With Halloween quickly approaching, we thought who better to turn to for costume inspiration than the characters of The Office?
It doesn’t feel right to celebrate the spooky holiday without paying tribute to the show that had the best Halloween specials on prime time. Jim Halpert’s lazy costumes and Dwight Schrute‘s, erm, creative ideas have become go-to costumes on October 31.
Although the iconic show ended in 2013, the Halloween costumes are just one cultural impact it had. John Krasinski gushed over the devoted viewership of the long-running sitcom.
“We literally owe everything to our fans. Our show was going to be canceled the first two years at NBC,” the Quiet Place director told Today in 2016. “And then iTunes came out, and people started buying the show for, like, $1.99. They were buying a show that they could see for free on Thursdays, which I think blew everybody’s brain at the network … That’s the reason why we stayed on.”
He continued, “Then we caught fire on our own way. So, every time someone comes up to me and says, you know, ‘Is it a bummer that you’ll only be known as Jim?’ I say, ‘First of all, being known as Jim would be the biggest honor for me, period.'”
Most of the 201 episodes portrayed the every day — and sometimes mundane — happenings around Dunder Mifflin, but the actors actually had a blast at their day jobs.
“I do sometimes [miss The Office] … I really miss collaborating with an awesome group of people — the writers were fantastic — and taking a scene and trying to bring it to comedic life,” Rainn Wilson, who played beet farmer Dwight, explained during an interview with NPR in 2018. “We always made sure that the scene kind of tickled us in some way.”
The Rocker actor admitted he doesn’t know if he’ll “ever have that experience again” with a project. “I remember early on, when we shot the pilot, we had lunch and Steve Carell did a little toast,” Rainn recalled. “He said, ‘You know, guys, this is probably going to be the job that we’re known for for the rest of our lives.’ And this was 2004. And all of a sudden, in season two, we started to take off.”
Needless to say, there are too many memorable moments to count. Scroll through the gallery below to see 15 of The Office characters’ best and most memorable Halloween ensembles.