15 Best Halloween Costumes In TV History, Ranked

We all have our favorite Halloween episodes of television — but what about our favorite costumes? After all, the most popular and widely beloved spooky detours on TV don't always have the best costumes. Even a swiftly canceled sitcom or the cold open of a mostly non-Halloween episode are capable of standing out by dressing their characters up for the season.

The best TV Halloween costumes aren't just good-looking. Sometimes they're a simple sight gag built on a pun; other times they're central to the episode's plot. They can even capture the cultural moment of a particular Halloween from years past. Most of all, they're a way to bring something deeper about a character outwards in a way regular old costume design can't. What we choose to be on Halloween says something about all of us — for these 15 (or so) characters, their costumes remind us of those quirks that make us love them in the first place.

"WandaVision" Episode 6 — "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"

"WandaVision" recently made the cut for our list of the best superhero Halloween episodes of all time, in no small part because of the episode's gratifying comic book-inspired costumes. Little Billy and Tommy Maximoff (Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne) wear costumes that signal their destinies as superheroes in their own right, while Evan Peters' "revived" Pietro dons a comic-accurate Quicksilver costume (a silly change of pace from the understated athletic wear Aaron Taylor-Johnson wore in "Avengers: Age of Ultron").

The centerpiece is the titular couple — in particular Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen), whose "Sokovian fortune teller" costume is a near-perfect recreation of Scarlet Witch's original comic book design from the '60s. The get-up foreshadows Wanda's evolution into the Scarlet Witch persona in the finale. Fans had been waiting nearly six years to see Wanda don her iconic crown, a look that "Age of Ultron" director Joss Whedon had previously said would never happen. The "WandaVision" team originally wanted to go for a less overt homage similar to that of Paul Bettany's Vision, but Olsen personally insisted on the comic-accurate headpiece. Her instincts were sound, as the look became one of the most memorable moments of "WandaVision" as a whole.

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Season 6, Episode 7 — "Who Got Dee Pregnant?"

"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fans had to wait a whole six seasons for the gang to go Halloween all over everybody's butts. The show didn't disappoint, delivering a fan-favorite whodunnit that ranks just outside our list of the best "Sunny" episodes of all time.

It's a pretty inventive Halloween episode, using a "Rashomon"-style structure to explore each member of the gang's drunken memories and determine who got Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson) pregnant. Conflicting recollections lead to the hilarious costume gag that is "Man-Spider." As we see in subjective flashbacks from Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Charlie (Charlie Day), the gang remembers Danny DeVito's Frank as having come to the Paddy's Pub Halloween party dressed in a grungy, low-effort Spider-Man costume (pictured above). Frank eventually corrects them that he came as Man-Spider, which is functionally an equally low-effort spider costume with a confusing spider insignia on the front.

Plenty of Halloween episodes evoke the embarrassment of wearing a costume nobody gets. Frank's Man-Spider hilariously flips the script in classic "Sunny" fashion.

"SpongeBob SquarePants" Season 1, Episode 13 — "Scaredy Pants"

Before the Flying Dutchman became a recurring character on "SpongeBob SquarePants," the beloved Nickelodeon series introduced us to a truly nightmare-inducing version of him. In "Scaredy Pants" (notably the first holiday episode of the series), SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) decides to dress up as the Dutchman after Squidward (Rodger Bumpass) manages to scare him at work.

SpongeBob's costume is, strangely, just a sheet with eye holes cut out, which predictably fails to scare anyone in Bikini Bottom. He comes to the conclusion that people don't think he's scary enough because of the shape of his head — so, naturally, he asks Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) to shave his head round. This leads to a disturbing reveal at the end of the episode that SpongeBob is now just a brain with eyes, allowing him to finally terrify everyone at the Krusty Krab — including the Dutchman himself.

The costume itself is a little uninspired. The reveal is a weirdly effective moment of cartoon body horror that makes it work anyhow.

"BoJack Horseman" Season 5, Episode 8 — "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos"

Leave it to "BoJack Horseman" to deliver a costume that's both a stupid pun and a surprisingly sad reflection of a relationship. In "Mr. Peanutbutter's Boos," the titular sad dog (voiced by Paul F. Tompkins) is taking his partner Pickles (Hong Chau) to a massive, annual Halloween party at the house of BoJack Horseman (Will Arnett). Over the course of the night, Pickles (and the audience) are taken back through three previous parties, each shedding light on one of Mr. Peanutbutter's relationships.

In 2004, his wife Jessica Biel (voiced by Biel herself) suggests that they should do a couples costume from the hit film "The Notebook," which had come out that year. Jessica shows up as Rachel McAdams' Allie, drenched in rain and ready for her fluffy Ryan Gosling — who, misunderstanding her intentions, shows up dressed as a literal notebook. The sad part is that Jessica actually handles the situation pretty well, even though it lays bare how clearly mismatched they are.

"Modern Family" Season 10, Episode 5 — "Good Grief"

"Modern Family" is one of the most Halloween-dedicated shows in television history, even if its early Halloween episodes aired every other season.

