60 Fun Facts About Anchorman

In which city is Ron Burgundy's Channel 4 news team based in the first Anchorman film?

The real city appears almost only in aerial shots; the film was mostly shot in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach.

Who plays Ron Burgundy?

Ferrell has called Ron his favourite character he has ever played.

Who plays Veronica Corningstone?

Amy Adams, Leslie Mann and Maggie Gyllenhaal all auditioned for the part.

What is the name of Ron Burgundy's dog?

He is punted off a bridge by a motorcyclist, survives, and later talks a bear out of attacking Ron.

What job does Brick Tamland hold at the station?

Steve Carell's performance impressed producer Judd Apatow enough to develop The 40-Year-Old Virgin with him.

Who plays sportscaster Champ Kind?

John C. Reilly was originally considered for the role.

Which actor plays field reporter Brian Fantana?

Stiller, Odenkirk and Livingston were all considered for the role.

Who directed both Anchorman films?

The first film was his directorial debut; he later won an Oscar for adapting The Big Short.

Who produced Anchorman?

He also appears in the film as a news station employee.

What is the call sign of Ron's station?

It is Channel 4; Wes Mantooth's rival station in Wake Up, Ron Burgundy is KQHS Channel 9.

Which studio released the first Anchorman film in 2004?

Paramount took over for the sequel after acquiring the DreamWorks catalogue in 2006.

Roughly what was the first Anchorman's production budget?

It earned about $90.6 million worldwide, almost all of it in North America.

Which film kept Anchorman out of the number one spot on its opening weekend?

Anchorman opened to $28.4 million and dropped to third the following week.

Who plays rival anchor Wes Mantooth?

He returned uncredited for the sequel and hinted his character's mother Dorothy might appear.

Which actor plays the motorcyclist who punts Ron's dog off the bridge?

Danny Trejo tends bar and Seth Rogen plays a cameraman named Scotty in the same film.

Who plays the Public News anchor in the news-team brawl?

Luke Wilson plays Frank Vitchard and Ben Stiller plays Spanish-language anchor Arturo Mendez in the same fight.

Ben Stiller's cameo in the first film is as which character?

He fronts the Spanish-language news team that joins the melee.

Which real newsman narrates the first Anchorman film?

Retired Philadelphia anchor Mort Crim later claimed to be Ferrell's inspiration for Ron.

Who plays station director Ed Harken?

Ferrell and McKay had originally wanted Ed Harris for the part.

Which actor was considered for Brick Tamland before Steve Carell?

Alec Baldwin was considered for Frank Vitchard and Dan Aykroyd for Garth Holliday.

How does Ron get himself fired in the first film?

A colleague had tipped Veronica off that Ron reads anything put in front of him.

What zoo animal event brings every news team in San Diego to the climax of the first film?

A rival anchor shoves Veronica into the Kodiak bear enclosure during the coverage.

Into which animals' enclosure is Veronica pushed at the zoo?

Baxter's return convinces the bear to spare the whole team.

According to the epilogue, Brick Tamland ends up as a political adviser to which president?

He is also married with 11 children; Brian ends up hosting a Fox reality show called Intercourse Island.

Which NFL commentator gets Champ Kind fired in the epilogue by accusing him of harassment?

Ron and Veronica, meanwhile, end up co-anchoring a CNN-style World News Center.

What was the original, abandoned plot of the first film about?

Test audiences hated it, so the panda story was shot instead and the outtakes became Wake Up, Ron Burgundy.

An early draft parodied which survival film, with the newsmen stranded after a plane crash?

That version also had the team fleeing ninja-star-wielding orangutans.

Which acclaimed director agreed to shepherd Ferrell and McKay's script but quit over its weirdness?

He later joked, 'I blew that opportunity.'

What was the title of the companion film built from Anchorman outtakes, released to DVD in December 2004?

It was bundled with the home release of the original and reuses the Alarm Clock storyline.

In Wake Up, Ron Burgundy, what do the Alarm Clock members do after five years in prison?

Their manifesto had championed recycling, electric cars and personal computers, which everyone found absurd.

Ron's on-screen look may have been modelled on Harold Greene, a real anchor in which city?

Philadelphia's Jessica Savitch was a model for Veronica Corningstone.

Which real newscaster served as a model for Veronica Corningstone?

She had worked alongside Mort Crim in Philadelphia before rising to NBC News.

