John Lennon and Yoko Ono filmed the second of five appearances on The Mike Douglas Show on 18 January 1972.
The shows were filmed at the KYW-TV studio at 1619 Walnut Street in Philadelphia. The couple’s other appearances were filmed on 14, 20, and 27 January, and 4 February 1972, and broadcast over a week from 14 February.
This episode was broadcast on 15 February. It began by Ono encouraging the studio audience to shout the first word which came to mind. Douglas, exercising caution in the knowledge that the show might face obscenity charges, encouraged them instead to repeat ‘Touch Poem For Group Of People’ from Ono’s book Grapefruit, the instructions for which were simply “Touch each other.”
Lennon spoke about the forthcoming Imagine film, after which Douglas asked about the possibility of a Beatles reunion. Perhaps surprisingly, Lennon did not rule it out: “There’s no reason why they never should do it again, but there’s also no reason why they should. Anything’s possible. And just to get it straight once and for all, we’re not all at each other’s throats.”
The ‘Oh My Love’ clip from the Imagine film was then shown for the first time anywhere, after which Douglas introduced the episode’s first guest: filmmaker Barbara Loden, who was requested by Lennon and Ono.
Lennon introduced folk duo Yellow Pearl, who sang ‘We Are The Children’, which was followed y an interview with US Surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld.
Lennon, Ono, and Elephant’s Memory performed ‘Midsummer New York’, the opening track on Ono’s Fly album, after which political activist Jerry Rubin was brought on as the show’s final guest. Rubin had performed percussion with the band for a performance of ‘It’s So Hard’ during the previous episode.