'Daytime Revolution' - Documentary Looks Back at Week John Lennon and Yoko Ono Hosted Mike Douglas Show

Mike Douglas, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon in Daytime Revolution. (Photo by Michael Leshnov, courtesy Kino Lorber)

Daytime Revolution official trailer and release date — Mike Douglas, Yoko Ono, and John Lennon in Daytime Revolution. (Photo by Michael Leshnov, courtesy Kino Lorber)

For one week on 1972, legendary musician John Lennon and partner Yoko Ono took over the co-hosting duties for the Mike Douglas Show, leading into a week of some of the most unforgettable moments in daytime television history. Kino Lorber unveiled the official trailer for a documentary looking back at this eventful week of television history, ‘Daytime Revolution’.

Helmed by director Erik Nelson (Dreams With Sharp Teeth), a long-time collaborator of legendary documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog, the documentary features archival footage and interviews with guests of Lennon and Ono’s version of the Mike Douglas Show.

Release Date

Directed by Erik Nelson, ‘Daytime Revolution’ opens in theaters on October 9, 2024.

Synopsis

For one extraordinary week beginning on February 14th, 1972, the revolution was televised. Daytime Revolution takes us back in time to the week that John Lennon and Yoko Ono descended upon a Philadelphia broadcasting studio to co-host the iconic Mike Douglas Show, at the time the most popular show on daytime television with an audience of 40 million viewers a week. What followed was five unforgettable episodes of television, with Lennon and Ono at the helm and Douglas bravely keeping the show on track. Acting as both producers and hosts, Lennon and Ono handpicked their guests, including controversial choices like Yippie founder Jerry Rubin and Black Panther Chairman Bobby Seale, as well as political activist Ralph Nader and comic truth teller George Carlin. Their version of daytime TV was a radical take on the traditional format, incorporating candid Q&A sessions with their transfixed audience, conversations about current issues like police violence and women’s liberation, conceptual art events, and one-of-a-kind musical performances, including a unique duet with Lennon and Chuck Berry and a poignant rendition of Lennon’s “Imagine.”

A document of the past that speaks to our turbulent present, Daytime Revolution is a time capsule reminding us of art’s power to break down barriers, and the bravery of two artists who never took the easy way out as they fought for their vision of a better world.

“Daytime Revolution celebrates that unforgettable week: a time when anything was possible, where for five straight afternoons on a wildly popular mainstream talk show an extraordinary fusion of music, art and politics tried to save the soul of America. – This is about as far as that revolution was allowed to march.” said director Erik Nelson about the documentary.