Suffice it to say, fans were thrilled when the show's airing would coincide with spooky season — which made it pretty big news in 2018 when a photo leaked of Eric Stonestreet as Cam, dressed up as Meghan Markle in the popular pink outfit she debuted earlier that year. Stonestreet's on-screen partner Jesse Tyler Ferguson took the leak in stride, posting a better photo of their Harry and Meghan couples costume himself. The season hadn't even started airing yet.

Halloween is the perfect opportunity for Cam's flair for the dramatic and Mitchell's dedication to detail to come together in harmony. The costumes are suspiciously accurate — almost to the point of breaking suspension of disbelief that these two weren't, in fact, dressed by professional Hollywood costume designers.

"Euphoria" Season 1, Episode 6 — "The Next Episode"

The costumes in the "Euphoria" Halloween episode are strangely controversial. What? "Euphoria?!" Controversial?!! We know.

Strangely, the controversy had nothing to do with the graphic sex, violence, or drug use that usually got people talking about the show. Instead, everyone showed up in obscure film-nerd costumes that felt less like choices their characters would make and more like Sam Levinson working through his own movie-inspired costume ideas. Honestly, it's one of the more charming "transgressions" of "Euphoria," and we're willing to allow it for Jules' (Hunter Schafer) costume.

Jules comes to the party as Juliet from Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film "Romeo + Juliet," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. (Contrary to popular belief, Zendaya's Rue is not Jules' Romeo — she's dressed as a character from the movie "Morocco.") The costume isn't sentimental, however. Some read it as foreshadowing (both for the episode and the series at large) that Rue and Jules are star-crossed lovers themselves, any relationship between them destined to fail.

"Stranger Things" Season 2, Episode 2 — "Trick or Treat, Freak"

Arguably no one on this list fought harder to earn the right to wear their costumes than the Hawkins boys from "Stranger Things." The start of the second season was all about slowly stripping away the characters' belief that the nightmare of the Upside Down was finally over. Will (Noah Schnapp) seemingly gets to enjoy a normal Halloween with his friends, thanks in part to their nostalgic and ambitious group costume — the Ghostbusters.

The production reportedly needed permission from Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd to make the costumes look as authentic as any '80s kid could've dreamed. (Aykroyd publicly pointed out that the party were basically a bunch of Ghostbusters themselves, making the costumes a natural choice.) "Stranger Things" takes itself more seriously than "Modern Family," however. Each of the outfits (and their slick-looking gear) was carefully constructed to look like it could've been handmade by a kid and their parents, with little differences in the four looks depending on the material they were able to source. The drama with Mike (Finn Wolfhard) trying to force Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) to be Winston, despite the latter showing up as Bill Murray's Venkman, gives the night some light tension that feels true to Halloween in 1984.

"Castle" Season 2, Episode 6 — "Vampire Weekend"

Perhaps the scariest thing a television actor can experience is a sudden cancellation. Nathan Fillion is no stranger to this terror. Before "Castle" met the same fate after eight seasons, Fillion got to poke a little fun at one of his earlier canceled shows while offering some unexpected fan service to its devoted audience.

At the beginning of "Vampire Weekend," Fillion's novelist-turned-police-consultant Richard Castle dons an old "Space Cowboy" costume that is, seemingly, Fillion's actual costume from the short-lived cult sci-fi series "Firefly." Castle is caught by his daughter, Alexis (Molly C. Quinn), who chides that Castle already wore the costume five years ago and should probably move on by now. Fillion had last worn the costume in the film "Serenity," which had been shot about five years before this episode aired in 2009. Oof.

Our pride aside, it's one of the most memorable openings from "Castle." And, ultimately, the joke's on Alexis — fans and Fillion not moving on from "Firefly" seems to have gotten us an animated revival.

"The Big Bang Theory" Season 1, Episode 6 — "The Middle-Earth Paradigm"

Love it or hate it, "The Big Bang Theory" was charmingly adorkable when it first started airing. We didn't yet know how quickly that "Bazinga!"-fied sense of humor would wear thin — and, in fairness, the brainiac jokes were more inventive in the early seasons. Case in point: Sheldon's Halloween costume in "The Middle-Earth Paradigm."

After all four guys accidentally dress up as the Flash for the same Halloween party, everyone changes costumes. Jim Parsons' show-stealing character returns as the Doppler Effect — the auditory phenomenon wherein a person perceives the pitch of an approaching object (say, a train with its horn blaring) as becoming higher the closer it gets to them. It's a creative and confusing costume that nobody gets, probably because it's hard to translate a sound to an outfit. The end result, inspired by wavelengths, just makes Sheldon look like a stylish zebra.

"Bob's Burgers" Season 9, Episode 4 — "Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street"

"Bob's Burgers" never misses an opportunity to celebrate Halloween. By Season 9, audiences were accustomed to the show's approach to costumes — they were usually punny sight gags rather than plot devices.

This is true for Louise's (Kristen Schaal) costume in "Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street." It probably wouldn't be all that memorable if it weren't built on such a perfectly stupid pun. The whole trio are home runs — Gene (Eugene Mirman) as Andre 3000 the Giant; Tina (Dan Mintz) as "Nun of Your Business." Louise delivers a grand slam as a Dragon with a Girl Tattoo, flipping the script on a movie she apparently hasn't even seen. Despite that being the start and end of the joke, it was such a fan-favorite costume that figure manufacturer Kidrobot made a statue of it.

