Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, or simply
Anchorman, is a 2004 American
comedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, directed by
Adam McKayAdam McKay is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedian Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys....
and starring
Will FerrellJohn William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
. The film, which was also written by Ferrell and McKay, is a
tongue-in-cheekTongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...
take on the culture of the 1970s, particularly the then-new
Action NewsAction News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
format. It portrays a
San DiegoSan Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
TV station where Ferrell's title character clashes with his new female counterpart (
Christina ApplegateChristina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...
). This film is number 100 on Bravo's 100 funniest movies, and 113 on
Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
The film made $28.4 million in its opening weekend, and $89.3 million worldwide in its total theatrical run. A companion film assembled from
outtakeAn outtake is a portion of a work that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and DVD reissues of many albums and films as bonus tracks or features, in film often, but not...
s and abandoned subplots, titled
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost MovieWake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie is an American comedy film assembled from abandoned subplots and unused alternate takes from the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy...
, was released straight-to-DVD in late 2004. In May 2008, it was confirmed that a
sequelA sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
to
Anchorman was in the planning stages, but in April 2010, it was announced that the sequel had been scrapped.
Plot
In 1975 San Diego, Ron Burgundy (
Will FerrellJohn William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
) is the famous and successful anchorman for KVWN-TV Channel 4 Evening News. He works alongside his friends on the news team: fashion-oriented lead field reporter Brian Fantana (
Paul RuddPaul Stephen Rudd is an American actor and screenwriter. He has primarily appeared in comedies, and is known for his roles in the films Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Dinner for Schmucks, The Object of My...
),
sportscasterIn sports broadcasting, a commentator gives a running commentary of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast. The comments are normally a voiceover, with the sounds of the action and spectators also heard in the background. In the case of television commentary, the commentator...
Champion "Champ" Kind (
David KoechnerDavid Michael Koechner is an American comedian, musician, and character actor. Koechner began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest...
), and mentally retarded chief meteorologist Brick Tamland (
Steve CarellSteven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
). The team is notified by their boss, Ed Harken (
Fred WillardFred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...
), that their station has maintained its long-held status as the highest-rated news program in San Diego, leading them to throw a wild party. While getting drunk, Ron sees an attractive blond woman and immediately tries to hit on her. After an awkward, failed pick-up attempt, the woman leaves.
The next day, Ed informs the team that he has been forced by the network to hire Veronica Corningstone (
Christina ApplegateChristina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...
), a female news reporter from
Asheville, North CarolinaAsheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
– and the same woman Ron had tried to pick up the night before. The news team attempts to seduce Veronica using various inept, arrogant and sexist methods, all of which backfire. Ron ends up asking her out under the guise of helping out a new co-worker, which she accepts. During their date, Ron woos Veronica by playing
jazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
flute (actually played by Los Angeles based musician, Katisse Buckingham) in his friend Tino's (
Fred ArmisenFred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...
) club. Veronica goes against her policy of not dating co-workers and sleeps with Ron. The next day, despite agreeing with Veronica to keep the relationship discreet, Ron tells the entire news room that he and Veronica are in a sexual relationship (and later announces it on the air).
The next day when Ron is on his way to the station, he throws a
burritoA burrito , or taco de harina, is a type of Mexican food. It consists of a wheat flour tortilla wrapped or folded around a filling. The flour tortilla is usually lightly grilled or steamed, to soften it and make it more pliable. In Mexico, refried beans or meat are sometimes the only fillings...
out his car window, accidentally hitting a motorcyclist (
Jack BlackJack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
) in the head, causing him to crash. In a fit of rage, the biker retaliates by punting Ron's dog, Baxter, off a bridge. A distressed and incoherent Ron calls Brian from a pay phone and tells him what happened. Since Ron is now late, Brian frantically tells him to come to the station because Veronica is about to take his place. Despite Ron's efforts to arrive early, Veronica goes on air. After Ron arrives, he has an argument with Veronica about the situation and they break up. The next day, Veronica is made co-anchor, much to the entire news team's disgust. The co-anchors soon become fierce rivals and argue with each other both on and off the air.
