Goofs for
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: The NBC building located adjacent to the downtown San Diego Horton Plaza shopping mall can be seen during one fly-through. NBC was not located in that building until December 2001.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ron hits the biker with the burrito, the bike falls over and Ron drives past it. In the next shot, the bike is quite a distance in front of Ron's car
  
  
• Continuity: When Ron is first talking to his dog Baxter, the dog's front paws change position on the chair between shots (from standing to kneeling).
  
  

• Continuity: Ron's coat changes position on the chair when he is talking to Baxter.
  
  
• Continuity: When the "Spanish speaking news team" runs down the stairs to enter the brawl, there are clearly seven of them, where there are only six in the actual fight.
  
  
• Continuity: When Veronica's hands are seen marking out Ron's sign-off, the paragraph above it is completely different from what we see Ron and Veronica reporting in the next scene.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ron is in the bar where he drowns his sorrows away, a man enters the bar in one shot and we hear and see the door opening. In the next shot the same man enters again and the door opens again.
  
  
• Continuity: Position of crowd during Veronica and Ron's fight scene.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the fight between Ron and Veronica, Veronica pulls an antenna off of the TV and whips Ron with it. Just before she rips it off, it moves, revealing that is was already broken.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The boat that is pulling the squirrel in one of the initial news broadcasts is a Correct Craft Ski Nautique from the 1990s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Though set in the 1970s, during Ron Burgundy's encounter with the motorcyclist, a 1997-2002 Ford Econoline cutaway van passes by in the background.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the anchorman rumble, Champ throws a man through a car windshield. The car is a 1982-1987 Chevrolet El Camino. The quad rectangular headlights give it away. The movie is set in the 1970s.
  
  
• Continuity: During the party when Ron is looking for the woman who ends up being Veronica Corningstone, his glass is almost empty in one shot, and then in the next his glass is full with an umbrella and a skewer with fruit on it.
  
  
• Continuity: At the anchorman rumble, just as they all attack, Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) stumbles and falls to the ground. Yet right after that, he's in the thick of the brawl.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the "jazz flute" scene, the bass players left hand position and movements clearly do not match the music he is supposed to be playing.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When at the Panda exhibit on Panda Watch: Day 5, while reporting, a man walks through the background wearing a US Military Camouflage Jacket. These were not issued until 1982, replacing a standard solid green utility uniform that was worn during the 1970s - the time frame for the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: After Ron and his gang have the big gang war with the other four news teams, he and his three co-workers are sitting in his office drinking some beers, and the amount of beer in the bottles change many times.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Dodge news van at the zoo is a model first produced in 1979, too late for the movie's mid-1970s time period.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank Vitchard is reporting the birth of the panda at the end of the movie, his microphone has the call letters of Wes Mantooth's station (Channel 9), not Channel 2 news he said he was in at the street fight.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Ron Burgundy calls his news team to him with the giant seashell, his echoing call is heard over an aerial view of a cityscape; on the side of one of the buildings is NBC's current "peacock" logo. During the late 70s, NBC was using a stylized "N" as its logo.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Although the story takes place in the 70s, many of the aerial shots in the film showcase San Diego's new skyline including the Hyatt towers and the new Petco ballpark.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The view from the San Diego - Coronado Bridge when Ron Burgundy has his encounter with Jack Black is clearly not San Diego, but is in fact Long Beach, California.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ron is coming to pick up Veronica for their first date and Veronica is waiting for him in the Channel 4 News Lobby, she buttons her jacket in one shot. In the next shot, her jacket is unbuttoned again.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The movie is set in the mid 1970s, but when Ron Burgundy is crying about his dog, Bryan has a 2x2 Rubik's Cube on his desk. The famous 3x3 Rubik's Cube wasn't introduced in the U.S. until the 1979 Christmas season, and variations weren't introduced until the 1980s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the bar, you can see a bottle of Malibu brand rum. This product was not introduced until 1980.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Ron reads the teleprompter with the question mark on it, it is revealed that the words on the prompter don't match the words that Ron said. This is clearly a mistake, since it is well-established that Ron will read anything that is put on the teleprompter.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ed is talking about diversity, the pencils are pretty organized. In the next shot, they are very scattered.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Pandas were not introduced to the San Diego zoo until 1987, and no cubs were born until 1999.
  
