58 Fun Facts About Anchorman

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

San Diego gets Ron's nightly closing line, 'You stay classy, San Diego'; when he and Veronica move up to network news in the epilogue, it becomes 'You stay classy, planet Earth'.

On a sweltering day, a jobless Ron Burgundy groans that which drink 'was a bad choice'?

Milk it is: 'It's so damn hot! Milk was a bad choice!' he wails, seconds after shouting to the whole city that he is completely miserable.

Who plays Veronica Corningstone?

Christina Applegate's Veronica arrives from a station in Asheville, North Carolina, protests when her first story is a cat fashion show, and soon shares the anchor desk with Ron.

What is the name of Ron Burgundy's dog?

Baxter, the dog Ron serenades as 'my little gentleman', is punted off a bridge by an angry motorcyclist, yet survives the fall and turns up at the film's climax to rescue his owner.

What job does Brick Tamland hold at the station?

Weatherman Brick Tamland, played by Steve Carell, is the dimmest of the team: asked what love is, he looks round the office and announces 'I love carpet', 'I love desk' and 'I love lamp'.

Who plays sportscaster Champ Kind?

David Koechner plays Champ Kind, the sportscaster who bellows 'Whammy!'; the writers had first pictured John C. Reilly in the part before turning to their old Saturday Night Live castmate.

Which actor plays field reporter Brian Fantana?

Paul Rudd plays Brian Fantana, the field reporter with a cabinet full of colognes; the writers' first casting wishlist had named Ben Stiller for the part.

Which director, later an Oscar winner for writing The Big Short, made both Anchorman films?

Adam McKay made Anchorman his first feature after years as head writer at Saturday Night Live, and he slips into the film himself as a janitor.

Who produced the first Anchorman film?

Judd Apatow was so taken with Steve Carell's Brick that he asked him for a film idea of his own; the result was The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Apatow directed the next year.

What does Brick Tamland admit to killing a man with during Anchorman's news-team brawl?

A trident: 'There were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident,' Brick recalls, and Ron advises him to lie low because he is probably wanted for murder.

Which studio released the first Anchorman film in 2004?

DreamWorks Pictures released the first Anchorman on July 9, 2004; Paramount, whose parent Viacom bought DreamWorks in 2006, distributed the 2013 sequel.

What does Brick Tamland yell during Anchorman's newsroom shouting match?

'Loud noises!' is Brick's whole contribution; moments earlier he had confessed, at full volume, 'I don't know what we're yelling about!'

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

Spider-Man 2, in its second weekend, took $45.2 million to Anchorman's $28.4 million; even so, that single weekend's takings topped the comedy's whole reported production budget.

Who plays rival anchor Wes Mantooth?

Vince Vaughn, Ferrell's Old School co-star, plays Wes Mantooth of the rival Channel 9 Evening News Team, who erupts when Champ insults his mother: 'Dorothy Mantooth is a saint!'

Which actor cameos in Anchorman as the motorcyclist who punts Ron's dog off a bridge?

Jack Black cameos as the motorcyclist: knocked off his bike by Ron's tossed burrito, he retaliates by punting the dog off the bridge with the words 'That's how I roll!'

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

Tim Robbins leads the Public News Team into the brawl, announcing that it is taking a break from its pledge drive, with the battle cry 'No commercials! No mercy!'

Which star cameos as the Spanish-language news anchor in Anchorman's brawl?

Ben Stiller plays Arturo Mendez, who brings his team to the fight and announces the night's top story: the sewers run red with Burgundy's blood.

Which real newsman narrates the first Anchorman film?

Bill Kurtis, a real Chicago anchor and veteran documentary narrator, opens the film in earnest: 'There was a time, a time before cable, when the local anchorman reigned supreme.'

Who plays station director Ed Harken?

Fred Willard plays Ed Harken, the station director forever on the phone about his son's latest misdeed; the writers' first wishlist had named Ed Harris for the part.