One day while feeling down on themselves, the News team decides to buy new suits. However on the way to the suit shop Brick, who was leading the way, gets them lost ending up in a shady part of town. They are then confronted by Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughan) and the evening news team. Tired of their rudeness and petty anger, Ron challenges them to a fight. All armed with crude weapons the two teams are about to fight when they are joined by Channel 2 news team with lead anchor Frank Vitchard (
Luke WilsonLuke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:...
), the public news team and their lead anchor (
Tim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
), and the Spanish language news with lead anchor Arturo Mendez (
Ben StillerBenjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
). A full on melee ensues between the five teams until they all flee when police sirens are heard.
While in a restaurant celebrating Veronica's success, one of Veronica's co-workers tells her that Ron will read anything that is written on the
teleprompterAn autocue is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards...
. Later, Veronica sneaks into the station and changes the words in Ron's teleprompter. The next day, instead of Ron saying his signature "You stay classy, San Diego!" closure, Ron ends the broadcast with, "Go fuck yourself, San Diego!" Everyone in the studio, except Ron, is speechless. An angry mob gathers outside the studio and Ed must fire Ron. Veronica sees that she has gone too far and attempts to apologize, but Ron angrily dismisses her while being led through the mob by security, yelling at her that she had "reduced him to rubble".
Three months later Ron is unemployed, friendless, hated by the city and is a slovenly drunk. In this time Veronica has become very famous, but is hated by her male coworkers for sabotaging Ron; Ed told Champ, Brick, and Brian not to talk to Ron or he will fire them if they do. When it is announced that Ling-Wong the panda is about to give birth, all the San Diego news teams head to the zoo to cover the story. In an attempt to sabotage her, the public news anchor pushes Veronica into a Kodiak bear enclosure. When Ed cannot find Veronica, he calls the bar where Ron spends most of his time and reluctantly asks him to return. Ron then summons the rest of his team by blowing the "News Horn", despite the fact that they were all standing a foot away playing pool. Baxter, who has miraculously survived, hears this call and follows the voice to find Ron. Once at the zoo, Ron jumps into the bear pen to save Veronica, with everyone else at the zoo watching. The Channel 4 news team then jumps in to help Ron. Just as the leader of the bears is about to rip Ron and Veronica apart, Baxter shows up and convinces the bear to let them live by mentioning that he is a friend of the bear's cousin, whom he met in the wild.
After Ron and Veronica reconcile, it is shown that in years to come, Brian becomes the host of a
FoxFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
reality show named
Intercourse Island, Brick is
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's top political adviser, Champ is a commentator for the
NFLThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
before he was fired for sexually harassing
Terry BradshawTerry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...
, and Ron and Veronica are co-anchors for the
CNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
-esque
World News Center, taking over after the narrator (real news anchor
Bill KurtisBill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He is also the current host of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files...
) retires.
Cast
- Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
as Ron Burgundy. A five-time (local) Emmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning journalist, he is the main anchorman for the KVWN Channel 4 News Team from 1964 to 1977. Always confident and well-dressed, he is ignorant, egotisticalEgotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
, misogynisticMisogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
, and narcissisticNarcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
, stating that he believes "diversity" to be some type of "old, old wooden ship used in the Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
era."
- Christina Applegate
Christina Applegate is an American actress. She is best known for playing Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom Married... with Children. Since then, she has established a film and television career, winning a Primetime Emmy and earning Tony and Golden Globe nominations...
as Veronica Corningstone. From Asheville, North CarolinaAsheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
. She is ambitious to become a network anchor and wants to be taken seriously in the male-dominated newsroom. Amy PoehlerAmy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
(of Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
fame) was originally cast as Veronica.
- Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd is an American actor and screenwriter. He has primarily appeared in comedies, and is known for his roles in the films Clueless, Wet Hot American Summer, Anchorman, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Dinner for Schmucks, The Object of My...
as Brian Fantana. He is the stylish and over-sexed field reporter for KVWN news. He is arrogant, narcissistic and overestimates his personal qualities. He leaves the news station to host the Fox Network’s show, "Intercourse Island".
