Best California Movies & TV Shows

A list of the greatest movies & tv shows about California. On this top list of California movies are films such as, Try Harder!, Frank Zappa: A Token Of His Extreme, Superpower Dogs, Killing County, Lincoln Heights, Cal Fire, LA Fire & Rescue, The Paddy Lincoln Gang, Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football, among many other enticing movies about California.What would you say are among the best California movies of all time. And how many of these popular films have you seen before.

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Try Harder!

In a universe where cool kids are nerds, the orchestra is world class and being Asian American is the norm, seniors at Lowell High School compete for the top prize: admission to the college of their dreams.

Frank Zappa: A Token Of His Extreme

Frank Zappa: A Token of his Extreme is the 1974 television special recorded at Kcet in Hollywood that was produced by Zappa and aired only in France and Switzerland. The program, as thoroughly tweezed and produced by Zappa for his own Honker Home Video label, includes the following musical performances by Zappa and his band: T”he Dog Breath Variations/ Uncle Meat,” “Montana,” “Florentine Pogen,” “Stink-Foot,” “Pygmy Twylyte,” “Room Service,” “Inca Roads,” “Oh No,” Son of Orange County,” “More Trouble Every Day” and “A Token of My Extreme.” In the words of Zappa himself as he said it on The Mike Douglas Show in 1976, “This is put together with my own money and my own time and it’s been offered to television networks and to syndication and it has been steadfastly rejected by the American television industry.

Superpower Dogs

The life-saving superpowers and extraordinary bravery of some of the world’s most amazing dogs. The film follows six pups on their adventures: Halo, a puppy training to join an elite American disaster response team; Henry; an avalanche rescue dog in the Canadian Rockies; Reef, a Newfoundland lifeguard in the Italian Coast Guard; Ricochet, a surf and therapy boi in California; and the dynamic duo Tipper and Tony, who work to save endangered species in Africa.

Killing County

In a big city with the soul of a small town in the depths of California, after a terrible shooting in a hotel makes the Ramirez family question everything they know about their city: Bakersfield.

Lincoln Heights

Eddie Sutton is a dedicated police officer, his wife Jenn, a devoted nurse, but their most important job is as parents to their three teenage children Cassie, Tay and Lizzie. They're your everyday American family living in the suburbs of Southern California, but the Suttons are thrown for a loop when Eddie decides to move his wife and three kids to the inner-city neighborhood where he grew up.

Cal Fire

Cal Fire imbeds viewers within the largest emergency force in the country; access to all 6,100 firefighters as they work to contain California's near-constant blazes.

LA Fire & Rescue

This docuseries offers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, documenting real calls and real drama while giving faces to the passionate firefighters who risk their lives in the name of service. These real-life heroes and their compelling stories are told alongside the unpredictable dangers they face on the front lines of life and death.

The Paddy Lincoln Gang

The Paddy Lincoln Gang are a rock band with everything - as well as total immersion in sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But their charismatic lead singer holds a dark secret from his past, a secret that is about to explode.

Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football

Focusing on football programs in the Southeastern, Southwest and Atlantic Coast Conferences, Breaking The Huddle: The Integration of College Football chronicles the heyday of football programs at historically black colleges and universities, and explores the profound effect of the Civil Rights movement of the '60s on the racial status quo of college athletics. The story culminates with the Sept. 1970 game played in Birmingham between the University of Southern California, and the University of Alabama.

Rogues In Robes

A clinical review of judicial corruption, the good and the bad guys showcased. The need for complete, federal and state judicial reform, term limits, with no immunities.

MICerz

After a DUI brings Arnold to rock bottom, living in his van gets worse when it breaks down outside of a raunchy underground comedy club. Now Arnold will chase a dream he never pursued - if he can earn the trust of the crazy family he never knew he needed.

Great Homes of Rochester

Travel through the streets of Rochester and you’ll find some extraordinary architecture. From California bungalows to English Tudors, French colonials to Victorians, the Flour City is home to so many beautiful dwellings. WXXI takes you on a private tour inside some of these exquisite house in Great Homes of Rochester.

Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac

Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac is a 1997 television miniseries that served as a reunion show for the primetime soap opera Knots Landing. It aired on CBS in two two-hour parts on May 7 and May 9, 1997. The miniseries takes place four years after the series ended in 1993, and brings back castmembers William Devane, Kevin Dobson, Michele Lee, Donna Mills, Ted Shackelford, Joan Van Ark, Michelle Phillips and Stacy Galina in starring roles. It also includes cameo appearances by former cast members Tonya Crowe, Brian Austin Green, Kim Lankford, Claudia Lonow and Patrick Petersen.

Sitting Pretty

Jack Oakie and Jack Haley are songwriters are enroute from New York to Hollywood to make their fame and fortune; Ginger Rogers, a lunchwagon proprieter, joins them.

O.J. Speaks: The Hidden Tapes

Provides unique access inside Simpson's civil trial and his rare deposition tapes. Fred Goldman and members of the civil trial legal team, including Daniel Petrocelli, are interviewed exclusively for the special.

Go Into Your Dance

An irresponsible Broadway star gets mixed up with gambling and gangsters.

Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn

The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals, adventures, loves and excess was largely played out in front of the camera - either making movies or filling the newsreels and gossip magazines. Tragically he was dead from the effects of drugs and alcohol by the time he was only 50 & the myths live on. But there is another side of Flynn that is less well known - his ambitions to be a serious writer and newspaper correspondent, his documentary films and his interest in the Spanish Civil War and Castro's Cuba

California Love

Leon Watkins runs a community helpline in South Central LA, where anyone in need of help is welcome. One of his most frequent visitors is local gang leader, John Wesley Hunter, otherwise known as “Joker” to the streets. After a day of hustling and almost losing his life in a shoot-out, Joker goes to the one place where he knows he can get help. All in a typical day’s work for Leon until an unlikely woman shows up insisting on aiding him in his fight for his community. This unlikely team defies social constructs by working together to actively fight oppression and gain nation-wide recognition for a hidden reality of many. Along their way they experience the deep-seeded hatred that has plagued America, great love, and tragedy as they leave behind a legacy.

W.C. Fields and Me

In 1920s New York City, W. C. Fields is a successful headlining entertainer, but when his girlfriend leaves him and his broker loses his money, Fields begins anew in California. Working at a wax museum, Fields eventually lands a film role that ascends him to stardom. Back in the limelight and palling around with John Barrymore and the like, Fields meets an aspiring actress Carlotta Monti at a party, with whom he forms a rocky relationship.

Shot

One bullet. Three lives. Everyone pays. On an average Los Angeles day, a couple on the verge of divorce and a bullied teenager find their lives desperately changed when the boy's illegal gun goes off.

Blackout

After being charged with hacking into the Pentagon security system, computer-whiz Josh Martin is kidnapped during house arrest and delivered to a shadowy criminal known as Charles Keller. Requested to hack into the state’s highly advanced electrical system and shut it down, it’s clear what Keller wants—total chaos. When California goes dark, he gets what he wants. And tonight, no one will be prepared for what’s about to happen.

Zorro, the Avenger

Masked crusader Zorro and his father, Don Alejandro, face off against mysterious despot The Eagle in a fight for control of old Spanish California.

Robbery Homicide Division

Robbery Homicide Division was an American police procedural television series on CBS, created by Barry Schindel with executive producer Michael Mann. Schindel has been nominated for three Emmy Awards.

Eagles:Live at the Capital Centre (March 1977)

Eagles Live At The Capital Centre - March 1977, featuring never-before-released performances from the Eagles’ two-night stand at Washington, D.C.’s Capital Center during the legendary Hotel California tour.

Adult Wednesday Addams

Wednesday is all grown up and has finally moved out of her family's manor to experience adult life in Los Angeles. She looks for an apartment, goes on job interviews, internet dates and encounters some unfortunate antagonists along the way.

Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge

This is a true story about the relationship between a mother and her daughter, and their struggle to make it to the top in the music world. It is about hopes and dreams... about relationships and about growing up.

BoJack Horseman

Meet the most beloved sitcom horse of the 90s - 20 years later. BoJack Horseman was the star of the hit TV show "Horsin' Around," but today he's washed up, living in Hollywood, complaining about everything, and wearing colorful sweaters.

