Amanda Lotz's article, Textual (Im)possibilities in the U.S. Post-Network Era: Negotiating Production and Promotion Processes on Lifetime's Any Day Now, describes her research into the history and background of the Lifetime original narrative series, ôAny Day Now.ö The program chronicled the friendship between a white woman and a black woman that started in the racially tense 1960s in Birmingham, Alabama when they were childhood playmates and was rekindled in the 1990s when one of the women returns to Birmingham for her fatherÆs funeral. Lotz researches the series both from a scholarly standpoint, in reviewing the literature, and from a practical standpoint, by visiting the set. She brings together her observations and insights from both into the article, which reveals the issues that face those who want to produce programs about cultural diversity issues in the post-network era.
LotzÆs approach in the article is to analyze the production process for Any Day Now and uncover as much information as possible about the opportunities and difficulties inherent in producing a series that addresses gender, racial, and ethnicity issues in the post-network era. She does a creditable job of achieving this, although she appears to do so not so much from the perspective that such research is needed or important as from a personal desire to know. Her emphasis is on the gap between the objectives of the producers, Nancy Miller and Gary Randall, and those of the network the program was being produced to air on, Lifetime. Certainly there are apt to be disconnects between the producers and the network on virtually any show, since their agendas are nearly always different, but in the case of this program that disconnect was greater due to the fact that the show was about racial issues and the networkÆs carefully developed branding was at stake. The producers wanted the show to provoke conversation about racism around the office water coole...