Any Day Now | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Created by |
Nancy Miller Deborah Joy LeVine |
Starring |
Annie Potts Lorraine Toussaint Mae Middleton Olivia Hack Shari Dyon Perry Maya Goodwin |
Opening theme | "Any Day Now" performed by Lori Perry |
Composer(s) | Susan Marder |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 88 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 min (approx) |
Production company(s) | Paid Our Dues Productions Finnegan/Pinchuk Productions Spelling Entertainment |
Release | |
Original network | Lifetime |
Original release | August 18, 1998 – March 10, 2002 |
Any Day Now is an American drama series that aired on the Lifetime network from 1998 to 2002. The show stars Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint, who are best friends despite the difference in their races.
The show's title is taken from the 1962 Chuck Jackson song "Any Day Now". A version performed by Lori Perry served as the show's theme song.
Any Day Now focuses on the lives and interactions of two female protagonists: Mary Elizabeth "M.E." O'Brien Sims (Potts) and Rene Jackson (Toussaint). The two had grown up as close friends in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. However, their friendship ended when M.E. became pregnant and chose, despite Rene's disapproval, to keep the child, drop out of college, and marry her boyfriend, Colliar Sims.
More than twenty years later, M.E. and her husband still live in Birmingham, where they struggle to make ends meet. Their oldest son, Bobby, died as a child; but they have two more children, daughter Kelly and son Davis. Rene moved to Washington, D.C., where she was a successful attorney for many years; but, after the death of her father, Rene decides to move back to Birmingham and establish a law practice there. She reunites with M.E., and the two quickly resume their close friendship. In every episode, contemporary storylines are interwoven with a storyline from their shared past.
Each hour-long episode contained alternating scenes from two different timelines. The 1960s timeline followed the young version of the girls, who became friends despite the discomfort of M.E.'s naively bigoted parents and her openly racist Uncle Jimmy, an avowed member of the Ku Klux Klan. M.E. and Rene's friendship was fostered by M.E.'s loving grandmother and her older brother, Johnny, who was sent to Vietnam, while M.E.'s older sister, Teresa, often threatened to tell their parents that M.E.'s "little colored friend" had been in their house. Colliar Sims (Dan Byrd), M.E.'s childhood sweetheart and eventual husband, played a large role in this timeline as well. Rene's family included her father, James (John Lafayette), who was a lawyer and an active member of the Civil Rights Movement; her mother, Sarah, also active in the movement; and her older brother Elston, who was the same age as M.E.'s brother Johnny but dodged the draft by fleeing to Canada.