Wildfire

After serving time at a juvenile detention center, eighteen-year-old Kris Furillo is given the opportunity to start a new life. Her talent with horses is recognized by a volunteer and local trainer, who arranges a job for her at the Ritter's family run ranch.

Dear Mama

Explore the history of activist Afeni Shakur and hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, two voices that could not be silenced. Told through the eyes of the people who knew them best, this series is an intimate wide-angle portrait of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever.

The Kardashians

The family you know and love is here with a brand new series, giving an all-access pass into their lives. Kris, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, Kendall, and Kylie bring the cameras back to reveal the truth behind the headlines. From the intense pressures of running billion-dollar businesses to the hilarious joys of playtime and school drop-offs, this series brings viewers into the fold with a rivetingly honest story of love & life in the spotlight.

The Evidence

Inspectors Cayman Bishop and Sean Cole investigate crimes in San Francisco Police Department. How does all of the pieces to the puzzle all fit together?

The Littlest Hobo

When a roaming German Shepherd Dog rescues a boy's pet lamb from the slaughterhouse he struggles to reunite them, despite being chased by police and getting little cooperation from the lamb.

Snowfall

Los Angeles. 1983. A storm is coming and its name is crack. Set against the infancy of the crack cocaine epidemic and its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it, the story follows numerous characters on a violent collision course.

The Measure of a Man

After being raised in an Oklahoma orphanage, 15 year-old Donald makes his way to California during the depression. He meets Emogene, the daughter of poor migrant farm laborers, and together they set out to break the cycle of poverty and ignorance.

The Neon Ceiling

A housewife and her teenage daughter, fleeing their boring lives, stop in a diner in the California desert. She runs up against the diner's owner, a gruff, beer-drinking artist whose life's work is the neon sculptures he creates and attaches to the ceiling.

Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell

Actress Sharon Stone hosts this documentary about the life and career of 1930s sex symbol Jean Harlow. Included are clips from many of her films, photos and stories about her life before she became a movie star, and accounts of her troubled personal life, including a domineering mother, the failure of her three marriages and the suicide of her second husband.

Sky Dragon

All the passengers on an airplane headed for San Francisco are drugged, and when they wake up, it is discovered that a quarter-million dollars is missing. Charlie Chan--and, of course, his #1 son--must discover the identity of the person who doped the passengers and stole the money.

Animaniacs

Yakko, Wakko and Dot return for all-new big laughs and the occasional epic takedown of authority figures in serious need of an ego check. Joining the Warners are Starbox & Cindy on their latest play date while Pinky and the Brain's ideas for world domination lead them to all new adventures.

The Good Doctor

Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital's surgical unit. Unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues.

Pulp Fiction

A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip back and forth in time.

Forrest Gump

A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

Lucifer

Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, Lucifer Morningstar abandoned his throne and retired to Los Angeles, where he has teamed up with LAPD detective Chloe Decker to take down criminals. But the longer he's away from the underworld, the greater the threat that the worst of humanity could escape.

Games People Play

Three ambitious women navigate the highly competitive world of professional sports.

O.J.: Made in America

A chronicle of the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, whose high-profile murder trial exposed the extent of American racial tensions, revealing a fractured and divided nation.

On My Block

A coming of age comedy following a diverse group of teenage friends as they confront the challenges of growing up in gritty inner-city Los Angeles.

How Bruce Lee Changed the World

More than just a biography, this film explores Bruce Lee's global impact to see how he has influenced all areas of popular culture including fitness, cinema, music, sport, dance, video games and philosophy. A journey across the United States, Asia and Europe, takes Shannon Lee on a trip back to her father's roots in Hong Kong and China. With unique access to the family's photographic archive, home movies and all material owned by the Bruce Lee Foundation.

Sons of Anarchy

An adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones that explores a notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (MC) desire to protect its livelihood while ensuring that their simple, sheltered town of Charming, California remains exactly that, charming. The MC must confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers, and overzealous law officers. Behind the MC’s familial lifestyle and legally thriving automotive shop is a ruthless and illegal arms business driven by the seduction of money, power, and blood.

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