Did a documentary inspire "Anchorman"?

July 7, 2010 9:23 AM

Did a documentary inspire Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy?

I swear I read somewhere that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was inspired by an old documentary about the local news business. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell thought that the obnoxious sexism and incompetence of one of the anchors was so hilarious that they thought it would be a great film. Is this true? If so, does anybody know what the name of this documentary is?

posted by kakakakarl to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Best answer: IMDB's trivia page for Anchorman says: "Was inspired by a biography show that Will Ferrell watched about Jessica Savitch, and how one of her male coworkers confessed to being a total chauvinist back in the day" -- Jessica Savitch. And from IGN:

The idea for this film first came from Ferrell. "It was about two years ago and Will had seen a thing on A&E's Biography about Jessica Savitch, and they were interviewing the anchormen who were so freaked out by the first woman coming into the office," says McKay. "It was very apparent that they were just really awful to these women, so the idea came of telling the story from the other side. Telling it from the side of the guys..."

posted by artlung at 9:34 AM on July 7, 2010

Response by poster: thanks a lot!
posted by kakakakarl at 8:46 AM on July 8, 2010