16 Classy Facts About ‘Anchorman’

One-time SNL writer Adam McKay’s directorial debut about a chauvinistic 1970s San Diego news anchor forced to deal with changing times is regarded as one of the greatest comedies ever made. In honor of the film’s 20th anniversary and star Will Ferrell’s 57th birthday (he was born in California on July 16, 1967), here are some facts about Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy to pair with a tall carton of milk on a hot summer day.

1. Will Ferrell was inspired by a documentary on Jessica Savitch.
2. The physical inspiration for Ron Burgundy was Harold Greene. (Maybe.)
3. Paul Thomas Anderson offered to produce.
4. The first draft featured suggested actors.
5. The narrator refused to say penis.
6. Dreamworks didn’t believe that Will Ferrell was a movie star.
7. Christina Applegate beat out Amy Adams, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Leslie Mann to play Veronica.
8. James Spader really wanted to play Brick.
9. Bob Odenkirk was almost Brian Fantana.
10. An entire storyline featuring Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Justin Long was cut and put into a straight-to-dvd movie.
11. They had to monitor how long Baxter’s penis was in the movie.
12. The news team fight scene was filmed on a very hot day.
13. One member of the Spanish-language news team bowed out.
14. You wouldn’t want to eat at that Mexican restaurant in the film.
15. Jon Hamm and Adam Scott are listed as writers of the newscast.
16. You might have heard and seen the ghost flutist.

Will Ferrell was inspired by a documentary on Jessica Savitch.

Savitch, who passed away in 1983, was one of the first women to anchor a newscast. Her former co-anchor, Mort Crim, admitted in a television documentary to being cruel to her because he was “a real male chauvinist pig” at the time. Crim was invited to the movie premiere.

The physical inspiration for Ron Burgundy was Harold Greene. (Maybe.)

Greene worked at KCST-TV and KGTV in San Diego during the mid-1970s. When producers conducted research for Anchorman, they looked at one of Greene’s colleagues’ scrapbooks. Years later though, Ferrell ran into Greene, and Greene asked him if Burgundy was based on him. After Ferrell said no, Greene said he didn’t believe him and walked away.

Paul Thomas Anderson offered to produce.

After reading and enjoying Ferrell and McKay’s script for August Blowout (McKay once described the never-produced screenplay as Glengarry Glen Ross at a car dealership), Anderson told the two that if they wrote something else, he would help get that movie made. His enthusiasm motivated the two to write Anchorman on spec.

The first draft featured suggested actors.

McKay and Ferrell envisioned John C. Reilly as Champ (David Koechner), Chris Parnell as Brick (Steve Carell), Ben Stiller for Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Ed Harris as Ed Harken (Fred Willard won the part), Dan Aykroyd as Garth Holiday (Parnell ended up playing this role), Alec Baldwin as Frank Vitchard (Luke Wilson), and William H. Macy for a character that didn’t make the screen, Marshall Connors.

The narrator refused to say penis.

Veteran Chicago news anchor Bill Kurtis had never done voice narration for a movie before Adam McKay asked him to do the honors. Harold Ramis convinced a reluctant Kurtis to take the part. Kurtis refused producer Judd Apatow’s request to say penis, later admitting that he didn’t want to say it in a movie that might be an “embarrassment.” Once it proved to be popular, he said he was open to saying it in the sequel.

Dreamworks didn’t believe that Will Ferrell was a movie star.

Specifically, those were Walter F. Parkes’s words, after turning down Ferrell’s initial pitch for Anchorman. After Old School became a hit, DreamWorks bought Anchorman for $4 million more than they would have paid if they had said yes to the pitch in the first place.

Christina Applegate beat out Amy Adams, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Leslie Mann to play Veronica.

McKay said that Adams looked too young for the role, Mann didn’t have “that '50s wholesome thing,” and in regards to Gyllenhaal, “you don’t put Meryl Streep in a comedy.”

James Spader really wanted to play Brick.

He was “obsessed” with the character and told McKay he would do anything to get the part. Steve Carell got the part after it was determined that Spader was “too good” an actor to be in the movie.

Bob Odenkirk was almost Brian Fantana.

Paul Rudd was a fan of the script, even when it looked like the movie wasn’t going to get made, which ultimately gave him the edge over the future Saul Goodman. Ron Livingston also auditioned.

An entire storyline featuring Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Justin Long was cut and put into a straight-to-dvd movie.

Instead of the panda birth story in the third act, a subplot about a group of bank robbers known as “The Alarm Clock” kidnapping Veronica and putting Ron in their live broadcast was written and shot. All of those scenes were deleted in the theatrical cut and put in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie along with alternate takes. Poehler had a feeling back then that her role as a bank teller wouldn’t make the final cut because the movie was already running long.

They had to monitor how long Baxter’s penis was in the movie.

McKay trimmed several shots of Ron’s dog’s member to keep their PG-13 rating.

The news team fight scene was filmed on a very hot day.

“I swear it was like 103 degrees,” McKay told Vulture of the climactic scene in which Ron and his crew duke it out with other news teams, including one from Channel 2 and another headed by his main competitor, Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughn).

One member of the Spanish-language news team bowed out.

During the battle, the Spanish-language news team (headed by Ben Stiller) featured seven guys on the stairs, but only six entered the circle to have the “sewers run red with Ron Burgundy’s blood.”

You wouldn’t want to eat at that Mexican restaurant in the film.

When Veronica and her friend hatch their plan to mess with the teleprompter, they’re at a restaurant called Escupimos en su alimento. That’s Spanish for “We spit in your food.”

Jon Hamm and Adam Scott are listed as writers of the newscast.

Hamm and Scott weren’t famous actors at the time of filming, but they were long-time friends of Paul Rudd. You can see their names during the faux credits for the newscast.

You might have heard and seen the ghost flutist.

Katisse Buckingham was responsible for Ron Burgundy’s jazz flute solo. Buckingham played Todd, the young man who gave Alyssa Milano a hickey in the Who’s the Boss? episode “The Hickey.” He also played the flute and the saxophone in Dr. Dre’s The Chronic.

Read More About Your Favorite Comedies on Film:

A version of this article was originally published in 2017 and has been updated for 2024.