Characters being grounded in Live-Action Television Series.
- Our Miss Brooks: Mr. Conklin is often strict with his sixteen-year-old daughter Harriet:
- In "Madame Brooks Dubarry", Mr. Conklin is dismayed with how his daughter Harriet has been spending her dates with Walter Denton (talking romantic drivel on the front porch). He lectures Harriet near the start of the episode.
- "Parlour Game" again sees Mr. Conklin dismayed by Harriet's dating Walter Denton. He order both Harriet and Walter, and Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton to spend an evening at the Conklin house on what turns into a extremely boring date.
- "Cat Burglars" sees Mr. Conklin wary of a wave of robberies in Madison. He forces Harriet to stay at home, and makes Miss Brooks babysit.
- At the start of Arrow, Oliver Queen is not happy on his return to find his kid sister Thea has grown up into a Hard-Drinking Party Girl. After Thea is caught shoplifting, he tries to get their mother to crack down instead of just paying off the store as usual. Moira tries to ground Thea, but she just slips out of the house and later runs into her brother at a nightclub, where she tears into Oliver because she's just acting the same way he did when he was her age.
- Stranger Things, in the episode "Will the Wise", Eleven is grounded by Hopper, after she breaks his cardinal rules about contact with the outside world. He essentially traumatizes her for life, leading to her throwing an absolute exaggeration of a psychic tantrum. The entire scene is far more terrifying than any demogorgon, and would rank as one of the most horrific groundings ever recorded in the history of history.
- Stuck in the Middle has a form of punishment known as "Lockdown", where a sibling is confined to their room without any fun stuff such as electronic devices.
- Sydney to the Max:
- In the first episode "Can't Dye This", Sydney is grounded by Max for doing her hair the way she wants behind his back.
- What sets up the plot of "Night Not at the Museum". Sydney is grounded by Max for missing one too many curfews. Trouble for her, since this means she has to miss the one-night-only pop-up cake museum which all her friends will be attending, so she tries in vain to get him to change his mind, but to no avail. She eventually comes to accept her punishment when she hears his voicemails of him worrying that she missed her curfews, and apologizes and promises to come home earlier.
- The Adventures of Pete & Pete episode "Grounded for Life" sees Little Pete confined to his room for the summer... but he tunnels out. With a paperweight. He's got everything figured out—except how to cover up the dynamite explosions from busting away large rocks...Big Pete: [to Dad] It's just parasites. Really big parasites.
- In an episode of Beetleborgs, the Hillherst monsters are horsing around when Flabber suddenly enters the room and starts screaming about the mess. He tells them they're all grounded and orders them to go to their rooms. Note that the people he's talking to are a mummy, a vampire, Frankenstein and a werewolf, so they aren't impressed.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
- The title character is constantly threatened with grounding or suspension during the show's early seasons because she skips class or comes in late due to vampire sleuthing and slaying. The punished character will sometimes try to protest, only to have to backtrack on the confession once the truth starts to edge out ("I was slaying vampires... I mean...").
- Buffy's mother Joyce was portrayed as a lackluster by-the-book parent early on, hence the random groundings.
- And of course it's Played for Laughs in that teenage girls think being grounded means the end of the world. Which in Buffy's case is literally true.
- The Angel spin-off would also riff on the trope. In "Somnambulist", a vampire Angel sired is giving him the I Hate You, Vampire Dad speech, accompanied by much Punctuated Pounding.Penn: Well, you were right about one thing, Angelus. The last 200 years has been about me sticking it to my father. But I’ve come to realize something—it’s you! [he jumps up and kicks Angel in the stomach] You made me! [kicks him in the face, then double fists him a couple of times] You taught me! [Angel drops to the floor and Penn jumps on his back] You approved of me in ways my mortal father never did! You are my real father, Angelus.
Angel: [gets up, holding Penn up above his head] Fine! [slams him into the ground] You’re grounded!
- Byker Grove has a storyline in which character Jemma Dobson is grounded for attending an all-night rave (popular when the episodes in question aired in the early Nineties) when she knew her father wouldn't approve. This means she will miss a vital audition for a film which is being shot locally, but her father refuses to lift the punishment, saying it will make her think twice about going to any more all-night raves. On learning that her sister is trying to take her place at the audition, Jemma sneaks out of the house and goes to the audition, only to land herself in more trouble when she unwittingly accepts a lift in what turns out to be a stolen car.
