How John and Yoko radicalized daytime TV

Directed by Erik Nelson, "Daytime Revolution" gives viewers a powerful window into the early 1970s. If there is such a thing as a time machine, Nelson has fashioned it via this marvelous, transformative documentary. As with his work on "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," "Daytime Revolution" absolutely brims with narrative energy and fascinating characters. And in its finest moments, Nelson’s time capsule-like approach manages to shed vital light on the way we live now.

The documentary draws its storyline from the extraordinary week in February 1972 when John Lennon and Yoko Ono hosted the uber-popular "Mike Douglas Show," which commanded a massive audience of some 40 million viewers per week. For the duration of that remarkable week, the counterculture paraded itself in America’s living rooms via John and Yoko’s moveable feast of guests, a roster that included political activist Ralph Nader, the Black Panthers’ Bobby Seale, and comedian George Carlin.

In a conversation with me last week, Nelson pointed out that this 52-year-old happening is not so different from today’s polarizing political atmosphere. “We're living in an incredibly divisive, apocalyptic election year,” he said, “and 1972 was equally fraught with Richard Nixon and George McGovern vying for the White House—two starkly different choices. And there on daytime television are John and Yoko offering a message of unity amidst all that divisiveness.”