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EXCLUSIVE: It may sound hard to believe, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono became daytime talk show hosts more than 50 years ago – the Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson or Drew Barrymore of their time. For one week only.
The new documentary Daytime Revolution, directed by Erik Nelson, chronicles that pop culture moment in February 1972 when John and Yoko took over The Mike Douglas Show, producing and co-hosting the afternoon talker. Kino Lorber plans to release the film on more than 50 screens across the country on October 9 — what would have been Lennon’s 84th birthday.
“Daytime Revolution takes us back in time, as we observe John and Yoko interacting with a transfixed studio audience in revealing Q and A sessions where John Lennon was astonishingly candid about his life after the Beatles,” notes a release. “John and Yoko also got to pick the guests, some very controversial at the time, like [anti-war activist and Yippie] Jerry Rubin and Black Panther Bobby Seale, as well as Ralph Nader and George Carlin. In addition, the shows featured blazing musical performances, including an epic duet with Chuck Berry, and a poignant rendition of the now classic ‘Imagine.’ Conceptual art events and even cooking segments were woven into the crazy fabric of the format.”
Yoko Ono explained at a press conference in 1972, “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. And everybody that we selected is participating in efforts to change the world.”
1972, of course, was a presidential election year (and the year of the Watergate break-in), when incumbent Pres. Richard Nixon would face off against the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, George McGovern. Fifty-two years later, we’re in another momentous presidential election cycle. The timing didn’t escape director Erik Nelson.
“We pretty much locked Daytime down in the fall of 2022, but we made a conscious decision to hold back release until the Election fall of 2024, as we felt very strongly that the film’s optimistic and idealistic message would be a far more welcome ‘letter from home’ the closer we got to what promised to be an apocalyptic and tension filled November 5th,” Nelson noted. “We were clearly right in that assumption!”
Nelson’s directing credits include The Cold Blue (2019), Terror And Glory: 1945 (2021), A Gray State (2017), and Dreams With Sharp Teeth (2008). He produced Werner Herzog’s classic Emmy-winning documentary Grizzly Man, as well as Herzog’s Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, and Into The Abyss. He served as an executive producer on Herzog’s Oscar-nominated documentary Encounters At The End Of The World.
Daytime Revolution will premiere in October at the Hamptons International Film Festival shortly before the documentary’s theatrical release. Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon served as creative consultants on the film. Amy Briamonte produced Daytime Revolution. Executive producers include Bob Emmer, Jeffrey Peisch, W. Clark Bunting, Lynn Fero, Adam Licker, E.V. Di Massa Jr., and Dave Harding.
Paul Marengo and Daniel Mooney edited the film; original music is by Mark Leggett.
Daytime Revolution is one of two new documentaries that explore key moments in the life of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. One to One: John and Yoko, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, followed by a North American premiere at Telluride. That movie also takes place in 1972 as the couple made plans for the One to One Charity Concert for Special Needs Children, “John Lennon’s only full length concert after the Beatles and before his death.”
Of note to Beatles fans: the Venice Film Festival also will play host to the world premiere of the documentary TWST – Things We Said Today, directed by Andrei Ujică, “a time capsule of New York City between August 13-15, 1965, framed by the Beatles’ arrival in the city and their first concert at Shea Stadium.”
