Brown Coat, or random frontier person. We talked to Shawna Trpcic, costume designer for Joss Whedon's shows Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible and Dollhouse. She's all about adapting easy-to-find materials — she cut up her own wedding dress to make Inara's ballgown in the Firefly episode "Shindig." Says Trpcic:

Thrift stores are a treasure source. You don't feel bad cutting something up to make it a-line or off center, to make it other-worldly. I love the "Towns" in cities - Chinatown, Little India, Thai-town — you can get amazing costume pieces for very little, [with] all the embroidery and beading. Crazy shoes, neat jewlery. The stores that supply "work" clothes are also great, for Amish, prairie, or cowboy. You can get thick pants, prairie dresses [or] patriot shirts. Again usually not very expensive. Then the planet you choose to be from will determine the make-up.

Random cyborg mutant. We got a similar answer from Ruth Secord, who's worked on a slew of TV movies including Threshold, Bugs, Terminal Invasion, and Encrypt. Go down to your local Army surplus store and "Value Village" type stores and look for random stuff that you can put together into a ramshackle survivor of the purge of humanity.
What you'll need: Scraps of rubber and leather. Pieces of chain mail. A pop riveter. Bits and pieces of electronics. Old Army uniforms.

Nerd Herder from Chuck. We talked to Augusta, aka burlesque performer Penny Starr, Jr., who works as a costumer on NBC's series about a nerd in an electronics store who gets the CIA and NSA databases plugged into his brain. And not surprisingly, Augusta suggests dressing as a member of the Nerd Herd, the team of computer fixers that Chuck belongs to.
What you'll need: "Black pants, white short sleeve shirt, grey tie and pocket protector."

Mork From Ork. The manic, happy-to-go-lucky, finger-drinking visitor from a crazy backwards planet, from the classic sitcom. He's due for a come-back, and I'm frankly shocked the Mork movie hasn't been announced yet.
What you'll need: Shaggy hair, vertical stripey suspenders, glue-on chest hair, and heaps of cocaine.

Steampunk person. Another suggestion from Augusta, the Chuck costumer. "There's nothing more 'in' these days than steampunk!" she says. For those who slept through the past two decades, Steampunk is about imagining an alternate Victorian era that achieved high technology (including cyborgs and stuff) powered by steam.
What you'll need: Victorian clothing. For men, a white shirt and fitted (not pleated) trousers. For women, a long, full skirt. Turn up your collar, and then buy a women's silk scarf and wrap it around your neck, with a knot, to make an ascot of sorts. Buy some goggles from the Army/Navy surplus store, and while you're there, ask if they have any gaiters, which are canvas leg coverings that go over your leg like spats. "Add a suit vest from the thrift store, and get a length of chain from the hardware store for your 'pocket watch' — buy a connector to clip it to the second to last button hole and connect the other side to your iphone!"

Bodypainted superhero. If you're bald and skinny, paint yourself silver and go as the Silver Surfer. (It may help to have a surfboard, also painted silver.) If you're a bit bigger, paint yourself green and go as the Hulk. (Or She-Hulk if you're a tall, buff woman.)
What you'll need: Bodypaint. And, if you're the Surfer, a surfboard and some silver paint.

Random Stargater: Our resident Stargate expert, Meredith, points out that the basic Stargate uniform is pretty simple — and very close to actual Army fatigues.
What you'll need: Basic Army fatigues. And a patch. You can be lame and just laser print it, or you can try and track down someone like this guy who makes the real thing. Ahh... just laser print it.

Off-duty Battlestar personnel. Particularly in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, the Galactica crew had a pretty simple uniform for when they were off duty. And yet it has the advantage of being pretty recognizeable, because who wears a tanktop over a T-shirt normally?
What you'll need: cream/tan-colored T-shirt, olive-green or dark green tank top, and green fatigue pants. Bonus points if you're female and have short blonde hair.

Col. Doctor Irina Spalko, from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. She's awesome and distinctive, but also quite simple. The only hard part is the sword, but you can probably use a toy for that.
What you'll need: A blue/grey jumpsuit, similar to what maintenance workers wear. Try your local thrift store and uniform supply store. Big black gloves, big black boots, and a big black belt with a gold buckle. (You can paint the star on it yourself.) And then there's that sword, which could totally be a toy, unless you can borrow someone's real sword. And finally, a shiny straight black wig with a bowl/fringe cut, which you can find in my neighborhood for $10. Boom, you're done.

