Any Day Now

The show's title comes from the 1962 song 'Any Day Now', written by Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard, with a version performed by Lori Perry used as the theme song.

Co-creator and showrunner Nancy Miller drew on her own childhood memories of spending summers in Birmingham during the era of segregated water fountains to shape the series.

Miller began trying to get Any Day Now produced in 1990, imagining it as a blend of Wonder Years and Mississippi Burning; CBS initially agreed to make it but then cancelled the project before production began.

According to Associated Press writer Lynn Elber, it took eight years for Any Day Now to finally reach production because of its groundbreaking format centered on race, women's lives, and a Southern setting.

In the fourth season, the young versions of the two lead characters were recast, with Olivia Hack and Maya Goodwin replacing Mae Middleton and Shari Dyon Perry, as producers wanted the girls to face more mature storylines, though Dan Byrd remained in his role as young Colliar Sims.

Donzaleigh Abernathy, who plays Rene's mother Sara Jackson, is the real-life daughter of civil rights leader Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

The show's writers' room was notably diverse, with at least 50 percent of the writers being people of color, almost all of whom were Black.

The episode 'It's a Good Thing I'm Not Black' tackled the real-life issue of traffic stops that are disproportionately fatal for Black people, depicting Rene being forced to lie down on the sidewalk after being pulled over.