page_title: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Replica of the anchorman newsdesk from the 2004 film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, on display in the Newseum, Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Adam McKay in his directorial debut, produced by Judd Apatow, starring Will Ferrell, and written by McKay and Ferrell. The first installment in the Anchorman series, the film is a tongue-in-cheek take on the culture of the 1970s, particularly the new Action News format. It portrays a San Diego TV station where Ferrell's title character clashes with his new female counterpart.
  The film made $28.4 million in its opening weekend, and $90.6 million worldwide in its total theatrical run. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics upon release and is now widely regarded as one of the best comedy films of the 2000s. It was ranked at number 100 on Bravo's 100 funniest movies, number 6 on Time Out's top 100 comedy films of all time and 113 on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. A companion film assembled from outtakes and abandoned subplots, titled Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie, was released straight-to-DVD in late 2004. A sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, was released on December 18, 2013, with Paramount Pictures replacing DreamWorks as the distributor.
context_section_description: While still at Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay began working on a script titled August Blowout, which Ferrell would later describe as "Glengarry Glen Ross meets a car dealership". Although the script was popular around Hollywood, the resulting movie never got made. One of the readers was Paul Thomas Anderson who offered to "shepherd" a script written by the pair. McKay has stated that the idea for the film that would become Anchorman came about after "Will saw an interview with a 70s anchorman, talking about how sexist they were. And it was that tone of voice he loved."
  An early version of the script was a parody of the disaster film Alive with a group of news people, after Ron Burgundy crashes their plane, stranded in the wilderness trying to make their way back to civilization. A subplot would involve the characters trying to escape from a group of ninjastar wielding orangutans. Adam McKay stated that a version of the script originally included "a musical number with sharks". Anderson, who at the time was scheduled to produce the film was taken aback by the script's bizarre nature, so much so that afterwards he left production, although in retrospect he mentioned lightheartedly, "I blew that [opportunity]."
  Even though Anchorman is set in San Diego, the real San Diego is only seen in brief aerial shots—modern shots which include numerous buildings in downtown San Diego which had not yet been built or opened during the 1970s.  According to the official production notes and "making of" documentary (both included on the DVD), Anchorman was actually filmed in Los Angeles, Glendale, and Long Beach on sets which were made to look like San Diego during the 1970s.
  The film initially centered around the reporters tracking down a clumsy yet elusive group of hippie bank robbers known as "The Alarm Clock". This version of the film was met with poor test audience results, and a significant portion of the film was re-written and re-shot to replace the Alarm Clock with the panda story that appeared in the final version. The original Alarm Clock version was re-edited, along with alternate takes of existing scenes and new narration, to form a separate direct-to-video film entitled Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie. It was released straight to DVD on December 28, 2004.
  The physical appearance of the Ron Burgundy character may have been modeled after real-life news anchorman Harold Greene, who worked at KCST-TV and KGTV in San Diego during the mid-1970s and early 1980s. Will Ferrell, who grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Irvine, California, may have been familiar with Greene's work in Los Angeles, where Greene was a reporter-anchor for both KABC-TV and KCBS-TV before and after his run in San Diego. Prior to the release of the 2013 sequel to Anchorman retired news anchor Mort Crim, best known for his work at KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WDIV in Detroit, claimed that he was chosen by Ferrell as the inspiration for Ron Burgundy.
  Among Crim's colleagues during his time in Philadelphia was Jessica Savitch, who would later go on to a prominent role at NBC News. Savitch served as a model for the character of Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate.
  Although he does not appear in the final film, John C. Reilly attended an early read through and impressed Ferrell so much that a part in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby was developed for him; he would later appear in the 2013 sequel.
  Ferrell and McKay recorded an audio commentary for the film's home release which consists of random, mostly facetious discussions of no relevance to the film or its production.
caption: The Anchorman Newsdesk
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