When asked by Entertainment Weekly to name his favorite episode of “American Horror Story,” series creator Ryan Murphy went back to where it all began in Season 1.

Murphy remarked that the episode he treasures the most is actually the pilot. He said of the series’ very first episode, “Always number one in my heart, for several reasons.”

Once “AHS” became a hit, greenlighting spinoffs with increasingly bold ambitions became easy; however, Murphy fondly remembered the challenge of convincing FX to make the series.

Murphy recalled, “From rough idea to day one of filming took four years. It was a huge risk at the time, creatively and financially.”

He added, “Dana Walden (co-head of 20th Century Fox) has said to me [...] 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 pitched FX CEO Jon Landgraf the “AHS” anthology format, Landgraf said, “You're going to burn down the sets every year and start over every season?” Murphy said, “Yes.”