'LENNONYC': A ballad of John, Yoko and New York

The gut-wrenching irony is that John Lennon loved the streets of New York. He relished the give and take of a city where strangers talk to you, then keep going, whether you're an international rock icon or a supermarket stock boy.

On Dec. 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman approached him, and Lennon signed his new album, "Double Fantasy." Later that day, Chapman fatally shot Lennon.

In the 30 years since Lennon's life came to a bloody end in front of his Upper West Side home, his genius has been celebrated. Books, articles, films and plays have so exhaustively chronicled him that fans feel they know all there is of his 40 years.

And that's a mistake.

PBS' "American Masters: LENNONYC," airing Monday at 9 p.m. on WNET/13, features studio recordings, concert outtakes and home movies that have never been seen. Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, asked PBS to make this documentary, she says. "You know what I realized, and was so amazing, was that only 'American Masters' could do it," Ono says. "I did not know that camera was rolling when we did that."

She refers to moments over the years when people filmed them at parties, recording sessions and rehearsals. Then there were the concerts and press conferences - usually to call for an end to war - and all were filmed.

Her love never died

Ono is soft-spoken and calm as she talks about the man she loved. Her voice breaks, though, when asked what she hopes viewers take from this.

"I hope that people know what an incredible human John was and what an incredible love he had for life," Ono says. "He was not ready to die."

And his fans were not ready to let him go, evidenced by their constant gathering in Strawberry Fields, a section of Central Park dedicated to Lennon, where a mosaic spells out "Imagine."

Footage of Lennon, relaxed and happy, walking through Central Park, can't help but tug at viewers' hearts. He's near the gothic building where he had long made his home. Lennon talks about why New York captivated him.

"I was just known enough to keep my ego floating," he says, "but unknown enough to get around, which is nice."

He was thrilled with the simple act of buying a coat. Clearly he could buy the factory, but it wasn't the acquisition. It was the mundane act of walking into a store, browsing, trying on a garment and paying with his credit card, without fuss, that was so novel for him.

It took a Village

He and Ono originally lived in a tiny Greenwich Village apartment and thrived on the counterculture that was the Village of 1971. Clips show them in concerts and on TV shows and remind viewers how the government wanted him deported for protesting President Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War.

Lennon fought to stay in the city he loved. Though the film strays from New York, following Lennon to his wild days in Los Angeles in 1973 and 1974, it mostly takes place in Manhattan.

"I was overseeing it," Ono says. "If something was not really right, I would have pointed it out, gently maybe. I was surprised that they wanted to put in the L.A. story."

After Nixon was re-elected, Lennon and Ono were at a party, where Lennon had a loud tryst with a woman. Photos from the next day show a hung-over, recalcitrant husband on his knees in front of his wife. He then moved to Los Angeles, lived with their personal assistant, May Pang, and drank himself into a ragged mess.

"I thought the hard-liners would probably say, 'You didn't have to reveal those things,' but those things are known," Ono says. "It is good that people are talking about that side of it. And he was a rocker and human. He was not one of those very proper persons. He was very alive, and he had incredible, incredible emotion."

This film makes clear that Lennon and Ono shared an epic love. Yet Ono continues to be the flash point of hate. People still blame her for The Beatles' breakup. "It is a very, very complicated situation in many ways," she says. "I am surprised and rather concerned because I know many people in the world would still sweep under the rug."

Their marriage rebounded after his West Coast wild days, and they went on living in New York, where Lennon was far ahead of his time. He took off five years to be a stay-at-home dad to Sean.

"The thing is," Ono says, "when John was really trying, trying very hard to be a daddy to Sean, and when he baked bread and some people were saying, 'That is just a promo,' he was very upset about that. These days I go to the park, and guys are pushing strollers. John is the only one who started it very courageously - not one guy would have been seen like that."

ALSO WATCH "Masterpiece Contemporary" airs "Lennon Naked" Sunday at 9 p.m. on WNET/13.