Sunday, October 12, 2014

From Pregnant Aliens to Geriatric Gargoyles: Our Favorite ‘Modern Family’ Halloween Costumes

From corpse couples to two "Fantasy Island" icons, the “Modern Family” costume department goes all out when it comes to Halloween. Currently in its fifth season, the holiday lovin’ ABC sitcom has produced two Halloween episodes -- Season 2’s “Halloween” and Season 4’s “Open House of Horrors” – but they’ve included more costume changes than a Cher concert.

For the Season 2 episode alone, Haley (played by Sarah Hyland) paraded around in three different Halloween costumes. Of course, that was because mom Claire (Julie Bowen) demanded that she change out of her first getup: a super skimpy sexy black cat outfit. The teen then came out dressed as a sexy nurse, and when that idea didn’t go over so well (“Are you trying to get candy or Japanese business men?” Claire snapped), she transformed into a sexy…Mother Theresa?
“What?” Haley said. “I’m her back when she was hot!”


In the 2010 episode “Halloween,”  Claire’s over-the-top haunted house may have allegedly  given a man a heart attack, but it also came with an array of cool costumes: Gloria’s evil village bruja (or she could just call it a witch), Jay’s geriatric gargoyle, Luke and Manny’s mad scientist and Frankenstein team,  and Phil and Claire as the walking dead.

“Claire and I are going as Corpse bride and groom…as if there’s any other kind,” Phil (played by Ty Burrell) said. “I’m saying that because marriage kills you." That same episode featured Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) sporting a Spider-man costume at his Halloween-friendly law office, only to be told later that only the biggest “tools” at the firm actually show up in costume.


Last year, Cam (Eric Stonestreet) and his daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) channeled the 1970s TV series "Fantasy Island" when they dressed up as Mr. Roarke and his sidekick, Tattoo. Of course, this costume change came after a bulky bull costume arrived instead of the slimming matador costume Cam ordered. That’s no way to show off a 32.4 pound weight loss, so he whipped out the white suit for a tribute to TV’s most mysterious island proprietor.



After scaring the beejeezus out of the neighbors the previous year, Claire toned things down with a Little Bo Peep costume and lollipop lawn ornaments. But when her nursery-rhyme themed getup got no reaction, the horror loving housewife couldn’t help herself: It was time to break into Zombie Bo Peep. Still, the scariest costume had to be Gloria’s pregnant alien outfit. Or maybe it was the pregnancy hormones that made her so terrifying.



Some of the “Modern Family” cast members have listed the Halloween episodes as their favorites of all time. Sofia Vergara told Glamour, “I love the Halloween episode from [2010]—we were all in costume. I mean, every time I would see Ed O’Neill dressed like a gargoyle, I couldn’t stop laughing. It was too much.”

And Jesse Tyler Ferguson told the Los Angeles Times, "The Spider-Man scene from the Halloween episode was my favorite to shoot thus far for the sheer fact that I was scaling down a wall in a Spider-Man costume. I will never in my life be cast in a movie where I am able to wear a super-hero costume and perform my own stunts. It was like I got to live a dream for a day."



The “Modern Family” characters may love crazy Halloween costumes, but some celebs would rather dress up like a “Modern Family” star. Last year, Ellen DeGeneres donned a sparkly green Zuhair Murad gown exactly like the one Sofia Vergara wore to the 2012 Emmy Awards and paired it with a long, brunette wig. The comic told her talk show audience: "Muchas Gracias everybody, Muchas Gracias, Hola! My name is Sofia Vergara. I am easy breezy beautiful Cover Girl from Colombia. Happy Halloween. As you can see, I put my pumpkins out.”



Photo Credits: ABC Television Network

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