The film's jazz flute solo was actually played by which studio musician?

Alex Wurman composed the score; the soundtrack album came out the same day as the film.

What clue places the first film's action around 1977?

A reference to Gene Tenace playing for the Padres also fixes the date, even though the plot says 1975.

Which unmade Ferrell and McKay script, "Glengarry Glen Ross meets a car dealership", preceded Anchorman?

They wrote it while still at Saturday Night Live, and it was well liked around Hollywood but never filmed.

In Anchorman 2, Ron joins the world's first 24-hour news network. What is it called?

He is hired for the unpopular late-night slot and bets rival Jack Lime he can beat his ratings.

Which Hollywood legend plays retiring anchor Mack Tannen in Anchorman 2?

Tannen makes Veronica the first female nightly news anchor in TV history and fires Ron.

What does rival anchor Lime have to do after losing his ratings bet with Ron?

James Marsden plays Lime; the bet takes place on GNN's launch.

Who plays Chani, the eccentric GNN worker Brick falls for in the sequel?

Her character's surname is Lastnamé, and the film ends at her beach wedding to Brick.

What kind of animal do Ron and his son Walter rehabilitate while Ron is blind?

They name it Doby; it later attacks Ron at Brick's wedding and Baxter has to save him.

Where does Ron hide away after being blinded in Anchorman 2?

The lighthouse was a mock-up built on St. Simons Island, Georgia, where the shark scenes were shot.

Which city stood in for New York during Anchorman 2's filming?

Some shots were also grabbed at Liberty State Park in New Jersey and at SeaWorld San Diego.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Anchorman 2 cameo is as an anchor for which broadcaster?

Marion Cotillard leads a French-Canadian crew and Liam Neeson hosts the History Network in the same fight.

John C. Reilly's uncredited cameo in the sequel is as whom?

Reilly had attended an early read-through of the first film, which led to his part in Talladega Nights.

Which rapper plays MTV host Wesley Jackson in the Anchorman 2 brawl?

Will Smith turns up in the same scene as ESPN anchor Jeff Bullington.

On which late-night show did Ferrell, in character as Ron, announce the sequel in March 2012?

Paramount had turned the sequel down in 2010 despite the stars offering pay cuts.

Which brand of ice cream launched a Ron Burgundy flavour to promote Anchorman 2?

The flavour was called Scotchy Scotch Scotch; Dodge also ran Ron Burgundy ads for the Durango.

Which beer brought back its retro packaging for Anchorman 2, then kept it permanently?

The original 1970s logo matched the film's period, and the cans sold so well the company switched back for good in 2014.

Ferrell, as Ron Burgundy, co-anchored a real local newscast in November 2013 in which city?

He also appeared on Canadian curling coverage and Australia's The Project during the promotional tour.

Which school renamed its communication program after Ron Burgundy for a day in December 2013?

The Newseum in Washington also mounted an exhibition of props from the films.

What milestone did Anchorman 2 mark for Paramount's distribution?

A 'super-sized' R-rated cut with 763 new jokes returned to cinemas for one week in February 2014.

What was the title of Ron Burgundy's 2013 'autobiography'?

Its subtitle is My Classy Life and Other Musings.

Roughly how much did Anchorman 2 gross worldwide?

Its budget was about $50 million, nearly double the first film's.

Which film beat Anchorman 2 to number one on its opening weekend?

The sequel opened to $26.2 million, slightly under the original's debut.

On which platform did The Ron Burgundy Podcast launch in 2019?

To promote season two, Ferrell as Ron appeared on six late-night talk shows in a single night.

The director of the Anchorman films became head writer of Saturday Night Live at what age?

He had auditioned as a performer, failed, and been hired for his scripts instead.

Brick's actor was a correspondent on which program from 1999 to 2005, just before Anchorman?

His 'Even Stevphen' segments paired him with Stephen Colbert.

Champ Kind's actor is also known for playing which obnoxious character on The Office?

He was in the same 1995 Saturday Night Live intake as Adam McKay and Will Ferrell.

Veronica's actress first found fame playing Kelly Bundy on which sitcom?

She won an Emmy for guest-starring as Rachel's sister Amy on Friends.

Where was Ron Burgundy's actor born?

He kicked for his high school football team and joined Saturday Night Live in 1995 from the Groundlings.