Starman. This one's a suggestion from Annalee. Jack Knight takes over as the superhero Starman, the hero his dad invented, after his brother dies on the job. Jack spurns the spandexy costumes and big fins the original Starman went for, and instead goes with a simpler, but more kick-ass, outfit.
What you'll need: Black leather jacket, T-shirt, jeans. Big goggles. And you'll have to figure out a way to make your own power rod — Annalee suggests a broomstick with a globe attached.
Another T-shirty superhero costume: Captain Hammer, who just wears a black T-shirt and cargo pants. You just have to attach the trademark logo somehow, either by glueing it on or by getting it from a custom T-shirt store. (In my neighborhood, they have a two-hour turnaround now.)

And here's a bonus idea, that's a bit harder but still pretty doable:

Cassandra from Doctor Who. Okay, this one is a bit more ambitious, but not really as hard as it seems. Stay with me here. Cassandra is the self-proclaimed "last human," who's had so much plastic surgery that she's now just a piece of skin stretched across a frame. She's bitchy and fabulous, and always seems to be hatching plans to destroy all of the zillions of other people who could lay claim to being among the last humans.
What you'll need: A metal garment rack on wheels, some kind of thin tarp or flesh-colored plastic sheeting, some paints, a rubber brain, a glass tube, a white smock, white pants, some bandages, some goggles. What you do is, stretch the fake skin across the dress rack, and attach the brain to the base of the rack inside the jar, and paint eyes and mouth on it, plus maybe a few little veins. Then you dress in all white, with the goggles, and wheel "Cassandra" around. If you can throw your voice so it sounds like she's telling you to moisturize her, so much the better.

What Women Want. Mel Gibson is an immature ad exec who doesn't understand female consumers and is mean to rising exec Helen Hunt. Until one day, he learns to understand the women's point of view.
Scifi element: Gibson gets struck by lightning while wearing pantyhose, and gains selective telepathy: he can "hear" women's thoughts, but not men's. It's not ever really explained what happened.
Creepy subtext: Gibson steals Hunt's ideas, undermines her, and uses his new awareness of women's feelings to become the ultimate slick marketing weenie.
How bad is it? It's hideously painful and awful. The part where Mel Gibson narrates a Nike ad and everyone swoons made me queasy. Here's the trailer:

Shallow Hal. Jack Black is an immature lout who only values women based on their appearance, until a self-help guru puts a whammy on him to make him see women's inner beauty.
Scifi element: It's really not clear. "Life coach" Tony Robbins has some kind of telepathic abilities in this movie, and he's able to restructure Jack Black's brain significantly. It could just be hypnosis, but seems to go a lot further, since afterwards Hal can see people's "inner beauty." It's almost as if Tony Robbins is a telepath who imbues Jack Black with a mild form of telepathy of his own.
Creepy subtext: Well, Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit is sort of hard to take. But also she just "happens" to be the boss' daughter, which makes Hal's attraction to her awfully convenient.
How bad is it? It's pretty terrible, what with the fatsuitage and the whole "Tony Robbins has mental powers" stuff. It's the only unbearable Jack Black movie.

I.Q. Tim Robbins is an immature garage mechanic who falls for Meg Ryan... who's the niece of Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau). Even though Meg is engaged to Stephen Fry from Wooster & Jeeves, Einstein decides to get Tim Robbins together with his niece. This involves lots of Einstein riding on Robbins' motorcycle and screaming "wahooo!"
Scifi element: Well, Einstein's plan to help Robbins and Ryan get together involves inventing a fusion-powered nuclear spaceship and giving Robbins the credit for it. That way, Ryan will realize Robbins really has a good heart. Which makes total sense!
Creepy subtext: It's yet another movie about Meg Ryan being engaged to a smart guy, when you know she should really be with the dumb guy instead. That's, like, Meg Ryan's whole career.
How bad is it? I saw it in the theater (why?!) and had managed to repress it totally until just now. One whole side of my body is now having shooting pains reliving the trauma of watching this movie.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Luke Wilson is an immature guy who starts dating Uma Thurman, not realizing she's a superhero and a psycho. He really likes Anna Faris, and when he hooks up with her, Uma goes nutso on him.
Scifi element: Uma Thurman is a superhero, who gets her powers from a chunk of meteorite. And a supervillain played by Eddie Izzard somehow knows that the same meteorite can take away her powers as well.
Creepy subtext: Luke helps Izzard to remove Uma's superpowers, even though this will allow Izzard to take over the world and stuff. Because there's nothing more important than getting your ex off your back.
How bad is it? It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of like -1,000.

