We heard from Mike Schiff, who along with Bill Martin were the creators of Grounded For Life. Mike saw our Dec. 9th story about the box art for the first season DVDs (coming out on February 7th, and read our mention that the back of the box listed the same extras as those we spelled out in a Nov. 10th story. Mike was quick to point out that we were wrong that the lists were identical (we don't mind, and we appreciate the heads-up!): we had overlooked the fact that a new supplement was added in the form of "Audio Commentaries With Cast & Crew"!
Mike also took the time to go into detail about how that came about, and the interviews as well, and looked forward to future season DVD sets and what their content and extras will be. He also addresses exactly how "uncut" these episodes will be on DVD. So, without further delay, let's just bring you Mike Schiff's e-mail to us, and let you read it for yourselves!
I was excited to see the GFL coverage on your site last week, and just wanted to point out a couple of things about the release. First, though your article said "Don't forget that a list of extras is available in our previous news item, or you can read them on the back of the package," if you look closely at the compressed graphic of that package back, you'll see one feature not listed in the previous news item: Audio Commentaries. I point these out because, after your first article about the show, my writing partner Bill Martin and I were in touch with the people at Carsey-Werner doing this set and gathered as many cast members and writers who were in town at that time to do these. There are commentaries on 11 of the 20 episodes (we ran out of time!), with various combinations of seven writer/producers and actors Megyn Price (Claudia), Lynsey Bartilson (Lily), and Richard Riehle (Walt).
Also, though the blurb doesn't mention it, all the video interviews are new, and were recorded a couple of months ago (Donal Logue did his hours before he flew to NY for a movie, and so was unavailable for commentaries). The other actors from the show are anxious to participate in future seasons, but were tied up during our limited window for this one. Also, let me assure you that the episodes are completely uncut, and include the final thirty second "credit tags," a few of which never actually aired.
And yes, as you pointed out last month, all twenty episodes produced for season one are on the set. When we produced them, they were supposed to air in season one (only after production ended did Fox decide to save them for the following season). Besides, "Grounded" seasons were always screwy:
1st........20 episodes produced, 15 aired
2nd........17 episodes produced, 22 aired
3rd (Fox)..13 episodes produced, 3 aired
3rd (WB)....6 episodes produced, 8 aired (two from Fox)
4th........22 episodes produced, 28 aired (six leftover from Fox)
5th........13 episodes produced, 13 aired (first time the numbers matched!)
It actually got pretty complicated keeping track of all this (the first six WB episodes had to be retrofit to air before episodes we'd shot months earlier for Fox), but there is a logical order that makes sense (mostly), and we're trying to preserve that.
Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to seeing the finished product (a year of my life that will fit neatly on my shelf!). Just wanted to point out that anybody who's anxious to listen to me blab on and on about myself in my annoyingly nasally voice is in for a treat!
Our deep appreciation to Mike Schiff for the info, and taking the time to fill us in. We're sure that the studio has to appreciate this, too, because this info gets us even more jazzed for these long-awaited sets! But as we add up the episode counts he gave us, we realized that there were two unaired episodes from the Fox era, and so we e-mailed and asked him real quick if these would make it onto one of the upcoming DVD sets as well. He replied that he wasn't ready to discuss that quite yet, but that rest assured he had already broached the subject with the studio. That makes us feel better, and we can only imagine that we'll see those two "lost" episodes on down the road of one of these sets. We knew Mike wouldn't let us down!
For those of you who missed it, below is the front and back packaging for Grounded For Life - Season 1. We can't wait!
  
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