"Friends" Season 8, Episode 6 — "The One with the Halloween Party"

"Friends" only ever produced one Halloween episode. The girls' costumes were mostly forgettable, but the boys showed up in some episode-saving Halloween outfits. Joey shows up as Chandler, while Chandler himself (Matthew Perry) is forced into a pink bunny outfit by Monica (Courteney Cox). David Schwimmer's Ross takes the cake with "Spudnik," a nonsensically nerdy costume that arguably paved the way for Sheldon's outfits in "The Big Bang Theory."

Everyone assumes he came to the party as poop. It somehow gets more humiliating when he has to explain the "pun," a combination of spud (a potato) and Sputnik (a historic satellite that was roughly 40 years old at the time). As embarrassing as this was, Spudnik became one of the best Ross gags in the series — Justin Bieber even showed up in full spud to the "Friends" reunion in 2021.

"Freaks and Geeks" Season 1, Episode 3 — "Tricks and Treats"

This is perhaps the costume readers are least likely to have seen before reading this list. Despite "Freaks and Geeks" famously premature cancellation, it remains more of a cult favorite than a mainstream hit. Despite only lasting a single season on NBC, however, its Halloween episode features a costume so iconic we had to include it.

When the geeks prepare to go trick-or-treating for the final time, Bill Haverchuck (a young Martin Starr) boldly decides to go all-out, donning a blonde wig and full business attire (with accessories) to embody Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman. While the comedy is meant to stem from the reactions Bill gets on his route, it peaks early on with his initial, wholehearted commitment to the persona. He not only nails the look, but spends a notable amount of time in the mirror pretending to be the '70s action hero — going as far as to reassure Steve Austin that not every part of her is bionic. It's weird, funny, and endearing, perfectly encapsulating the tone that made "Freaks and Geeks" such a unique show.

"Frasier" Season 9, Episode 6 — "Room Full of Heroes"

The only thing more Freudian than dressing up as your father for Halloween would probably be dressing up as Sigmund himself. Thus, as the definitive father-son sitcom, "Frasier" covered both bases.

Kelsey Grammer's character throws a Halloween party as Freud (his own personal hero, per the party's theme). His brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce), chooses to dress as their father, Martin (John Mahoney's character, dressed as baseball hall-of-famer Joe DiMaggio). It's initially a sweet and funny gesture, helped along by Pierce and Mahoney's perfectly mirrored performances and their shared enjoyment of getting under Frasier's skin. It turns sour when Niles begins to mimic Martin's worst habits, and ends the night using the costume to jokingly express his belief that their father isn't proud of them. Martin angrily sets the record straight, kinda ruining the evening for everyone — including, eventually, a group of trick-or-treaters who have to watch Freud-Frasier violently tear off Niles' Martin hairpiece. Talk about a headcase.

"Community" Season 2, Episode 6 — "Epidemiology"

The best Halloween episodes find inventive ways to make the costumes integral to the plot. Few do this as well as "Community" in "Epidemiology."

While the study group had several standout Halloween costumes, the best by a small margin is Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed's (Danny Pudi) "Alien" couples cosplay. Both costumes are impressively scrappy, immediately recognizable, and obviously cobbled together on a community college student's budget. There's also something quietly sweet about Troy going as Ellen Ripley without the episode making it about him being embarrassed by gender norms (all due respect to Bill). Instead, Troy ditches the outfit because the robot armor is obviously nerdy and — per Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) — repulsive to the women he's trying to talk to.

After a brief stint as "Sexy Dracula," he retrieves the armor to ward off the school's zombified horde. Hilariously, this moment of heroism is subverted by the zombies making short work of the cardboard armor. For a relatively safe pop culture reference costume, "Community" gets a surprising amount of fresh mileage out of it.

"The Office" Season 5, Episode 6 — "Employee Transfer"

In terms of its Halloween costumes specifically, "Employee Transfer" is the most underrated Halloween sitcom episode of all time. If you're struggling to remember it, it's because the holiday doesn't extend past the costume party in the episode's cold open. Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton) stuns the Scranton branch when he arrives at work in an eerily fitting cosplay of Heath Ledger's Joker from the then-recently released "The Dark Knight." Poor Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) angrily disrupts the praise to show that he, too, showed up to work as Heath Ledger's Joker. The open then buttons with Rainn Wilson's Dwight getting there late, also in full Joker garb.

The beats land as intended and are enough on their own to make for a solid "The Office" teaser. But what makes this episode such a gem in our opinion is how sharply specific it is to the cultural moment that was "The Dark Knight." Readers old enough to have gone to Halloween parties in '08 know that this was exactly the experience going in, similar to how everyone went as Darth Vader after "Revenge of the Sith" came out. While so many TV costumes become nostalgic references or memes, the three Jokers of "The Office" captured a specific Halloween moment that might otherwise have been forgotten. It's the standard every TV Halloween costume should aspire to.