Did you know that John Lennon and Yoko Ono once took over a daytime talk show for an entire week? Talk about a British Invasion.
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That's the subject of the new documentary Daytime Revolution. Lennon and Yoko took over The Mike Douglas Show in 1972, filling in as hosts and also talking with guests. It was a chance for them to share their vision of counterculture with America.
"The idea that this insane cavalcade of radical politics and radical music could find a safe harbor on a mainstream American talk show with a host so willing to meet the craziness halfway was really the point of making the movie," director Erik Nelson told The Post. "John and Yoko wanted to reach Middle America. They wanted to communicate this optimistic message ... It really was peace, love and all that stuff."
However, behind the scenes, things were a bit more chaotic. Fortunately, Lennon and the production learned to cooperate with one another despite their differing views.
John Lennon On The Show
"The way it worked with the co-hosts on The Mike Douglas Show was we asked them to suggest guests," said E.V. Di Massa, an associate producer on the show at the time. "So we gave them the opportunity to tell us who they'd like to have on the show."
Production was surprised to see Lennon on the show.
"Honestly, we don't really know how it happened," he also said. "But I can tell you this: Yoko was 100 percent gung ho to do it, and so was John ... Yoko, being a conceptual art person, saw 'The Mike Douglas Show' as a conceptual art project."
However, production was scared of Yoko.
"I was kind of the young one on the staff, and I was sort of the one that they sent in to talk to Yoko ...because they were all scared to death of her," recalled Di Massa. "Whenever Yoko wanted something or wanted to change something on the show, other producers didn't really know how to have a conversation with her."
Lennon acted as a mediator between her and staff.
"John was wonderful and quite often would intervene if Yoko wanted something that was not something the producers wanted to do," said Di Massa. "He would sort of play Henry Kissinger."