- David Koechner
David Michael Koechner is an American comedian, musician, and character actor. Koechner began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest...
as Champion "Champ" Kind. The KVWN sportscaster, he seems to have hidden feelings for Ron Burgundy. He is the most chauvinisticChauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
member of the news team. John C. ReillyJohn Christopher Reilly, Jr. is an American film and theater actor, singer, and comedian. Debuting in Casualties of War in 1989, he is one of several actors whose careers were launched by Brian De Palma. To date, he has appeared in more than fifty films, including three separate films in 2002...
was originally slated to play Champ but had to drop out due to work on The Aviator. He leaves the news station to become an NFL commentator, but is fired for accusations of sexual harassmentSexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
made by Terry BradshawTerry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...
.
- Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
as Brick Tamland. The weatherman for the KVWN news team, he has a habit of providing unrequested or irrelevant information. Tamland is good hearted and loyal but not very bright. Brick is an innocent who is led astray by the rest of the group. Co-star Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana) commented in rehearsals that the thought that Brick may be mentally retarded would "never faze them", and that the other members of the news team would never berate or become annoyed with Brick because of his stupidity, merely correcting him if he makes a mistake. He goes on to become one of the top political advisors to the Bush White House.
- Fred Willard
Fred Willard is an American actor, comedian, and voice over actor, best known for his improvisational comedy skills. He is known for his roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentary films This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration as well as...
as Ed Harken: The news director of KVWN.
- Chris Parnell
Thomas Christopher "Chris" Parnell is an American comic actor best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998–2006 and currently for his recurring role as Dr. Leo Spaceman on NBC's Emmy Award-winning comedy series 30 Rock. Parnell also voices Cyril Figgis on the FX animated comedy...
as Garth Holladay: Ed's assistant at KVWN. Ron Burgundy was his hero, before he used foul language during a news broadcast. He is frequently ignored by the news team, even though his main job at the station appears to be keeping them out of trouble.
- Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony "Vince" Vaughn is an American film actor, screenwriter, producer and comedian. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 movie Swingers...
as Wes Mantooth (uncredited): The lead anchor of the competing KQHS Channel 9 Evening News Team and Burgundy's main rival.
- Luke Wilson
Luke Cunningham Wilson is an American film actor known for his roles in Old School, Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde, Idiocracy and Death at a Funeral.-Early life:...
as Frank Vitchard: A competing news anchor whose station, Channel 2, is third in the ratings.
- Peanut as Baxter, Ron's beloved dog. Burgundy's relationship with Baxter is almost one of equality. He has the uncanny ability to communicate with his master in English.
Cameos
- Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
as Arturo Mendez (Spanish Language News anchor).
- Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
as the Public News anchor (uncredited).
- Danny Trejo
Dan "Danny" Trejo is an American actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films, most notably in roles as an antagonist, or anti-hero.-Early life:...
as a bartender.
- Jack Black
Jack Black , is an American actor and musician, notably of Tenacious D.Jack Black may also refer to:* Jack Black , late 19th - early 20th Century author and hobo* Jack Black , drummer for 1970s UK punk band The Boys...
as a motorcyclist
- Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
as one of Harken's cameramen.
- Jerry Stiller
Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...
can be seen very briefly sitting alone at the far end of the bar at the beginning of the "Rocky's Bar Grill & Fine Dining" scene (uncredited).
- Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy films, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the...
, as a news station employee
- Paul F. Tompkins
Paul Francis Tompkins , best known as Paul F. Tompkins, is an American actor and comedian.-Life and career:Tompkins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a receptionist mother and railway worker father. He started out in stand-up comedy in 1986 at The Comedy Works, Philadelphia, PA, where he...
as a cat show competition host
- Jay Johnston
Jay Johnston is an American actor and comedian best known for his work as a writer and cast member on the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...
as part of the Eyewitness News Team
- Robin Antin
Robin Antin is an American dancer, choreographer, music video director, actress, showgirl, clothing designer and entrepreneur. In 1995 in Los Angeles Antin, Christina Applegate and Carla Kama founded the modern burlesque troupe The Pussycat Dolls...
is seen briefly in the background in one of Ben Stiller's scenes.
