Entertainment

Halloween 2013: What the 'Pretty Little Liars,' 'New Girl' Casts Dressed Up As

Every Halloween, it becomes very obvious that TV needs a new Roseanne. The ABC sitcom, which just celebrated its 25th birthday, took Halloween very seriously, and each year's special episode featured amazing costumes, gross pranks, and a sense that the cast and crew really went all out to entertain their fans. What show now gets us as excited about Halloween?

Unfortunately, there isn't one that decided to take the reins. Friends owned Thanksgiving, The O.C. created Chrismukkah, and The Office always had a great Christmas party, but we're still waiting for a show to make Halloween its own. Instead, we're left with series forced to find ways to vaguely hook their plots to the spooky holiday by forcing their characters to Halloween parties.

That said, we can still enjoy these episodes on a surface level. Because, admittedly, the costumes can be pretty great. Since TV characters have unlimited budgets and the creativity of an entire writing (and costuming) staff behind them, get-ups are almost always clever, true-to-character, and really great-looking.

So, click on to see some of the best costumes worn this year by TV characters. Just remember that they'll never top Roseanne's. And to any TV writers out there, the Halloween throne has been vacant for 16 years — just saying.

Image: ABC Family

'New Girl'

This year, the writers of New Girl definitely take the prize for most creative use of a Batman costume. The episode's two storylines — Jess' Halloween party and a depressed Schmidt reconnecting with his childhood pseudo-therapist Michael Keaton (yeah, it's weird) — collide in honor of the actor formerly known as Batman. Jess goes from Joey Ramona Quimby to drunk Batman; Nick dons a homemade Batman mask before changing to trash man, his own creation; Schmidt is a public serpent; and Winston is David Letterman, because apparently he thinks they look exactly alike.

Image: Fox

'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'

This season's best new comedy really delivered with its Halloween episode, which found Peralta in a bet with the Captain, Halloween-hating Santiago in a low-key skeleton costume at a warehouse party, and Boyle dressed as a barely recognizable Mario Batali. Though no one else puts their costume on until the end of the episode, it's worth the wait to see Peralta as (what else?) a king, and the Captain wearing just a simple eye patch. And he still manages to have the most intimidating stare in Brooklyn.

Image: Fox

'Pretty Little Liars'

This Halloween, the girls' costumes were all themed and coordinated, thanks to a Ravenswood event. In "Grave New World," the town is having a Founder's Day Celebration, and so Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer all don early 20th century attire for the festivities. It's Pretty Little Liars, so of course every outfit is stunning, authentic, and perfectly flattering on the girl wearing it.

Image: ABC Family

'Super Fun Night'

At least Rebel Wilson's disappointing sitcom had some fun with its Halloween costumes. When Wilson's character wants to impress the guy she likes at an office Halloween party, she decides to dress up as Elvira. He's either impressed, afraid, or mesmerized by, well, ya know...

Image: ABC

'Hart of Dixie'

Speaking of The O.C., it would've been amazing if Rachel Bilson had dressed up as Wonder Woman on Hart of Dixie, for old times' sake, but there's always next year. And because Bilson is always adorable, she looked great as Cleopatra, especially with Joel at her side as a gladiator.

Image: The CW

'Trophy Wife'

Another new ABC comedy, Malin Akerman's Trophy Wife, had some fun with Halloween when Kate had to spend the holiday, as usual, with her husband, his ex-wives, and his kids. She ends up wearing a decidedly unsexy centaur costume, while her husband is a hung jury, ex-wife Jackie is Queen Elizabeth, Diane is a gargoyle, and one of the kids, Bert, gets a last-minute Iron Man costume.

Image: ABC

'The Neighbors'

The Weavers definitely earn some points for creativity, as they not only had an epic family costume, but managed to combine Halloween and Chanukah into Challoweenukah — though I think we should leave combined holidays to The O.C.'s legacy. Still, is there a better multi-person costume than a BLT? Though I imagine there could be pretty vicious fights over who gets to be the bacon.

Image: ABC

'The Goldbergs'

Did you guys know that The Goldbergs is set in the 1980s?! In case you somehow couldn't tell, the Halloween episode should've been a pretty big clue, considering one character dressed up as a Rubik's Cube. No one else has particularly interesting costumes, which seems like a missed opportunity for a show so obsessed with its decade.

Image: ABC

'Last Man Standing'

ABC got really into Halloween this year, with almost all of their comedies having a themed episode, but Last Man Standing definitely finishes, well, last in the creative competition. In the show's defense, the episode is set around a PTA-sponsored haunted house, but Last Man Standing still could've done a better than feature generic costumes like Frankenstein and a witch.

Image: ABC

'The Millers'

The Halloween episode of The Millers isn't airing until Thursday night, but, based on this preview photo, it looks like Will Arnett will be dressing as a pinata. I would've recommended magician — I mean, illusionist — but this isn't too bad either.

Image: CBS

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