "marital relations." He had a botched haircut from Sean in Season I. He was not seen any time in Season V, but he was mentioned.

Brad O'Keefe (Bret Harrison) Lilly's nerdy off and on boyfriend.  He was on the very first episode, making out with Lilly in a car, and Sean threw fried chicken at the car in response. Lilly and Brad both cheated on each other during the summer of 2004. 

Recurring Characters
Walt Finnerty (Richard Riehle) (a regular the first two seasons.) He tells Sean how he should parent. However, once he accidentally let Lilly get wasted on some alcoholic cider when Sean and Claudia were gone. He is from the old school. The Catholic pamphlets flashbacks of Season IV was hilarious.

Sister Helen (Miriam Flynn)  (on almost every episode until the network switch.) She frequently gets on Sean's case about how to raise kids. After all, homework is more important than a Ramones concert. Seen much more the first two seasons than later.

Near the end of Season II, she said an obscenity to Sean, and she didn't say "fo-get you." Sean royally blackmailed her after that.

Dean Peramotti(Mike Vogel) He was Lilly's boyfriend in Season II and Season III. He played the drums at a wedding in Season II. Sean daydreamed about Lilly being pregnant by him. "Put your hand here, you can feel him drumming."

Dan O'Keefe (Gregory Jbarra) Brad's father, and the Finnerty's next door neighbor. In the second season, he really hated Sean, and Sean kicked his butt in a boxing match.

In Season IV, he was busted for having an affair, because Sean challenged him to a tennis match and Sean noticed it seemed like all the weekend "tennis lessons" Dan had were useless. Then Connie realized he had been cheating on her, and he was not playing tennis.

Connie O'Keefe (Nancy Cassaro) Brad's mom. In Season IV, she was seen making out with Eddie in Eddie's electric car. She wanted to "get me some." This was after she found out about Dan's affair ("tennis lessons".)

In Season II she gave all the crappy PTA jobs to Claudia, because Claudia could not make the parent meetings because of her work schedule.

Tony Bustamante (Stephen Root) He plays Claudia's dad. He throws up past loans at Sean, and was histrionically helpless after "major surgery" in 2004, which really ended up being liposuction. Also Stephen Root might have played the Walt character.

Danny Trejo played a bouncer on Season IV. He is also famous for saving a baby's life in a wreck in Sylmar, California on 8/7/2019.