Judd Apatow says that if it wasn’t for one iconic director, then “Anchorman” probably wouldn’t be what it is today.
The legendary comedian explained how it happened on the Nov. 2 episode of “Sunday Sitdown.” He said the first draft of “Anchorman,” written by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, told an entirely different story.
He said the plot was about a group of anchorpeople who survive a plane crash on their way to an anchor convention.
Will Ferrell in “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” Alamy
“So they crash into a mountain, and it becomes about them trying to survive, and slowly they wonder if they need to eat each other,” he laughed. “And they brought me in at some point and they wrote a new script, which was what became ‘Anchorman.'”
Once they started pitching the new script, Apatow said some people had their doubts about whether Ferrell could play the lead.
It wasn’t until Steven Spielberg stepped in that Ferrell was able to secure his role as legendary anchor Ron Burgundy.
At the time, Ferrell was getting a lot of attention for his role as Frank in “Old School.” Apatow recalled the comedic frat movie and said it was “hysterical.”
Steven Spielberg and Will Ferrell attend the 19th Annual Hammer Museum Gala on May 4, 2024.Stefanie Keenan / Getty Images
“But DreamWorks had just put us in turnaround, which means they weren’t going to make it,” he said of “Anchorman.”
“And then one day in a meeting, Steven Spielberg said, ‘Old School’s a big hit. What else do we have with Will Ferrell? We should do something else with him.’ And they were like, ‘Well, we just put it in turnaround.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, get it back,'” Apatow said.
Thanks to that decision, “Anchorman” was put in production, and in 2004, it hit theaters.
“(Spielberg) was the reason Adam and Will were allowed to make ‘Anchorman,’” Apatow said.
Judd Apatow at the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025.Lionel Hahn / Getty Images
Along with Ferrell, the movie featured then-rising comedians like Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate and Steve Carell.
Apatow said Carell specifically always had the movie’s staff in tears.
“If you were on the set of ‘Anchorman,’ and you were just watching the shoot, there was no one there who wasn’t like, ‘Steve Carell is the funniest guy ever,'” he said.
“So just one day I’m like, ‘Do you have any ideas for yourself as a lead?’ And then one day he told me about a sketch he worked on once about a guy who is at a poker game, and they were all talking dirty about sex, and it’s clear he’s lying and hasn’t had sex. And I thought, ‘Sadly, I understand that,'” Apatow laughed. “I know how to develop that.”
That movie turned into Carell’s breakout film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”
When asked what advice he would give to people who are trying to get into comedy, Apatow turns to his new book, “Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures.”
“Part of how I built the book is that I put all the failures in there also. So all the pilots that weren’t picked up, everything that was a bomb. And I talk about how that happened. How did things fall apart? What’s it like when they work? What’s it like when they don’t work?” he said.
“So you have to really be strong, and find your voice, and not give up,” he added. “I always say, if you give up, it’s not going to work. So, the key is not quitting.”