- One episode of Castle has Castle's daughter Alexis punish herself for lying about something minor, since he wouldn't ground her (having previously feared that she was involved in something legitimately dangerous). Subverted in that she decides that the grounding will take place after a school trip that she wants to go to.
- Crash & Bernstein has this line in the theme song: "I'll be grounded forever! But that's what friends are for..."
- Drake & Josh had a couple episodes that involve the two title characters getting grounded.
- In "Dune Buggy", Josh got grounded for lying to Audrey about breaking the TV, and Drake for riding the dune buggy without permission and then crashing it. This is a Bittersweet Ending for Josh, as Drake spends his grounding recuperating from the accident.
- In "The Bet", the boys got grounded because they didn't pick up Megan during a heavy rainstorm.
- In "Helicopter", they grounded themselves after Vince has Walter pay $400,000 for the damaged helicopter.
- In "Steered Straight", the boys get grounded for using fake IDs just to watch one of their favorite bands perform at a bar, but their parents decide after they've grounded them too many times, the officers who caught them decide to have them put in a "scared straight" program, which ultimately backfires when the officer taking them to the station is called to stop a gas station robbery, at which point the robber steals the patrol car the boys are in! As usual, Hilarity Ensues.
- Family Matters:
- Harriet and Carl were upset with Eddie and Laura for how they used Steve and his Southern Belle cousin Myrtel for the sake of a couple of pranks they played on each other. After a long lecture, and their parents left, Eddie commented on how they got off easy and that usually, they would get grounded for something like that. Cue Harriet storming back in and saying, "By the way, you two are grounded!"
- As a matter of fact, it might be easier to list the times where Eddie wasn't grounded.
- Subverted in Family Ties when the father informs the oldest daughter that she's grounded, at which point she informs them that they can't ground her, she's over 18. "Darn, that used to work so well," the father moans.
- Chi Soo's father from Flower Boy Ramyun Shop refuses to let him go out after he has an attack at the swimming pool, but he sneaks out with the help of a woman he charmed several episodes earlier.
- Full House uses this as Donna Jo, whose best friend, Kimmy, sticks her feet out of the side of the car, causing Danny to find out that one of his sisters got a traffic ticket. Stephanie and Michelle used a major excuse to get their sister out of a serious jam by confessing to DJ and/or brushing Comet's teeth with a toothbrush (shortly before he grounds them all).
- An episode of Hannah Montana has Robby Ray ground Miley and Jackson as part of a plan to teach to teach them about teamwork.
- Heroes:
- An interesting case occurs when Mr Bennett grounds Claire on an excuse - because it's been foretold that she'll die if she attends Homecoming. Of course she doesn't know this and sneaks out.
- Arthur Petrelli says this jokingly to his son Peter after he stole his abilities.
- In one episode of parenting series The House of Tiny Tearaways, one of the children, Sophie, is caught smirking in the belief that she has outsmarted her mother's attempt to get her to settle in her own bed. (She and her two younger siblings are in the House because of this problem.) The next day, Sophie is grounded from playing in the garden with the other children and told that, if she carries on acting up at bedtime, she will not be allowed to take part in various extracurricular activities. However, she is allowed to join the rest of her family when they go on a bonding exercise.
- iCarly:
- This happens to Chuck Chambers quite often. His dad often grounds him. Usually when he does something bad to Spencer or other people, but mostly Spencer. Such as in his debut episode "iHurt Lewbert" where he was playing racquetball in the lobby while Spencer was covering for Lewbert, in the episode "iReunite with Missy" where he locked Spencer in the basement for 2 days as revenge for getting him grounded, or in the episode "iTwins" where he fails his math test after Carly tricked him that there's a new number called Derf, though she only does this to get back at him after all the horrible things he has done to her brother. In "iBattle Chip", after being grounded too many times and ultimately being reported to the police for his latest evil deed towards Spencer, Chuck is given the choice of being sent to juvenile hall or military school; Chuck chose military school, at which point his just-as-vengeful younger brother, Chip has to deal with Spencer and the iCarly crew.
