All the costume reveals and best moments

From costume, wig and set designers to contractors, makeup artists and stylists, it's a proverbial village that helps bring an idea from inception to completion each year.

To get a better idea of ​​how it all comes together, TODAY.com spoke to some of the people behind this year's extravaganza to learn what's going on behind the scenes, starting with TODAY production designer Ed Helbig.

As a 22-year veteran of TODAY Halloween on the court, Helbig says each year brings its own unique challenges.

“The video library we just built was a big challenge, especially because we had less than a week to implement it,” explains Helbig. In addition, says Helbig, there are plenty of props available for rent, but a video store is not one of them.

Instead, the team had to purchase new store shelves and then convert them into the slanted displays typically found at a video rental store. Once the shelves were in place, Helbig said the next obstacle was filling them with old VHS movies.

“I did the math based on the width of the shelves and the width of a ribbon, and I ended up with about 300 ribbons,” he says, which they sourced from a prop rental store and eBay.

The team then filled the shelves and recreated the iconic video store look down to the last detail.

“The most important thing is how many hands are involved,” says Helbig. “I think people assume there's a small army, but they probably don't realize how many people it really takes to make a big show like this work.”

Making the TODAY costumes

Similar to Helbig, TODAY costume designer Staci Greenbaum says making Halloween costumes for the hosts and co-hosts comes with its own unique set of challenges.

For the VHS Rewind theme, Greenbaum says it was particularly important to get all the details just right.

“The biggest challenge is to pay proper homage to these costume designers who created such iconic looks,” Greenbaum tells TODAY.com.

“It's about giving credit where credit is due when it comes to recreating these costumes that people have come to know and love and that have become classics in their own right, so to speak.”

And it's not always easy, considering she's working with grainy photos and old films, which was the case with Dylan Dreyer's Lydia Deetz costume.

“It's really hard to tell from pictures or footage what she's actually wearing,” Greenbaum says of Lydia's all-black look. “But we try to make you feel like you’re in the ’80s and a little bit goth.”

What people may not realize is that most TODAY costumes don't come from a Halloween store, but are instead custom-made or custom-made for each of the hosts and co-hosts.

“To look like the character in the film, we have to be guided by two things: firstly, we have to be guided by the weight of the fabric, the level of construction, whether it is new, straight out of the box or whether we have put it to the test “To get it to the level that we need visually to see it,” she says.

The other one? “You have to take people's height into account,” Greenbaum says, adding that many of the TODAY anchors are actually quite tall, meaning most of the costumes have to be made from scratch, including Carson Daly's Austin Powers suit . “There are a lot of suits from the 1960s. “Will they fit Carson, who is 6 feet tall?” asks Greenbaum.

Of all the costumes this year, did Greenbaum have a favorite?

“Peter (Alexander) was fun to play Mrs. Doubtfire,” says Greenbaum, explaining that since the character was Scottish, Robin Williams had to pick up a lot of accents and details to get the character just right, right down to Peter's tailoring Tartan check skirt.

Design the hair

Like the set and costumes, the hair of the presenters and co-hosts is handmade by a team of designers.

Senior hair designer Jodi Mancuso has been on Saturday Night Live for 23 years and brings her Emmy-winning talents to TODAY's Halloween extravaganza.

“It's always fun because it's Halloween and everyone gets really excited when we get there, we dress up and everyone just has fun,” Mancuso said.

Each wig does not come ready-made in a box, but is handmade and takes between 40 and 60 hours to prepare. “This is just for us. “It takes most people over 80 hours to build wigs,” Mancuso explains.

Because the team is used to SNL's tight production schedule, they are able to accomplish a lot in a very short amount of time, which was necessary since this year, like most other years, the wigs had to be made in less than two weeks.

“I do this every week on SNL, so it was actually pretty easy,” she says. “It wasn’t anything too crazy.”

For this year's VHS Rewind theme, each member of the TODAY team needed a wig to get into character. According to Mancuso, Carson Daly's Austin Powers wig and Peter Alexander's Mrs. Doubtfire were among the more complicated, Jenna's Rose wig from “Titanic” required special dyeing, and Al's Beetlejuice look required moss for authenticity. All time-consuming.

Still, Mancuso says she enjoys the challenge. “It takes time, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Additionally, Mancuso says that whether she's working on SNL or the TODAY Halloween show, she loves seeing the results and is proud of each of the transformations.

“I experience the wigs and they can see themselves as these characters. So that's what's really exciting about it. We always have a good time and everyone is so wonderful.