
Frank Zappa
Actor · 1940 – 1993 · Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship. Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock and jazz history. He is regarded as one of the most original guitarists and composers of his time. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Zappa was married to Kathryn J. "Kay" Sherman from 1960 to 1964. In 1967, he married Adelaide Gail Sloatman, with whom he remained until his death from prostate cancer in 1993. They had four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. Gail Zappa manages the businesses of her late husband under the name the Zappa Family Trust. Description above from the Wikipedia article Frank Zappa, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies24
Movie7.7MusicDocumentaryUntold stories behind the culture-defining and newsmaking musical performances, sketches and cameos of the past 50 years.
Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music
2025 · 21 votes
Movie7.3MusicDocumentaryWith the help of more than 10,000 dedicated Zappa fans, this is the long-awaited definitive documentary project of Alex Winter documenting the life and career of enigmatic groundbreaking rock star Frank Zappa. Alex also utilizes in this picture thousands of hours of painstakingly digitized videos, photos, audio, writing, and everything in between from Zappa's private archives. These chronicles have never been brought to a public audience before, until now.
Zappa
2020 · 69 votes
Movie6.2ComedyMusicIn this surrealistic and free-form follow-up to the Monkees' television show, the band frolic their way through a series of musical set pieces and vignettes containing humor and anti-establishment social commentary.
Head
1968 · 107 votes
Movie8.0Documentary1969. Man lands on the moon. Half a million strong at Woodstock....and Led Zeppelin perform in the gym of the Wheaton Youth Center in front of 50 confused teenagers. Or did they? Filmmaker Jeff Krulik chronicles an enduring Maryland legend, of the very night this concert was alleged to have taken place, January 20, 1969, during the first Presidential Inauguration of Richard Nixon. Led Zeppelin Played Here presents a mid-Atlantic version of what was happening nationwide as the rock concert industry took shape. Featuring interviews with rock writers, musicians, and fans, and several who claim they were witnessing history that night.
Led Zeppelin Played Here
2014 · 1 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryMusicA look at the roots of the historic music scene in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon featuring the music of iconic music groups such as The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and The Mamas and the Papas.
Echo in the Canyon
2019 · 46 votes
Movie7.4MusicDocumentaryUtilizing potent TV interviews and many forgotten performances from his 30-year career, we are immersed into Frank Zappa’s world while experiencing two distinct facets of his complex character. At once Zappa was both a charismatic composer who reveled in the joy of performing and, in the next moment, a fiercely intelligent and brutally honest interviewee whose convictions only got stronger as his career ascended.
Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words
2016 · 27 votes
- Movie4.5DocumentaryComedy
Tom sets out to solve world problems, with help from Frank Zappa, Martin Mull, and wife Roseanne.
Tom Arnold: The Naked Truth
1991 · 2 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryHart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology is a documentary produced and released by WWE Home Video in collaboration with Hart family members. The DVD chronicles the lineage of the Hart family beginning with the biography of patriarch Stu Hart. It gives a brief accounting of the lives of all twelve Hart children as well as parents Stu and Helen growing up in Calgary. It describes the deaths of Stu, Helen, Dean, Matthew, Owen, Brian Pillman and Davey Boy Smith with recollections from their loved ones. The DVD concludes with a feature on the Hart Dynasty and their future in WWE.
Hart & Soul - The Hart Family Anthology
2010 · 3 votes
Movie6.4DocumentaryA documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
Fuck
2006 · 90 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryMusicExperience the iconic rock band's legacy in the first major documentary to tell their story. Directed with the era’s avant-garde spirit by Todd Haynes, this kaleidoscopic oral history combines exclusive interviews with dazzling archival footage.
The Velvet Underground
2021 · 124 votes
MovieDocumentaryMusicResurrected through UK-led archival restoration NOVA 78' shows never-before-seen footage of the legendary Nova Convention where William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Zappa, Ginsberg and more collided in an explosion of ideas, art and rebellion.
Nova '78
2026
Movie5.1FantasyComedy"Touring makes you crazy," Frank Zappa says, explaining that the idea for this film came to him while the Mothers of Invention were touring. The story, interspersed with performances by the Mothers and the Royal Symphony Orchestra, is a tale of life on the road. The band members' main concerns are the search for groupies and the desire to get paid.
200 Motels
1971 · 49 votes
Movie7.6DocumentaryWith one of the most memorably stunning voices that has ever hit the airwaves, Linda Ronstadt burst onto the 1960s folk rock music scene in her early twenties.
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
2019 · 31 votes
Movie7.1DocumentaryMusicEmerging from the Detroit music scene of the 1970s in a flurry of long hair and sequins, Alice Cooper restored hard rock with a sense of showmanship, while simultaneously striking fear into the hearts of Middle America with the chicken-slaughtering, dead-baby-eating theatrics that would cement his identity as a glam metal icon. Meticulously crafted from rare archival footage, Super Duper Alice Cooper tells the story of the man behind the makeup, Vincent Furnier, the son of a preacher, who got caught in the grip of his own monster.
Super Duper Alice Cooper
2014 · 31 votes
Movie7.3MusicDocumentaryA celebration of the musical work of a group of session musicians known as "The Wrecking Crew." a band that provided back-up instrumentals to such legendary recording artists as Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby.
The Wrecking Crew
2008 · 86 votes
Movie10.0DocumentaryA look at "rock and roll" and other pop music based film of the 1970s.
