Stay classy, er, Detroit? Meet Mort Crim - the 1970s Michigan broadcaster who was the inspiration for Anchorman's Ron Burgundy



They are both kind of big deals - wolverine voiced anchormen boasting suits so fine they make Frank Sinatra look like a hobo.



However, while the nation awaits the next installment of classy banter from Ron Burgundy in Anchorman 2, the inspiration for the legendary character is finally getting his dues.



Veteran Detroit broadcaster, Mort Crim, 78, whose struggles with his own female co-anchor sparked Will Ferrell to create Burgundy, will travel to New York for next week's premiere - where he will meet the cast for the very first time.

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Inspiration: The steady baritone of Mort Crim of Channel 4 in Detroit gives his news update - one of many that inspired Will Ferrell to create Ron Burgundy

Colleagues: Jessica Savitch was one of the first female news anchors in the nation and Crim was not very complimentary or supportive of her when she started alongside him at KYW-TV in Philadelphia - here they are in 1979 as firm friends

Indeed, Anchorman star Ferrell recently told the New York Times that his archaic, ego-bloated newsman is fondly based on Crim, who spend nearly 20-years on WDIV-TV in Detroit between 1978 and 1997.

Ferrell has gone on record to say that Ron Burgundy came into being when he watched a documentary about broadcaster, Jessica Savitch and her introduction to Crim while they worked in Philadelphia in the early 1970s.

See more classic TV moments at Eye On TV





Tensions: Ron Burgundy Will Ferrell has no intention of sharing the anchor desk with anyone, let alone a woman like Veronica Corngstone

Classic: 'Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy' - Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell and Will Ferrell will all reunite for this years Anchorman 2

Savitch was one of the first female anchors in television news and in the documentary Crim describes not being very nice to her, admitting he was a 'real male chauvinist pig'.



That inspired Ferrell to develop a script with his writing partner, Adam McKay, for what became Anchorman - a film about a sexist dinosaur who fails to see his new female colleague as an equal.



Crim is aware that he is the inspiration for one of the best-loved comic creations of the past 15 years and says that he is far from insulted.



'If you’re in this business any amount of time, you have to get used to the parodies,' he said from his retirement in Florida.



'And recognize there is a lot of comedy in every situation in life, and we’re certainly not immune to that any more than politicians are.'

Anchorman and presidential friend: Mort Crim with his wife (far left) and President George H. Bush and his wife Barbara

Describing how he discovered he was the inspiration for the character of Ron Burgundy, Crim admits that he has known for more than a decade.



'Back in 2003 (before the first Anchorman was released), Will Ferrell said something in an interview and later I saw it in print,' said Crim to USA Today.



'It was no big deal. But then a few months ago, someone working for Ferrell sent me an e-mail and said he wanted me to send a picture of myself to Ferrell.



'I autographed it: 'Will, you've almost got it. Just a little more authenticity please. Your friend, the real anchorman, Mort Crim.'



Ferrell was reportedly delighted and responded by inviting Crim to the movie’s New York premier - which Crim plans to attend.

Indeed, Ferrell told the Detroit Free Press he is going to give Crim a 'big kiss on the mouth, whether he wants it or not.'



To which Crim diplomatically replied, 'I'm just going to make sure my wife is standing in between us.'

Authoritative past and present: Mort Crim delivers a broadcast segment on the evacuation of US diplomatic personnel from Pakistan in 1979 (left) and (right) poses for a recent picture aged 78

In an interview with USA Today, Crim said that as far as similarities between himself and Burgundy go, he is not offended one iota by the Anchorman series.

While Ron Burgundy is an amalgamation of all stereotypical male chauvinist news anchors, Ferrell did pick out the specific example of the A&E Biography documentary about Jessica Savitch that inspired him to create the San Diego buffoon.



Crim met Savitch when they both shared anchoring duties at KYW-TV in Philadelphia in 1974.



Aged only 25, Savitch was one of the very first female anchors on television at the time and her arrival put Crim's nose seriously out of joint - a point that Ferrell hilariously sends-up in the first Anchorman movie.

'Was there some resentment about a 25-year-old, relatively inexperienced woman being brought in and plopped down in the anchor desk?' said Crim.



'I think that aspect of having someone with less qualifications primarily because she looked great on camera offended us more than her being a female.



'There's an element of truth, but I don't think it was sexism. Of course, that wouldn't make nearly as good a movie.'

Veteran Broadcaster Mort Crim with former General and US Secretary of State Colin Powell (left) and with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates

However, it was in October 1983 after meeting with Martin Fischbein, the then vice-president of the New York Post, Savitch left with him to return home after a meal in New Hope, Pennsylvania.



Because of terrible weather the pair took the wrong exit and found themselves veering off the top of the old Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.



Their car fell 15-feet into the shallow water of the canal into deep mud which prevented the doors of their station wagon they were driving being opened.



The pair died from drowning and Savitch became honored as a trailblazer for female reporters and journalists the country over.

Indeed, Crim read the eulogy at news colleague Jessica Savitch's memorial service, reflecting the fact the two had become respected colleagues of one another in the years since they first met.

Accomplished: Mort Crim with Tonight Show host Jay Leno while he was still hosting Channel 4's broadcasts out of Detroit

Born into an Illinois coal-mining town, Crim said that he became a broadcaster to 'give people in a democracy information to make good decisions.'

Crim anchored the American Information Network (ABC) program "News Around The World" in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as many other hourly newscasts.



He left Channel 4 News in Detroit in 1997 after beginning work there in 1978.



He continues to remain a keynote speaker at conferences and is the author of seven books and is currently writing his eighth.



A keen pilot, Crim undertook a solo flight of the United States in 2008, at the age of 73 and made the documentary, Flight Level Seven Four and Still Climbing about his achievement.