My Stepmother Is An Alien. Dan Akroyd is an immature scientist who falls in love with a woman and marries her in like two hours, not realizing Kim Basinger is really from another planet! But she may have to leave him and go back to her planet. Can true love triumph? And what about Alyson Hannigan and Seth Green? Will those kids ever get together?
Scifi element: Akroyd somehow zaps another galaxy with his super space telescope. Don't ask me how. And Basinger's mission is to get him to zap her galaxy again, before some ill-explained disaster happens.
Creepy subtext: In her quest to be the perfect wife, Basinger learns about sex from her purse, and then cooks a few dozen dinners at once for Akroyd and his daughter, Hannigan.
How bad is it? It's definitely one of the lower rungs on Akroyd's climbdown into the scary dark place of his career. Not quite Blues Brothers 2000, but close. Here's a clip:

Earth Girls Are Easy. A spaceship crashes in Geena Davis' swimming pool, and out come Jim Carrey, Jeff Goldblum and Damon Wayans. An entire movie based on a comedy song by Julie Brown.
Scifi element: Carrey, Goldblum and Wayans are furry aliens, who turn out to be shockingly handsome once you shave off all their fur.
Creepy subtext: Davis' character is sort of a loser until Jeff Goldblum swoops into her life.
How bad is it? It's pretty cheesy, but it's pretty much just an MTV-esque musical.

Virtual Sexuality. Justine is tired of being a virgin, so she goes to a virtual-reality salon... only to bring her ideal man into existence in the real world.
Scifi element: Justine enters the "Narcissus machine" at the VR salon, which is supposed to reshape your face and body into your ideal appearance, but she decides to create her ideal man instead. But there's a gas explosion while she's in there, and her fantasy of the ideal man comes to life. (As a hologram?) The inventors of the Narcissus machine want to capture this embodiment of women's fantasies, but he's too busy being a studmuffin.
Creepy subtext: Because the "ideal man" is created from Justine's fantasies, when he comes to life he's freaky and effeminate.
How bad is it? It has an average critic score of D. But it's sort of charming, judging from this fan music video:

Mork And Mindy Famous TV show about Robin Williams' alien who comes to Earth and falls in love with Pam Dawber, along with everyone at home. How long before this becomes a hideous movie starring Will Ferrell?
Scifi element: Mork is an alien. He can drink with his finger. After Mork and Mindy get married, they have a kid... who's born as an old guy, Andrew Sean Greer-style, and then ages backwards.
Creepy subtext: Well, Robin Williams' whole cute innocent man-boy schtick gets a little weird.
How bad is it? Parts of it are great, but it went downhill fast.

Groundhog Day. Bill Murray is an immature wretch of a weatherman who finds himself living through the same day over and over. I wouldn't have considered this a romcom, but it appears on several lists of the genre. He does fall in love and end up with Andie MacDowell.
Scifi element: Time travel, although it's never explained and may actually involve magic or karma or whatever.
Creepy subtext: Well, Murray tries to kill himself several times, and acts like a total asswipe to people once he realizes everything will be undone at the end of the day.
How bad is it? It's actually pretty great. Either this is the exception, or it's just not a romcom.

Famous names: Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Garry Marshall, Jonathan Winters

Crunchy goodness: 4

Stunt casting: Raquel Welch as the evil Captain Nirvana, wearing a baby-blue outer-space version of a Vegas showgirl outfit, complete with silver thigh-high boots.

Memorable product tie-in: Th e talking Mork rag-doll sells for $15-20 on eBay (out of its packaging.) There's also the intriguingly named "Rub'n'Play Colorforms set."

Life lesson: Humans are lying, cheating bastards, and it only takes one totally guileless person to unravel the fabric of society, and before you know it, we're running through the streets with a bloody human femur in our mouths.


Mork & Mindy Online