Hollywood Rocks the Movies: The 1970s
2002 · 1 votes
Movie6.5MusicDocumentaryThis episode focuses on Zappa's early 70s albums, Overnight Sensation (1973) and Apostrophy (') (1974). Together they encapsulate Zappa's extraordinary musical diversity and were also the 2 most commercially successful albums that he released in his prolific career. Included are interviews, musical demonstrations, rare archive & home movie footage, plus live performances to tell the story behind the conception and recording of these groundbreaking albums. Extras include additional interviews and demonstrations not included in the broadcast version, 2 full performances from the Roxy in 1973 and Saturday Night Live in 1976, and new full live performance done specially for these Classic Albums.
Movie6.5HorrorFantasyAn intelligent, fearless boy living in a superstitious Transylvanian village goes out into the world to figure out what everyone else is afraid of, "the shivers." A king hires him to rid his castle of ghosts and evil spirits, expecting him to die like all who have tried before him, but the boy is more fearless than he could have known.
The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers
1984 · 4 votes
MovieMusicAnimationInfluential animator, Hungarian immigrant and lifelong Frank Zappa enthusiast Gábor Csupó recounts his chance meeting and eventual friendship with the musician himself.
Cosmic Debris
2018
Movie8.5MusicDocumentaryLive performances by some of the top rock-and-roll acts of the mid 60s. Includes Ray Charles, The Byrds, Joan Baez, Ike and Tina Turner, Donovan, The Lovin' Spoonful, and several more.
The Big T.N.T. Show
1965 · 2 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryIn a hypercompetitive world, drugs like Adderall offer students, athletes, coders and others a way to do more -- faster and better. But at what cost?
Take Your Pills
2018 · 149 votes
- MovieDocumentary
A mental journey - historical, political, musical and metaphysical - in contemporary times, from the Sixties until nowadays.
Movie8.5DocumentaryMusicThis is the first documentary covering Steve Vai's life from 1960 to 1990. (Co-written by Steve Vai.) Cover Vai's life growing up all the way until 1990's Passion and Warfare album.
Steve Vai - His First 30 Years: The Documentary
2022 · 3 votes
Movie6.0DocumentaryOn John's 31st birthday, Yoko held an art exhibit, "This Is Not Here", at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, N.Y.. The show was taped and aired on U.S. TV on May 11, 1972 as "John and Yoko in Syracuse, New York.
Yoko Ono: This Is Not Here
1972 · 1 votes
Series12
TV6.9ComedyNewsA late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.
Saturday Night Live
1975 · 527 votes
TV7.4CrimeDramaThe story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.
Miami Vice
1984 · 541 votes
TV7.2DocumentaryOmnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast mainly on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. The programme was the successor to the long-running arts-based series 'Monitor'. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings. During its 35-year history, the programme won 12 Bafta awards. Among the series' best remembered documentaries are Cracked Actor, a profile of David Bowie, and Rene Magritte, a graduate film by David Wheatley, 'Madonna: Behind the American dream', a film produced by Nadia Hagger, and a profile of the British film director Ridley Scott. For a season in 1982, the series was in a magazine format presented by Barry Norman. The series was replaced by 'Imagine' hosted by Alan Yentob.
Omnibus
1967 · 9 votes
TV7.6AnimationSci-Fi & FantasyRen and Stimpy are a mismatch made in animation heaven with nothing in common but a life-long friendship and an incredible knack for getting into trouble. Join them in their bizarre and gross world for some outlandish situations coupled with hilarious jokes.
The Ren & Stimpy Show
1991 · 535 votes
TV8.1DramaFamilyA live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales.
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982 · 24 votes
TV6.5ComedyFamilyMicky, Mike, Peter, and Davy are four young men in mid-1960s LA, members of a struggling country-folk-rock band looking for their big break amid madcap encounters with a variety of people straight out of TV and movie central casting, with full knowledge that their existence is part of a weekly television series.
The Monkees
1966 · 56 votes
TV7.7DocumentaryA documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.
Classic Albums
1997 · 8 votes
TV8.8RealityBeat-Club was a German music program that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It is notable for being the first German show to be based around popular music, and featured artists such as The Equals, Grateful Dead, Zager and Evans, Cream, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Gene Pitney, Ten Years After, Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Ike & Tina Turner, The Who, Black Sabbath, Harry Nilsson, David Bowie, The Bee Gees, The Beach Boys, Chicago, The Doors, Kraftwerk and Robin Gibb in its seven-year run. In 1972, it was replaced by Musikladen.
Beat-Club
1965 · 4 votes
TV8.2DocumentaryFeaturing all-new, original interviews with Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Michelle Phillips, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Roger McGuinn and more, this uniquely immersive and experiential two-part docuseries takes us back in time to a place where a rustic canyon in the heart of Los Angeles became a musical petri dish.
Laurel Canyon
2020 · 12 votes
TVDocumentaryFour-part documentary series that tells the story of British pop music and our changing attitudes to sex, gender and sexuality.
TV6.7Late Night Line-Up was a pioneering British television discussion programme broadcast on BBC2 between 1964 and 1972. Late Night Line-Up returned for a special one-off edition on BBC Parliament in 2008.
Late Night Line-Up
1964 · 3 votes
TVDocumentaryIn this CBS News report, Leonard Bernstein examines creativity in pop music of the mid 1960s. This is probably one of the first examples of pop music being examined as a "serious" art form.