- Fred Armisen
Fred Armisen is an American actor, comedian and musician best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and portraying off-color foreigners in various comedy films such as EuroTrip, Anchorman and Cop Out...
as Tino, the owner of the restaurant that Ron frequents.
- Adam McKay
Adam McKay is an American screenwriter, director, comedian, and actor. He is most famous for his partnership with comedian Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the films Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and The Other Guys....
as a janitor
- Jimmy Bennett
James Michael "Jimmy" Bennett is an American actor and musician. He is known for his roles as a child actor in Daddy Day Care, Hostage, Poseidon, and more recently in Orphan and as young James T. Kirk in Star Trek...
appears as Tommy (uncredited).
Narration
The opening and closing scenes are narrated by veteran Chicago
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(
WBBM-TVWBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
) news anchor
Bill KurtisBill Kurtis is an American television journalist, producer, narrator, and news anchor. He is also the current host of A&E crime and news documentary shows, including Investigative Reports, American Justice, and Cold Case Files...
. Bill Kurtis, who currently hosts
A&EThe A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
's
American JusticeAmerican Justice is an American criminal justice television program on the A&E Network, hosted by Bill Kurtis. The show features interesting or notable cases, such as the Selena Murder of a Star, Scarsdale Diet doctor murder, the Hillside Stranglers, Matthew Shepard, or the Wells Fargo heist, with...
and
Cold Case FilesCold Case Files is documentary television series on the cable channel A&E Network hosted by Bill Kurtis that documents the investigation of various long-unsolved murders through the use of modern forensic science , and criminal psychology, in addition to recent breakthroughs in the...
, is the winner of twenty Emmys.
Soundtrack
- Ron Burgundy - "Legendary Anchor Ron Burgundy Welcomes You To His Album: A Life, A Song"
- Blues Image - "Ride Captain Ride"
- Jonathan Edwards - "Sunshine (Go Away Today)"
- Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose
Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose was a family soul singing group from Dania Beach, Florida, that attained brief popularity in the early 1970s. The original members were the siblings Carter Cornelius, Eddie Cornelius, and Rose Cornelius. Another sister, Billie Jo Cornelius, was added later...
- "Treat Her Like A Lady"
- Gene Chandler
Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...
- "Groovy Situation"
- Kansas
Kansas is an American rock band that became popular in the 1970s initially on Album-Oriented Rock charts, and later with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind"...
- "Carry On Wayward Son"
- Friends Of Distinction
The Friends of Distinction are an American vocal group best known for their late 1960s hits, "Grazing in the Grass", "Love or Let Me Be Lonely", and "Going in Circles"...
- "Grazing In The Grass"
- Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
- "Cherry, Cherry"
- Isley Brothers - "That Lady"
- Henry Gross
Henry Gross , is an American singer-songwriter best known for his association with the group, Sha Na Na, and for his hit song, "Shannon".-Early years:...
- "Shannon"
- Bill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
- "Use Me"
- Tom Jones
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
- "Help Yourself"
- Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
"She's Gone"
- Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
& The Channel 4 News Team - "Afternoon Delight"
- Ron Burgundy - "Ron Burgundy's Sign Off"
Production
Although
Anchorman is set in San Diego, the real San Diego appears only in brief aerial shots – modern shots that include many downtown buildings not yet built in the 1970s. According to the official production notes and "making of" documentary (both included on the DVD),
Anchorman was actually filmed in
Los AngelesLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
,
GlendaleGlendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
, and
Long BeachLong Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
on sets which were dressed to look like San Diego in the 1970s. Notably, Los Angeles, Glendale, and Long Beach are in the
studio zoneIn the American entertainment industry, the studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone or the TMZ, is the area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
, while San Diego is not.
Critical response
Anchorman was released on July 9, 2004 in 3,091 theaters and grossed
US$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$28.4 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross $85.3 million in North America and $5.3 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $89.3 million, well above its $26 million budget.
The film was generally well-received by critics with a 66% rating on
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 63 metascore at
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Most of the time...
