Lifetime's Original Narrative Series, Any Day Now

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, "Any Day Now." 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 father's 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.

Lotz's 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

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g her point, but it would have been helpful if she had tied the research back to her point more closely throughout the article. In terms of her directions for future research, she outlines nicely in her conclusion where her research fits in with past and future research, as well as what is still needed in order to understand "the textual ramifications of institutional adjustments" a study of the "shifting institutional and economic practices throughout the pre-production, production and promotion process" (Lotz, 38). If Lotz can be faulted in anything, it is in the clarity of her writing, which is a bit stilted and obscure due to language that is unnecessarily lofty. For example, the phrase "textual ramifications of institutional adjustments" is much more esoteric than it needs to be; she could have rendered this more plainly as "text changes due to network adjustments" and been much clearer. Even her title is incredibly long and somewhat cryptic; the article might have been more aptly titled "Negotiating script restrictions on Lifetime's Any Day Now." In addition, although she includes excellent research and detail, she fails to make a simple statement of her research question and follow it all the way through the article. S

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