Which cologne, 'illegal in nine countries', does Brian Fantana wear?

Sex Panther by Odeon is 'made with bits of real panther', Brian boasts, and 'sixty percent of the time, it works every time'; Ron's verdict is that it stings the nostrils.

What gets Ron Burgundy fired from Channel 4 in the first Anchorman?

An obscene on-air sign-off does it: tipped off that Ron reads anything on the teleprompter, Veronica rewrites his farewell to the city, and he delivers it without noticing.

Which zoo event draws every news team in town at the climax of the first Anchorman?

A panda giving birth was a late rewrite: test audiences disliked the original plot about bank-robbing radicals called the Alarm Clock, so the ending was reshot around the zoo.

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

Kodiak bears fill the pit Veronica is shoved into by a rival anchor; Ron jumps in after her, sighs 'I immediately regret this decision', and the rest of the team follows.

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

George W. Bush was in office when the film opened in 2004, and its narrator reports that dim Brick, by then married with 11 children, is 'one of the top political advisors to the Bush White House'.

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

Terry Bradshaw's accusation costs Champ his job as an NFL commentator, the narrator says, while Ron and Veronica leave town to co-anchor the World News Center.

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

The first draft parodied Alive, the 1993 Andes plane-crash survival film, with the newsmen stranded in the mountains and fleeing orangutans armed with ninja stars.

Which companion film, built from Anchorman outtakes, went straight to DVD in December 2004?

Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie revives the plot cut after test screenings, Ron's hunt for bank-robbing radicals called the Alarm Clock, padded out with alternate takes and new narration.

Where is Ron when he wails that he is 'in a glass case of emotion'?

A phone booth: Ron is howling down the line to Brian, who admits he hasn't understood one word and asks where he is, minutes after a biker has kicked his dog off a bridge.

Which real anchor did Ferrell cite as a key inspiration for Ron Burgundy?

Ferrell has said Ron Burgundy was inspired by Mort Crim, a 1970s Philadelphia anchor he saw in a documentary admitting he had been a chauvinist toward a female co-anchor.

Which real newscaster served as a model for Anchorman's Veronica Corningstone?

Jessica Savitch rose from a Philadelphia station to NBC News; a TV biography of her, in which a former co-anchor owned up to his chauvinism, gave the film's star the idea.

Which instrument is Ron Burgundy coaxed on stage to play during his night out with Veronica?

Flute: the show-stopping jazz solo, which slips in a burst of Jethro Tull's 'Aqualung', was really played by Los Angeles studio musician Katisse Buckingham, not by the film's star.

Which 1976 hit does the news team sing in four-part harmony in the office?

Afternoon Delight is Ron's answer when the team asks what love is like; after the full four-part rendition, their verdict is that it 'sounds like you have mental problems, man'.

Ron Burgundy's cry of alarm in Anchorman is "Great Odin's" what?

Raven: a fitting oath for a newsman, since Norse myth gives Odin two ravens that fly out each day and bring him word of the world. Ron also swears by the beard of Zeus.

Which fictional 24-hour news network hires Ron in Anchorman 2?

GNN, the Global News Network, hands Ron's team the unpopular late-night slot, where he wins the ratings by telling viewers what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

Which Hollywood legend plays retiring anchor Mack Tannen, who fires Ron Burgundy, in Anchorman 2?

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

What must Ron's rival do after losing their ratings bet in Anchorman 2?

Legally change his name to Jack Lame is the forfeit James Marsden's Jack Lime accepts, sure that a late-night newscast can never beat his primetime ratings; it does, massively.

Who plays Chani, the oddball network staffer Brick falls for in Anchorman 2?

Kristen Wiig's Chani has the surname 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?

A shark: Ron and Walter nurse it back to health and, after a row over names, settle on Doby; set free, it turns on Ron at the beach wedding, and his dog swims to the rescue.

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

A lighthouse is where the blinded Ron sulks alone until Veronica and Walter arrive; when he complains, she reminds him it was his own choice to live in a 'weird lighthouse'.

