Flea names his favourite LA movies and TV shows
While it’s undoubted that Los Angeles has more celebrities and famous faces than one could ever count, there are certainly a handful that truly embody the spirit of the Californian city. The bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea, is a stalwart of LA, having first moved to the city from New York when he was a child.
From there, Flea became a permanent fixture in LA, diving headfirst into the punk and funk music scenes, eventually setting up one of the biggest rock bands of all time with his friend Anthony Kiedis. Los Angeles would be missing some of its most prominent icons if it weren’t for the Chili Peppers, and Flea has established himself as being utterly synonymous with the most populous city in the United States.
As arguably the central hub of entertainment and culture on the West Coast of North America, Los Angeles has been captured on screen on several brilliant occasions. Flea himself is no stranger to the best fictional depiction of the City of Angels, and the legendary bass player once named his favourite movies and TV shows that are set in the shimmering town.
Flea admitted that naming the top LA movie is a “tricky one”, to say the least, but he went for a true classic in the shape of the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski. “The best LA movie I’m gonna go with The Big Lebowski,” he once told Watercooler HQ. “Even though, like, the Coen brothers aren’t LA guys, it’s just so funny and captures it from kind of an outsider perspective where they might be able to see the forest from the trees in a way that someone from LA wouldn’t.”
The Big Lebowski was released in 1998 and saw Jeff Bridges feature in one of his most iconic roles as The Dude, an LA slacker who becomes wrapped up in a criminal conspiracy and kidnapping ransom case when he’s mistaken for a wealthy magnate with the same legal name, Jeffrey Lebowski. The Coens’ film is a true classic of 1990s comedy and Flea actually performed in it alongside John Goodman, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Steve Buscemi.
There’s another film that Flea noted that has Los Angeles as its setting, though. The bassist noted, “Or, you know, L.A. Story with Steve Martin was really good.” The satirical romantic comedy saw Steve Martin play a weatherman who tries his best to find love in the City of Angels, but naturally, as with any Martin affair, hilarious mishaps ensue.
As for Flea’s favourite LA TV show, he pointed out a police procedural crime drama series from the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Adam-12,” he said. “It’s because when I was a kid and I moved to LA, I was 11, and I used to watch that show all the time.” The show, starring Martin Milner and Kent McCord, focuses on two LAPD officers who make their way around the city in their police cruiser solving crimes.
Revealing his personal love for the show, Flea continued, “We were driving around in Hollywood looking for an apartment to rent. And I saw Adam-12 being filmed, and it freaked me out so much that it was being filmed. And I felt like I was in the centre of the universe. I’m going with Adam-12.”
Check out a clip from Adam-12 below.
