Let me begin by saying how nice it was to see the Today show team out in full Halloween regalia. Al Roker was Mr. T, Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee were the Flintstones, and, yeah, alright there were some other costumes, but, most importantly, Matt Lauer went as Pamela Anderson from her days on Baywatch. The man clearly loves to drag up, but we'll digress. The theme of their frippery was "classic" television characters, and hey, I'd never deny Matt Lauer his one public dress-up a year, but it seemed like their "classic" outfits were classically outdated, and this from the crew that once got Meredith Vieira into a Lady Gaga costume. Halloween each year is a chance for talk shows and celebrities to show off the best dressing-up fashions that money can buy — hell, it's a prime chance for us to see Matt Lauer as the most buzzworthy female celebrity of the moment. But the moment was totally lost. Is anyone else similarly disappointed that this was a missed opportunity to see Matt Lauer as Miley Cyrus?
Because, really, the media has delivered so many fun moments this 2013. (Miley, Breaking Bad, Spring Breakers, the list goes on... ) We wanted the Today show to keep it fresh, not fall back on costumes that would've been equally relevant when I was three years old. Sure, Matt Lauer in a Baywatch suit will get a laugh any day of the year, but I might have laughed harder if he had dressed up as a sexualized teddy bear. And yes, the ladies of the Flintstones are awesome and timeless, but going as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler when the Emmy nominees heckled host Neil Patrick Harris would've been so much more current.
But, in the meantime, we got to take a long hard look at all the things we left in the '90s that have now been done to death. So yes Matt, seeing you as Pam Anderson was totally wonderful, as one might expect it to be, but like... c'mon. Miley Cyrus humped a teddy bear this year, so someone needs to have a stern talk with the Today show stylist pronto. However, you can still enjoy this GIF of Matt Lauer dancing it out with Carmen Elektra, just because. Halloween really does bring out the best in all of us.
