New John Lennon, Yoko Ono Documentary in the Works

Daytime Revolution, a documentary centered around the week John Lennon and Yoko Ono hosted The Mike Douglas Show in 1972, has wrapped up and is seeking distribution.

Along with the approval of Ono and her son Sean Lennon, who do not appear in the film, the documentary, produced by CBS Media Ventures, Shout! Studios, and Creative Differences and directed by Erik Nelson, is a compilation of the five 70-minute shows hosted by the couple, in addition to interviews with six of their surviving guests, including Ralph Nader, for a glimpse behind the special run of episodes.

A few months following the release of their single “Happy Christmas (War Is Over),” Lennon and Ono co-hosted the Philadelphia-based daytime TV talk show in January 1972, where they discussed issues important to them from police brutality, equality for women, and the state of the environment.

“We wanted to do the shows to show that we are working for peace and love and also to change the world, not with violence, but with love,” said Ono in 1972. “And everybody that we selected is participating in efforts to change the world.” 

Along with their topical discussions, Lennon and Ono performed their 1971 classic “Imagine,” and interviewed guest artists, including Chuck Berry, who also performed “Memphis, Tennessee” and “Johnny B. Goode” with the couple. Lennon and Ono oversaw the production and served as creative consultants for the episodes, which later broadcast the week of Feb. 14-18 in 1972.

“Let’s say that some of the people around the back of the show who were nervous about certain aspects of what we were doing were happy about it at the end,” said Lennon after hosting the episodes.

For the 108-minute film, Nelson also uses archival footage of interviews with their interviews with guests, including comedian George Carlin and Black Panther chairman Bobby Seale.

“It’s become a cliche that Woodstock was the defining moment of the counterculture,” said Nelson. “When I watched these broadcasts in their entirety, I realized that, in reality, this week in 1972, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono essentially hijacked the airwaves and presented the best minds and dreams of their generation to the widest possible mass audience of what was then called ‘Middle America,’ was as far as the counterculture would ever get—not just music but a prescient blueprint for the future we now live in.”

News of the documentary comes as Ono approaches her 90th birthday on Feb. 18, and is the latest in a string of films centered around Lennon and Ono as well as The Beatles, following the 2020 documentary Lennon’s Last Weekend, along with 24 Hours: The World Of John And Yoko and the Peter Jackson-helmed The Beatles: Get Back, both released in 2021.

Photo: Susan Wood/Getty Images