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

Atlanta doubled for New York from March 2013, and the shoot did not stay secret: news cameras caught one of the film's surprise guest stars on the Atlanta set that same month.

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

BBC: 'For we are the BBC News Service!' Sacha Baron Cohen cries, after promising Ron 'a bloody good hiding' from a newsreader 'from a superior country'.

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

The Ghost of Stonewall Jackson fights for the History Network, which insists it is news too, 'only told much, much later'; John C. Reilly has him bless 'this hallowed field of battle'.

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

Kanye West's Wesley Jackson leads the MTV News crew into the brawl, only to be asked 'What's MTV?'; the film is set in 1980, a year before the channel launched.

On which late-night show did Ron Burgundy announce the Anchorman sequel in March 2012?

Conan got the scoop on March 28, 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?

Ben & Jerry's named its butterscotch flavour Scotchy Scotch Scotch after Ron's ode to his favourite drink in the first film: 'I love Scotch. Scotchy, Scotch, Scotch.'

Which beer revived its 1970s packaging for Anchorman 2 and kept it afterward?

Miller Lite's 1970s white can appeared in the film, and the retro design sold so well that MillerCoors made it the standard packaging in 2014.

In December 2013 Ron Burgundy joined the booth of Canada's TSN to commentate on which sport?

Curling: he called two ends of Canada's Olympic trials in Winnipeg wearing a kilt borrowed from a piper, a day after co-anchoring a real newscast in Bismarck, North Dakota.

After losing his network job in Anchorman 2, Ron is fired from hosting a show at which theme park?

SeaWorld is where Ron hosts the 3:10 dolphin show until he is sacked; a producer then tracks him down with an offer to join the world's first 24-hour news channel.

Anchorman 2 returned to cinemas in 2014 with 763 new jokes and which rating?

R: the version that opened in December 2013 was PG-13, but the comedy came back ten weeks later as the 'Super-Sized R-Rated Version' and played American cinemas for one week only.

Which kind of book did Ron Burgundy publish in 2013 to promote Anchorman 2?

A memoir: Let Me Off at the Top! My Classy Life and Other Musings, credited to Ron himself, mixes childhood stories with advice, and the actor who plays him signed copies in character.

In Anchorman 2, what does Champ Kind's fried chicken restaurant secretly serve in place of chicken?

Bats: Champ insists they are known as 'chicken of the cave', then admits the name comes from one man he met at the pier.

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

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug held number one, and Anchorman 2's $26.2 million weekend fell short of the original's $28.4 million; yet the sequel went on to top $125 million in North America, about $40 million more than the original.

In 2019 Ron Burgundy returned as the host of his own what?

Podcast: The Ron Burgundy Podcast launched on iHeartRadio in February 2019, and to plug its second season Ron turned up on six late-night talk shows in a single night.

Which event of his son's does Ron walk off air to attend in Anchorman 2?

Piano recital: handed an exclusive story on live TV, Ron tells viewers that news should inform, not entertain, and leaves to hear Walter play, only to be waylaid by rival news teams on the way.

Steve Carell, Anchorman's Brick Tamland, was a correspondent on which program from 1999 to 2005?

The Daily Show paired him with Stephen Colbert as the bickering pundits of 'Even Stevphen'; he left in 2005, the year he took the leads in The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

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

Todd Packer, the boorish salesman only Michael Scott admires, went to Champ Kind's actor on the personal recommendation of Steve Carell, his Anchorman castmate and The Office's star.

Before Anchorman, Veronica's actress found fame as Kelly Bundy on which sitcom?

Married... with Children kept her on Fox from 1987 to 1997 as dim Kelly Bundy, the reverse of the ambitious Veronica, who insists she is 'a damn good journalist'.

Where was Ron Burgundy's actor born?

Irvine, California, was so safe and master-planned, he has said, that there was no drama and he and his friends had to create it in their heads; he kicked for the University High football team there.