Daytime Revolution
For one week during February in 1972, TV talk show host Mike Douglas did something bold - he invited John Lennon and Yoko Ono to not only cohost his show, but to set their own agenda for his audience of 40 million viewers. It was a "Daytime Revolution."
Laura's Review: B+
Director Erik Nelson takes us back over fifty years, beginning with a montage of newsreel footage featuring Nixon, his Attorney General John Mitchell, George Wallace and Ronald Reagan to remind us that a divided America was once being led by a corrupt president, while outspoken political idealists offered a different perspective. John and Yoko introduced controversial figures like Black Panther leader Bobby Seale and Yuppie Jerry Rubin as well as subjects like women's liberation and prison reform to middle American housewives, Yoko explaining how any average citizen could enact change. To his credit, Douglas kept an open mind, his and Lennon's exchanges growing more comfortable and warmer as the week went on, the shows entertaining and informative. And there was music.
Nelson not only presents large segments of the shows in the order of their broadcast (transitioning between the show and interviews with a neon flower power rendition of the title as commercial bumper), but has found people like Mike Douglas show producer Ernani Vincenzo Di Massa and many of Lennon and Ono's guests to look back on their experience in that Philadelphia broadcasting studio (the Lennons commuted from NYC in a limo, often with their guests). Now in his nineties, Ralph Nader considers the shows a real breakthrough, calling Nixon vengeful and afraid of the liberal media and youthful uprisings (sound familiar?). We're reminded that Roger Ailes got his start as a past producer on the show and, in a jaw dropping anecdote, learned he thought having the Lennons on the show would be a good opportunity to get them to back the Republican agenda.
Nobuko Miyamoto, who with Chris Iijima, comprised Yellow Pearl, like many others didn't believe the phone call she got about appearing on the show. They decided to sing 'We Are the Children' about the Asian American experience and when the director objected to the lyric 'Watching war movies with the next door neighbor secretly rooting for the other side,' she began to walk off. You can see her pride today that she won that battle. Everyone on the Douglas side was most afraid of Jerry Rubin causing an upset, but he calmly spoke of oppression and youthful pessimism. Di Massa recalls that guests hosts were always asked who'd they'd like to meet and Lennon's response was Chuck Berry. He met him for the first time in Mike Douglas's green room, an experience everyone who witnessed it described as magical, but we too witness magic as Lennon and his idol perform 'Memphis, Tennessee,' Yoko grinning as Berry did his duck walk. Later in the show, we watch these three and Douglas all don aprons for a surreal cooking demonstration from macrobiotic chef Hilary Redleaf.
There is so much more - the art piece John and Yoko have everyone to contribute to for charity; Yoko's broken teacup 'event' which John goes along with while wondering what he's doing; experimental musician David Rosenboom making some kind of brain wave music followed by biofeedback researcher Dr. Gary Schwartz talking about controlling one's own heartbeat, the Harvard professor opining today that he felt like he was conversing with peers on the show.
Of course, the aftermath of this successful experiment was that Nixon immediately set about trying to deport Lennon, an effort that dragged on for three years. For those who are alarmed seeing history repeat itself to a power of ten, "Daytime Revolution" is a beacon of hope, an emotional balm.
Robin's Review: B+
On 14 February 1972, daytime TV talk show host Mike Douglas gave over the reins of control, for a full week, as host to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. They had the stage and populated it with the likes of Jerry Rubin, Ralph Nader, Chuck Berry, Bobby Seale and George Carlin in a true “Daytime Revolution.”
This was one of those television events from 50 years ago that everyone, around at the time, will swear that they saw it way back when. I will not make such a claim since I was gainfully employed at that time and hour. So, what I get here is a nostalgic return to a turbulent time that is less so than what we have now.
One of the first impressions I had, from a historical standpoint, is I was watching John Lennon eight scant years before he was murdered, giving poignancy to his and Yoko’s “peace, love and understanding” theme to their hosting duties.
This rendition of the Mike Douglas Show was shown on five consecutive nights, from 14 to 18 February 1972, but the taping process actually took five and a half weeks. This makes the “spontaneity” of the shows to be much more structured, a necessity at the time when things did not happen instantly, as they do today.
Director Erik Nelson uses a commercial-break style bumper saying “Daytime Revolution” as the divider between the episodes (I would have loved to see the commercials they ran during those real-life breaks). This also helps keep the shows in order.
Considering the band of radicals John and Yoko had on as guests, the format of the series was pure 70’s daytime TV talk show. Of course, we hear Jerry Rubin a Bobby Seale, the radicals of the left, talk their talk. 38-year old Ralph Nader puts his uber-intelligence on display and George Carlin does his comical schtick. I think my favorite guest was Chuck Berry, who Lennon idolized and met for the first time. Their rendition of Berry’s “Memphis Tennessee” is television magic.
The most amusing things about “Daytime Revolution” is watching John and Yoko acting like daytime TV talk show hosts, participating in things like cooking demonstrations and trying the latest in brave wave technology to make music.
Anyone interested in the Beatles, John and Yoko, daytime TV nostalgia and some very interesting guests will have a good time with “Daytime Revolution.” I did.
Kino Lorber released "Daytime Revolution" in theaters for one day on John Lennon's birthday, 10/9/24, and in NY on 10/11/24. It will be available to own on DVD and Blu-Ray on 11/26/24.
