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If John Lennon and Yoko Ono turned their 1969 honeymoon into a “Bed-In for Peace” to protest Vietnam, three years later, as the war continued, they took over America’s airwaves to spread their message on a hugely-watched TV show. Erik Nelson’s “Daytime Revolution” is a 108-minute documentary about when the ex-Beatle and Yoko co-hosted the daily “Mike Douglas Show” and had carte blanche to invite guests. The Lennons booked major New Left and counterculture figures plus avant-garde artists.
Why does Daytime Revolution start with John Lennon performing “Attica State”?
What are some of Lennon’s other political songs?
Who was Mike Douglas?
Why did Mike want John and Yoko to co-host his program for a week in February 1972?
Why did John and Yoko agree to co-host The Mike Douglas Show? Guest David Rosenboom says they were “pushing a Utopian agenda”?
Rosenboom also says, “They wanted to make the world better.” That’s why they were going on. They wanted to get their vision across and Yoko, I think, conceived of this idea where they’d present this five-episode narrative arc featuring the very best of the counterculture and try to inject the counterculture into the culture. She succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. They got it done so much so that Nixon completely freaked out and went into overdrive on deporting Lennon.
Were John and Yoko given complete freedom to select guests?
Who was Lennon most excited to have on the show?
Tell us about comedian George Carlin?
Which Lennon post-Beatles songs does he perform on The Mike Douglas Show?
Daytime Revolution points out a rightwing Mike Douglas Show producer.
“Daytime Revolution” documents an exceptional moment in corporate, broadcast television’s history. Nixon went to China. The Lennons appeared during a presidential election year. The Panthers were known for militancy, but in 1972, Bobby Seale ran for Oakland mayor. Anti-Vietnam War Democratic Senator George McGovern ran for president. Yippies such as Abbie Hoffman and Rubin supported him against Republican incumbent Nixon. In 1971, the 26th Amendment lowered citizens’ voting age to 18. Do you think inviting John and Yoko onto such a prominent mainstream platform was trying to woo young Americans and others away from the bullet to the ballot box, away from radical revolution to reformist politics?
Did you interact with Yoko for “Daytime Revolution?”
“Daytime Revolution” premiered on John’s 84th birthday. To paraphrase the Beatles: “Will we still need him, will we still feed him, when John’s 84?”
Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book,” now in its third edition.
A longer version of this interview was published at Truthdig.com.