- In "iDate a Bad Boy", Spencer grounds Carly for till college after he sees her kissing Griffin.
- Jessie:
- Emma is grounded from the school dance in "Punch Dumped Love" after forgetting to pick up Zuri.
- In "Caught Purple Handed", all of the kids are grounded from TV and internet for "the rest of their lives" and their future kids lost their jet pack privileges for throwing a party on the rooftop.
- Knuckles: After Knuckles turns the Wachowskis' living room into a warrior fighting pit and forces the family dog to fight their mailman in it, Maddie grounds Knuckles to the attic.
- Hawkeye is restricted to the Swamp until a preliminary to a court martial can be arranged after he socks Frank in the eye in an episode of M*A*S*H. Oddly enough, he enjoys it.
- Merlin has the medieval royalty variant that's still so like modern times.Uther: YOU WILL GO TO YOUR CHAMBERS!
Morgana: And you, Uther...you will go to hell. - In the episode of Married... with Children, "Naughty But Niece," Bud, who has been trying to study for a test that will allow him to earn a scholarship to Oxford, ends up constantly getting distracted, especially by Marcy's beautiful niece, Amber, and fails the test. Al tries to consider how to punish him for this, and Bud, seeing Amber sneaking up to his room, begs his father not to ground him and send him to his room for one week. Al takes the bait and grounds Bud, sending him to his room for one week.
- In the episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse titled The Gang's All Here, Pee-Wee caught the playhouse gang for playing too loud, too noisy and too rough. Pee-Wee told the kids not to run around in the playhouse, screaming or jumping on the furniture. And Pee-Wee kicked them out of the playhouse. But after they leave, Mr. Window blurts they're all gone. Then Pee-Wee does the same routine as the playhouse gang did and came back to the playhouse.
- Subverted in Privileged: Megan grounds Rose for attempting to cheat on her history final. Rather than attempt to fight against it, Rose goes out of her way to prove to Megan how seriously she's taking the punishment, bringing her favourite items to Megan voluntarily and being extra-helpful around the house. Also subverted in that Megan actively ends the grounding rather than it just vanishing next episode.
- Punky Brewster is grounded from going to the De Barge concert for failing to do a school assignment. Henry recruits the band to help Punky.
- Most episodes of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody end with this. In the last season, however, "Doin' Time in Suite 2330" starts with this after the boys ruin a wedding. At the end, their long-suffering mom Carey states how they're locked in a vicious cycle of sneaking out and getting grounded, and then exaggerates how long they're gonna be grounded now. The episode ends with her measuring them and as a reply to Zack's question of if he gets a last meal, she says she's making it, to which he responds "Aren't I being punished enough?". In comparison this isn't as common on The Suite Life on Deck since Zack and Cody are living by themselves, though in the second half of the pilot Moseby grounds London for running away (but Mr. Tipton, her dad, prevented the hotel manager from doing it because she is still his favorite daughter), and in the crossover event "Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana" Moseby blames Zack for Alex pouring blue dye in the hot tub and confines him to his room.
- An unusual example occurs in the That '70s Show episode "The Crunge", when Eric realizes that he got a pathetically low score on his SATs because his girlfriend distracts him from studying, so he asks his father to ground him so he could concentrate.
- Alex on Wizards of Waverly Place is prone to this. It's so common that in one episode, "Pop Me and We Both Go Down", after accidentally turning Justin's pimple and her dad Jerry's trophy alive, she grounds herself for three weeks, one for reanimating the trophy, two for Justin's pimple, and three for what she might do in the future. Jerry was going to go with two but ultimately believes Alex's punishment is better.
- McGee and Me! The episode, "The Not-So-Great Escape", has this happen to the main character Nicholas, after he gets into an argument over a new Horror Movie, with his parents.
- The Secret World of Alex Mack The episode, "Busted", essentially does this with the main character, with the plot being similar to the McGee and Me episode, "The Not-So-Great-Escape".
- Seinfeld Played for laughs in the episode, "The Cigar Store Indian", when George's father grounds him after a series of unfortunate instances, including the absence of a TV Guide.
