It’s been 15 years since Adam McKay and Will Ferrell graced the world with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a comedy movie that pushed the boat so far out with its sharp focus on decidedly absurdist humor that it harked back to such classics as Airplane! and Blazing Saddles. Then, almost a decade later, they graced the world with a sequel. Comedy sequels very rarely live up to the expectations set by the original, but Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues managed to please both diehard fans and more casual moviegoers. So, here are 10 Legendary Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Anchorman Movies.
10. Ron Burgundy is based on Mort Crim
Will Ferrell reportedly came up with the Ron Burgundy character after seeing the way Mort Crim, a local newscaster who read the news on WDIV-TV Detroit in the ‘70s and continued to do so until his retirement in 1997, would broadcast. He was a top contender to co-anchor ABC’s World News Tonight, although he didn’t end up getting the job. Over his storied career, Crim has founded a marketing company, anchored ABC’s News Around the World, provided the spoken-word intro for the White Stripes’ song “Little Acorns,” and had been inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia’s Hall of Fame. More recently, Crim has been making cameo appearances as himself in the Comedy Central series Detroiters.
9. The original casting choices were very different
When they were writing the first draft of Anchorman, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay included casting notes for each character, specifying an actor who would be well-suited for the part. Obviously, Ferrell was going to play Ron, but the other choices were very different than the actors who were eventually cast. John C. Reilly, (who would end up starring with Ferrell in Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and *sigh* Holmes and Watson), was suggested for Champ. Dan Aykroyd was suggested for Garth. Chris Parnell, who ended up playing Garth, was suggested for Brick. Ben Stiller, who appears in the news team fight, was considered for Brian. Ed Harken was suggested for (and probably named after) Ed Harris.
8. Will Ferrell did his own ice skating in Anchorman 2
Midway through Anchorman 2, when it seems like Ron is on top of the world, he does an ice skating performance for his adoring fans and Jack Lime leaves a wire out on the ice, which trips him up and leaves him temporarily blinded. As it turns out, Ferrell didn’t need a stunt double to do all of Ron’s ice skating, because he learned how to ice skate as part of his preparation to star in the movie Blades of Glory. This is probably why ice skating was chosen to be Ron’s special talent and not something Ferrell couldn’t do.
7. Paul Thomas Anderson was Anchorman’s earliest champion
The earliest fan of Anchorman is a surprising one: Paul Thomas Anderson, the critically acclaimed filmmaker behind Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. He read a script that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay wrote about a car dealership called August Blowout. Anderson told the duo to write the craziest movie they could think of and he would shepherd it into production and help them make it, and then Anchorman was born.
Anderson’s involvement in the pre-production would explain why a lot of his regular collaborators, such as John C. Reilly and William H. Macy, were considered for roles in the movie.
6. Paramount hesitated to greenlight the sequel
If you’re wondering why there was such a long gap between the first and second Anchorman movies, it’s because Adam McKay and Will Ferrell went back and forth with Paramount for years as they tried to work out a deal for the project. The studio’s financial team crunched the numbers and decided that they didn’t have enough faith in the success of an Anchorman sequel to give the filmmakers the money they were asking for. Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd all agreed to take pay cuts before the studio finally relented and gave the greenlight to a sequel.
5. Vince Vaughn wanted Angela Lansbury to play Dorothy Mantooth
In the first Anchorman movie, Vince Vaughn’s rival news anchor character Wes Mantooth vehemently defends his mother Dorothy Mantooth as a saint after Champ Kind makes a joke about her. To pay off this gag, Vaughn was hoping to have Dorothy appear in the sequel, with Angela Lansbury in the role. When asked about Dorothy’s possible appearance, Vaughn said, “I don’t know if anyone can fill that role, she’s such a saint. Angela Lansbury as Dorothy?” In the end, Dorothy didn’t appear in the movie, but Wes did, showing up at the last second to save Ron as a fellow San Diegan.
4. Will Ferrell has played flute since elementary school
When Ron Burgundy breaks out his jazz flute and starts playing in a bar to impress Veronica, Will Ferrell is actually playing the flute. He learned how to play the instrument in elementary school and he’s kept it up ever since, so he can actually play the flute that well. Each Anchorman movie seems to be showing off an unexpected talent possessed by Will Ferrell.
In the first Anchorman movie, he displayed his ability to play the flute, and in Anchorman 2, he did all of his own ice skating stunts after learning how to do it for Blades of Glory.
3. Anchorman 2 was reportedly conceived as a musical
While it’s unconfirmed if the cast and crew were just pulling the press’ legs, in the promotional tours for Anchorman 2, several people involved said that the sequel was planned as a musical. Steve Carell said that the plan was to open on Broadway, work out the kinks in the plot and the jokes, and then shoot the movie: “The original idea was to do it as a Broadway musical...and then we segue that into shooting the movie Anchorman 2, and we were all on board...And then they brought it to Paramount, and Paramount said, ‘Oh, yeah, no, that’s never gonna happen.’ Not in a million years would they consider doing that.”
2. Initially, there was a fifth member of the news team
In the original draft of the script for Anchorman, there was a fifth member of the news team named Marshall Connors. As with all of the other roles, an actor was suggested for this role within the script’s text: William H. Macy. Marshall is sort of like Anchorman’s fifth Beatle. While it might have been interesting to have a fifth character in the mix, it undoubtedly would’ve thrown the dynamic of the cast off-kilter. Four is a good number for a cast – just look at Seinfeld, The Golden Girls, Sex and the City, Ghostbusters, and Entourage. Five might have made the movie feel a little crowded.
1. Anchorman was originally a parody of Alive!
The first draft of what would eventually become Anchorman was written as a parody of Alive!, a disaster movie about the survivors of a plane crash. It originally revolved around a bunch of news reporters on a plane, crashing into a mountain. In the wreckage of the plane crash, they would begin to get cabin fever and eat each other. Meanwhile, some monkeys who were being transported on the plane would find a box full of martial arts weapons. The climactic sequence would’ve been an insane battle between cannibalistic journalists and monkeys with throwing stars. The final product seems tame in comparison.