Ryan Murphy's Favorite American Horror Story Episode Aired Way Back In Season 1

It is an entertainment truism that time and tedious repetition fade even the brightest flames of shows that were once hot novelties. I still remember how exciting it was when "American Horror Story" debuted on FX in the fall of 2011. It felt at once like the arrival of something new and the return of something familiar. 

Beyond the starry cast and the tantalizing premise, the most irresistible aspect of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's series was its anthology format. The anthology series wasn't anything new. It had been popular since the dawn of television — actually, especially around the time of the medium's invention. With theatrical forms like vaudeville and stage plays still in viable contention against cinema for mass engagement, many early TV series took the form of episodic stage plays, anthologized across seasons. Series like "Tonight on Broadway" and "Starlight Theater" were a hit with audiences in the postwar era, giving way to the anthology format's genre turn into smash hits like "The Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." 

The anthology series boasts several obvious appeals, from avoiding narrative stagnation to allowing for an infinite revolving door of luminous guest stars. But when "AHS" came around, there hadn't been a great anthology series on the air in some years. Plus, the great innovation that "AHS" introduced to the format was stretching stories over seasons, not mere episodes. 

The first season of "American Horror Story," entitled "Murder House," was an overnight smash, winning FX the best pilot ratings in the network's history. It's no wonder that when asked by Entertainment Weekly to name his favorite episode of the series now on its 11th season (arguably 12th, if you count "AHS: Double Feature" as two seasons in one), Murphy went back to where it all began.

"Murder House" tells the story of the Harmon family — mom Vivien (Connie Britton), dad Ben (Dylan McDermott), and daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga). After being rocked by a tragic miscarriage and a nasty infidelity revelation, the Harmons move into a gorgeous old home that proves to be teeming with spirits. Jessica Lange played the boozy belle neighbor Constance, Evan Peters played an edgy ghost in an Edward/Bella-core situationship with Violet, future household names like Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe were in the mix — with its self-conscious pulp and sincere desire to shock, "Murder House" was truly one of a kind.

Murphy remarked to Entertainment Weekly that his favorite episode of the franchise is the pilot — "Always number one in my heart, for several reasons." Once "AHS" proved to be a hit, greenlighting spinoffs with increasingly bold ambitions became easy. But Murphy fondly remembered the challenge of convincing the folks at FX to take a chance on their passion project:

"From rough idea to day one of filming took four years. It was a huge risk at the time, creatively and financially. Dana Walden (co-head of 20th Century Fox) has said to me several times it was one of the most out-of-the-box ideas in the history of modern television, and I think she's right." 

When Murphy presented FX CEO Jon Landgraf with their twist on the anthology format, he recalls him saying, "'Wait a minute ... you're going to burn down the sets every year and start over every season?' I said, 'Yes.'" The rest is television history. Fans of the series know that it's had its share of wild ups and downs. And though the TV landscape is populated with quite a few series clearly indebted to it, there will always and only be one "American Horror Story."