12 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'Anchorman'

She was the focus of the Lifetime documentary Ferrell watched.

You can read more on her inspiration on the movie here.

Ferrell told the New York Times upon seeing Jessica Savitch's one-time co-anchor in the Lifetime documentary, "he was struck by ... his reminiscences in a silky baritone."

“He [Crim] literally said the line: ‘You have to remember, back then I was a real male chauvinist pig. I was not nice to her.’” said Ferrell.

(Source: The New York Times)

The man who actually played Ron Burgundy's flute solo in "Anchorman" is Los Angeles musician Katisse Buckingham. You may recognize him from a role on "Who's the Boss?" where he made out with Alyssa Milano.

Here's the iconic jazz flute scene from "Anchorman."

You can listen to Buckingham play here.

(Source: LA Weekly)

"I played a bank teller that Maya Rudolph and her gang robbed," Poehler told Vulture. "I got into a fight."

Yes, Rudolph got cut, too.

Poehler will appear in the sequel with best bud Tina Fey.

Director Adam McKay explained why Gyllenhaal didn't get the role to website BallerStatus:

"For Christina Applegate, she actually beat out Amy Adams, Leslie Mann and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Amy, at the time, looked like she was only 18. We couldn't cast her, even though she's awesome. Maggie; I said is going to win an Academy Awards some day and you don't put Meryl Streep in a comedy (laughs). Leslie Mann is great as well, but she didn't have that 50's wholesome thing that we wanted and Applegate had all that."

McKay estimated more than 100 actresses read for the role.

Original suggestions for the film included Ben Stiller, John C. Reilly, and Alec Baldwin.

Champ Kind:
John C. Reilly | actual actor: David Koechner
Brick Tamland:
Chris Parnell | actual actor: Steve Carell
Brian Fantana:
Ben Stiller | actual actor: Paul Rudd
Ed Harken:
Ed Harris | actual actor: Fred Willard
Garth Holiday:
Dan Aykroyd | actual actor: Chris Parnell
Frank Vitchard:
Alec Baldwin | actual actor: Luke Wilson

William H. Macy was also suggested for another role that never made it into the film.

(Source: IMDB)

The license plate is on display at the Newseum — the news and journalism museum — in Washington, D.C.

Producer Judd Apatow says the crew always did multiple takes of scenes with the actors often improvising.

"We shot a lot of additional jokes, which led to an enormous amount of extra material," says Apatow. "We kept joking that we were going to put out a director's cut of the movie, and it'll be three hours long."

(Source: "Anchorman" production notes)

Applegate's character reveals that nugget in one of the film's deleted scenes.

(Source: "Anchorman" Unrated)

The studio thought the film would bomb. It ended up making $90.6 million worldwide on a $26 million budget.

Will Ferrell told The Chicago Tribune DreamWorks changed their mind about the movie due in part to the success of his 2003 film "Old School."

"They said, 'Oh, we love it! We've got to do that movie,'" said Ferrell.

(Source: IMDB/Chicago Tribune)

From NY Daily News:

"'Anchorman 2' was continuously shot down by Paramount executives over budgetary reasons because the studio did not want to spend more than $35 million considering the relatively low-end global grosses of the first film."

(Source: Salon / NY Daily News)

See the extreme transformations he and other actors have undergone for their roles >