  
• Continuity: Brian Fantana goes to bang his right fist on Ed's desk but when it cuts to a long shot he slams his left fist onto the desk.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ron is talking to his dog and eating his burrito in his car, cars are visible behind him, but in the wide shot there are no cars anywhere.
  
  
• Continuity: In the subtitled conversation between Baxter the dog and the Kodiak bear, the spelling of the bear's name changes between subtitles.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Ron is talking to Brian on the phone after the burrito scene, the phone in the booth is a touch tone. Touch-tone dialing was widely introduced to the public in 1964. Touch-tone phones, although not common, were found in some phone booths in the '70s.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the News Team Gang War, we see Brian Fantana pull out a small revolver (which he obviously intends to use in the brawl) however before the horses pull him in a net we see him using a club to beat someone up. While it is possible that he switched weapons after running out of ammo, we do not hear any gunshots during the brawl.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Ron blows fire from the end of his flute, the nozzle of the flame projector is clearly visible in one of the shots.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: At the end, the newsman in the bear pit loses both arms to the bear but you can see where he has his real arms tucked in the buttoned jacket, folded across his chest.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the Sex Panther cologne scene, many of the colognes and lotions are from the present day and not the 1970s.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the scene where the new female anchor is introduced by the station manager he says she is from Asheville, NC but gives the wrong call letters of the TV station. The correct letters are WLOS - TV13.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: In the scene after Veronica gets selected as the new co-anchor, the first newspaper spells her name "Cornerstone" and all the others spell it "Corningstone"
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene on the bridge, when Ron throws the burrito out the window, there are cars all around and the sky is orange and clear. But during the motorcycle crash, there aren't any cars around and the sky is completely cloudy.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the news team's pool party, there is one scene in particular when Ron jumps into to pool off the diving board. When he jumps he throws his glass of scotch. The glass is attached to some sort of wire because in the corner of the scene you can see it being pulled down to the water; it even hits the water before Ron does.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Ron throws the burrito out his car window, we see the fallen motorcyclist eventually slide to a stop. The burrito is shown smashed on the pavement; stationary and beyond where the motorcyclist stopped sliding, revealing that the burrito had been placed on the ground before the scene was filmed.
  
  
• Continuity: In the opening party scene where Ron sees Veronica for the first time, Ron has nothing but a small glass, and he finishes whatever drink he has in it. When Ron follows Veronica he never stops for anything but the first time he talks to her he has a full, large class with an orange slice on the rim and an umbrella in it.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In several shots of downtown San Diego's Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres can be seen. Petco Park opened in April 2004. During the 1970's the Padres shared then called San Diego Stadium with the San Diego Chargers.
  
  
• Continuity: Directly following the "Panda Watch day #5" report, as Ron Burgundy is reading his sign-off from the teleprompter, the words do not match.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: After the scene in which Brian and Ron are talking about Baxter being punted off the bridge, we see Ron running down the street to get back to the news station. As he runs into a man, we hear him say "I've got to do the news!" but his mouth clearly is not moving.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After Ron is fired, he walks down the street and is confronted by a few people. A little girl tells him off, and then continues to walk with her mom. That is, until she gets about 20 feet away, and turns around to run back to Ron. (Most likely, because this is Will Ferrell's daughter playing the child.)
  
  
• Factual errors: The channel 4 TV frequency used in the NTSC-M system goes from the 66 to 72 MHz. In San Diego, there's no channel 4 to avoid interference from KNBC-TV, which broadcasts in the same frequency. There's however, a channel 3 station in Spanish, but is Mexico-based; XHTJB 3, an independent public station.
  
  
• Continuity: During the scene where the fight between news teams is about to take place, the second news team arrive on bikes. When they are talking to Ron and his news team they have their bikes between their legs, which they push away so they fall to the ground. In the next shot the bikes are no longer there.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the scene after Veronica fills in for Ron, Garth lights a Cigar for Ed, however you can clearly see that the cigar hasn't been cut, making it impossible to smoke.
  
  

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