- Star Trek: Voyager Tom Paris is essentially grounded in the episode "Thirty Days". After he breaks the Prime Directive in an attempt to not let his fantasy-forbidding father win again after Janeway refuses to help the Moneans with their systematic destruction of an artificial waterworld, he is demoted to Ensign, and confined to the brig for thirty days, with no holodeck privilages, the bare minimum of food, and only the comfort of dictating a letter about his prediciment to his father keeping him some sort of sanity. Even his future at the helm is in jeopardy after learning that a fellow red-shirt is being considered as Chief Comm Officer. This is even linked to his father's stern parenting in a dream sequence. However by the end of this episode, Tom begins to sow his wild oats, and begins to realize his father may have been right.
- Malcolm in the Middle: Oh, boy. Where do we start with this one...
- Krelboyne Picnic: Malcolm gets grounded by Lois at the beginning of this episode, for pouring perfectly fine soup down the toilet, in an attempt to avoid the titular picnic by feigning an illness, and to add insult to injury, she charges her son for the cost of the soup.
- Stock Car Races: Lois comments that she has enough incriminating evidence amid her tidying to ground her children and husband for life.
- Smunday: The core conceit of this episode is that Malcolm, Reese and Dewey were grounded as a result of Francis ratting them out for a stunt gone wrong, with no TV and no friend privilages between them. In fact in an attempt to clear Francis of any wrong doing after Lois discovers a letter showing her oldest son's wrongdoings at military school, they decide to accomplish an even more terrible stunt, ending with Hal's test drive going horribly awry. Whether or not they were grounded again is not shown.
- New Neighbors: In the cold open, Hal and Lois are examining Reese's report card and notice the forgeries he did in it. Hal suggests they ground Reese for two months, while Lois suggests they ground him for three months, scrubbing toilets.
- Surgery: During the playing of a 'Risk'-like game, Lois threatens to ground Reese if he attacks her, while Hal threatens to ground Reese if he doesn't attack her. This is the straw that breaks the camels back that makes them all realize how insane they've become without Malcolm constantly defeating them at this game.
- Malcolm vs. Reese: Malcolm and Reese are battling over the right for a ticket to a wrestling match with Francis, so they decide to try and get each other grounded, so one can go to the match, while the other would not.
- Evacuation: This one's a doozy. Malcolm is grounded by Lois at the beginning of the episode for being unable to help with the placement of a new couch, with two weeks in his room, and no TV, friends or phone priviliges. Lois even continues with the grounding even after the family is evacuated as a result of an accident of their own making. She even forbids him from talking to his friends or appearing on a news broadcast. Ultimately, Malcolm stands up to his strict, harsh, disciplinarian mother, but Lois responds by lightly spanking him. In the end, he has the last laugh after he is kept inside the shelter, while the rest of the family is forced outside after everyone learns their involvement with the accident.
- Book Club: Lois catches her boys attempting to play pranks with fireworks, and grounds them for a month, all the while the police are telling off the mother for what happened in the episode. Earlier, Hal is goaded by a miniature version of himself to ground the children, amongst other things.
- Malcolm's Girlfriend: Lois states that she can ground Malcolm, and she can continue grounding her son until he graduates Harvard.
- Health Scare: Another doozy, with Malcolm and Reese getting grounded for a week for trailing mud on the floor. Lois threatens to double their sentence when they speak out over the grounding. After getting caught sneaking to a party, Lois grounds them for the rest of the school year. Midway through the episode, Lois threatens to ground Dewey like his brothers.
- Company Picnic (Part 1): In the cold open, Dewey as he locks the door on Lois, tells Hal to leave, as she can only ground him.
- Reese Drives: Malcolm states at the beginning of the episode that Hal and Lois were trying to find any excuse to ground Reese, but the boy is acting too well behaved to cause any problems due to the fact he's preparing for his driver's license.
- Hal Coaches: Reese states he gets grounded enough to know how to do grunt work. And later, when he gets in trouble at school, he states to his neighbor Ed, whom he had blackmailed into doing his bidding, "So Dad, are you going to ground me?"
- Clip Show: The cold open from New Neighbors is played again.
- Forwards Backwards: At the end of the episode, after Malcolm and Reese get into a go-cart crash out of revenge and spite, Hal informs them that they are grounded again, which leads them to realise that they never had a proper birthday due to their constant groundings.
- Forbidden Girlfriend: Malcolm's new girlfriend, Nikki, mentions that she had been grounded recently.