Anchorman works, and a lot of the time it's very funny".
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
film critic
Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
also gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "If you sense the presence of recycled jokes from
Animal House onward, you'd be right. But you'd be wrong to discount the comic rapport Ferrell has with his cohorts, notably the priceless Fred Willard as the harried station manager". In his review for
Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
,
Owen GleibermanOwen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
gave the film a "C+" rating and wrote, "Yet for a comedy set during the formative era of happy-talk news,
Anchorman doesn't do enough to tweak the on-camera phoniness of dum-dum local journalism".
USA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the film three out of four stars and Claudia Puig wrote, "That he can make his anchorman chauvinistic, deluded and ridiculous but still manage to give him some humanity is testimony to Ferrell's comic talents". In her review for the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
,
Manohla DargisManohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
wrote, "Tightly directed by newcomer Adam McKay, a former head writer on
Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
who cooked up the screenplay with Ferrell,
Anchorman never reaches the sublime heights of that modern comedy classic
There's Something About MaryThere's Something About Mary is a 1998 American comedy film, directed by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter. It stars Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and Ben Stiller, and it is a combination of romantic comedy and gross-out film....
. Big deal — it's a hoot nonetheless and the scaled-down aspirations seem smart".
EmpireEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine ranked Ron Burgundy #26 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.
Empire also ranked
Anchorman at number 113 in their poll of the 500 Greatest Films Ever.
Entertainment Weekly ranked Burgundy #40 in their "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" poll and Ferrell said, "He is my favorite character I've played, if I have to choose one ... Looking back, that makes it the most satisfying thing I've ever done".
Unrated version
In the unrated version of
Anchorman, there are four minutes worth of additional scenes that were not shown in the theaters to secure the PG-13 rating instead of an R rating. Some of these found their way into
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost MovieWake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie is an American comedy film assembled from abandoned subplots and unused alternate takes from the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy...
. They are:
- A scene where Ron imagines that he and Veronica are married and shows them making out in front of their children, with her telling him that she has prepared dinner in the nude.
- A scene showing Ron, on the air talking about how he is proud of his mane of pubic hair.
- An alternate conversation after the party, where Champ talks about pooping out a live squirrel. Brick then tells Champ apologetically that he ate his chocolate squirrel. Originally, Champ said he woke up in a Japanese family's rec room and they wouldn't stop screaming, and Brick added that he ate a big red candle.
- An alternate take of the scene where Ron walks around the office with his massive erection.
- The extended version of Ron being dragged out of the station into an angry mob after saying "Go fuck yourself, San Diego," on the news. He says "fuck" many more times in the extended version.
- Ron goes to Tino's (the restaurant where Ron took Veronica out and played jazz flute) after the incident and Tino forces him to eat cat poop before he brings him a steak. Weeping, Ron eats some of the poop, but makes such a scene that he disturbs other restaurant patrons.
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie
The film,
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost MovieWake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie is an American comedy film assembled from abandoned subplots and unused alternate takes from the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy...
, was released straight to DVD in 2004, which includes alternate scenes containing much of the original plot.
Sequel
In May 2008, McKay said that he and Will Ferrell have talked about wanting to do an
Anchorman sequelA sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
.
Steve CarellSteven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
told
MTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
he would reprise his role as Brick Tamland if the opportunity arose. In an interview with ITV1's London Tonight in August 2008, Ferrell confirmed plans for a sequel but indicated it could take some time to happen.
On March 23, 2010, Ferrell said it was unlikely that a sequel would be made, telling
Zoo Magazine that getting the cast together would be too difficult. The following month, McKay said the studio had turned down a proposal for a sequel, even after McKay had told them Ferrell, Carell and Rudd would take pay cuts.
On September 8, 2010, director Adam McKay revealed to Collider.com that massive outcry from fans has convinced Paramount to reconsider making the sequel. It is not known when Paramount will make their final decision on whether or not to make the sequel.
On May 3, 2011, Will Ferrell publicly stated that Paramount, which owns the rights to
Anchorman, had nixed the idea of a sequel, stating "We've run the numbers and it's not a good fit."
External links