Ryan Murphy picks his American Horror Story favorites as the FX anthology series hits Episode 100

Entertainment Weekly

Murphy reveals his favorite AHS episode is the pilot of "Murder House." "The first, and always number one in my heart, for several reasons," he explains to EW. "One, Brad and I spent so long on it…years on the pitch, years on the script, until (FX CEO) John Landgraf and (co-head of 20th Century Fox TV) Dana Walden and (co-creator) Brad (Falchuk) and I got it to where we wanted. From rough idea to day one of filming took four years. It was a huge risk at the time, creatively and financially. Dana Walden 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. I remember John saying to me when I gave him the final pitch, 'Wait a minute…you’re going to burn down the sets every year and start over every season?' I said, 'Yes.' He paused and then said 'This scares me…but excites me, too. Let’s do it.' That first season sort of reinvented the anthological storytelling space that I loved as a kid and has ushered in a whole new way of MAKING television (creatively and economically) and I’m very proud of that." ALSO: Who has appeared in the most American Horror Story episodes?