...that genre being "manly men behaving stupidly". Its charm is in the fact that it is not pretending to be anything other than what it is - it does not try to get you to do anything other than laugh. The film is also responsible for giving Steve Carell his breakthrough role as Brick, the news weatherman who can hardly assemble a coherent sentence.
The film centers around Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell), a local news anchorman in San Diego at an unspecified time. From the fashions and music, it could be anytime between 1968 and 1975. Ron is basically a lecherous yet likable leisure suit Larry who is mainly a face - he has no real journalistic talents or instincts. He simply reads the news that others report. The trouble begins when the station manager hires a new newswoman, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) who at first is given only fluff pieces to do. The big step forward for Veronica is that she is working as a reporter at all. This was considered women's lib in 1970 - just being admitted to the club. This did not exempt you from all kinds of hazing and sexual harassment, which was considered the price of admission. A romance develops between Ron and Veronica that ends quite abruptly when Ron is late to the set and Veronica goes on in his place. She does so well that she and Ron become co-anchors and the war begins - Veronica against every other man in the newsroom, all who feel threatened by a woman anchoring the news. However, Veronica plays it smart and takes advantage of the fact that Ron will say anything that comes across the teleprompter without even thinking about it.
Normally I don't like these kinds of films at all, but for some reason this one just gets funnier every time I watch it. Especially funny is the conclusion, with actual investigative reporter Bill Kurtis discussing the destinies of everyone at the station.