- Kicked Out: Hal grounds Malcolm with no TV, video games or computer privilages near the end of Act 1, as a result of his fear-induced "Zero Tolerance" belief, especially since Lois is with her sisters.
- Academic Octathlon: Hal grounds Dewey until further notice in an attempt to coax him out of wanting a piggyback ride to bed. Lois grounds Reese with one week in his room, and no TV, video games or contact with the outside world, after he attempts to get out of a dance with his girlfriend, by dropping ice cream on the floor. Too bad it backfires spectacularly...
- Watching the Baby: In a fantasy sequence, new baby Jamie ends up getting grounded after being framed for wearing the pants in the family, with no TV, phone or friend privilages.
- Thanksgiving: Malcolm is grounded at the end of the episode for ending up getting drunk and making a scene in front of his family. He gets the whole works. No TV, video games or computer privilages, and is forced to clean up and perform chores for the next few months.
- Reese Joins The Army (Part 2): After being captured by enemy forces, Reese convinces his fellow prisoners that they are not captured, they are grounded, and there's always a way out of getting grounded.
- Ida's Dance: After Hal ends up getting crushed by a TV set, he tells his children that they are grounded for the rest of their lives, and that their children, and their children would grow up grounded in his house.
- Buseys Take a Hostage: In the cold open, Reese covers up the shame of watching a soap opera by acting like Lois grounded him.
- Health Insurance: Hal grounds the children in an attempt to avoid anyone, including himself, from getting into harm after their a slip up involving their insurance payment. After sustaining a critical injury, he attempts to further ground his children to cover up the pain.
- Jessica Stays Over: Reese mocks Lois into grounding him for a couple of days in an attempt to pull off another crazy plan of revenge.
- Cattle Court: In the final reference to the grounding of the series, Lois asks Malcolm what he's going to do while he's grounded that weekend. And given Malcolm was the first one to get grounded back in Season 1, it seems all the more fitting.
- Teen Wolf In the episode "Restrait", Scott is grounded by his mother for actions caused in the prior episodes.
- The Umbrella Academy (2019): Played for laughs. Lila and Diego ground Stan for the accidental murder of his uncle, and note that the only reason he got off so easily is because said uncle can come Back from the Dead.
- Jake in the Two and a Half Men episode "Pinocchio's Mouth" for getting kicked off the school bus for mooning.
- Caprica The series opens with Zoe Graystone getting grounded by her mother, for being an angsty teenage rebel. This blowout fight escalates with her mother Amanda slapping her in the face, resulting in her running away and getting herself killed in a terrorist attack. Thus the seeds of Mankind's, and the Twelve Colonies's downfall are sown...
- For All Mankind In the episode "Hi Bob", Shane Baldwin is grounded until after Christmas for stealing a pack of baseball cards from a general store. This escalates into a bitter arguement between Shane and his mother, culminating in her slapping him in the face, resulting in him running away from home in defiance towards his mother, and getting himself killed in a car accident. Thus the seeds of the Baldwin family's collapse are sown...
- Control Z: Because Sofía was occupied trying to investigate the hacker alongside Javier and Raúl, she was unable to show up at the cemetery with her mother to mourn her father as they did very often, leading the angered Nora to tell her that things would be changing from then on, starting with ordering Sofía to come home straight after school regularly.
- Walker, Texas Ranger: Season 7's "Jacob's Ladder" had this happen to the young son of the titular firefighter, Adam Crossland, for spray-painting cars and being ordered to do community service at the Dallas H.O.P.E. (Help Our People Excel) Center; the duration of his grounding lasted until his community service hours were up. He started off bitter, at first, but he warmed up after a while and decided to become a full-time volunteer, especially after his father was critically wounded by the Firelake Bloods gang when he responded to a fire they started, but luckily survived. He even saved the Center from being burned down by the gang after they attacked it while chasing one of their intimidated witnesses, just before Walker and Trivette showed up Just in Time and took down the entire gang for good.
- Young Sheldon: In "Mitch's Son and the Unconditional Approval of a Government Agency", Mary eventually grounds Missy for her use of Parenthetical Swearing and reading various Bible passages that say "ass" just for the vulgarity. Missy doesn't care though and just makes another remark about "taking her ass out of there".
