Pilot (American Horror Story)

Plot

In 1978, Twins Bryan and Troy arrive and enter an old mansion, despite a young Adelaide warning them they would die. The boys threaten her and proceed into the house anyway. They

In 2011, Vivien and Ben Harmon move to

Vivien meets next door neighbor Constance and her daughter Adelaide who has Down syndrome. Vivien also re-hires the elderly maid Moira O'Hara who appears to be a young, seductive maid to Ben. The same night, Ben argues with Vivien, trying to apologize for his infidelity. Afterwards the two have sex.

On her first day of school, Violet is harassed by Leah and her friends, who later fight Violet. Ben begins therapy sessions with a possibly psychotic boy named Tate, who begins a relationship with Violet. To help Violet with her bullying problem, he suggests scaring Leah in the house. Ben finds Moira

Meanwhile, Violet tricks Leah into the basement by saying she has

The next day, Ben sees the man from the previous day, who introduces himself as Larry Harvey. Larry tells Ben that he killed his family by setting them on fire, and warns him that if his family doesn't leave the house, they will die. Ben declines and tells him to stay away from him and his family. Vivien later tells Ben that she's pregnant. Ben hugs Vivien after hearing the news, waiting to finally start over again as a happy family.

Production

Conception and development history

Series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk began working on American Horror Story before their Fox series Glee began production.^[1] Murphy wanted to do the opposite of what he'd done previously and thus began his work on the series. He stated, "We're doing some squeaky clean, sweet, optimistic, non-cynical piece, I wanted to do something that sorta tapped into the different side of my personality."^[1][2] Falchuk was intrigued by the idea of putting a different angle on the horror genre, stating that their main goal in creating the series was to scare viewers. He said, "You want people to be a little bit off balance afterwards."^[3] The dark tone of the series was influenced by the 1970s ABC soap opera Dark Shadows, which Murphy's grandmother forced him to watch when he was younger to toughen him up.^[4] In addition, the series draws inspiration from classic horror films such as Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.^[5]

In February 2011, FX officially announced that it had ordered a pilot for a possible series from Murphy and Falchuk, with both as episode writers and Murphy as director.

Casting announcements began in March 2011, with Connie Britton first to be cast, portraying female lead Vivien Harmon.[9] Britton stated that she took a risk in taking the role of Vivien. When Ryan Murphy presented the role to her he said, "This is something we've never seen you do before. It will be turning what you've just been doing on its ear." She was intrigued by what he had presented her and ultimately decided to take the part.^[10] Denis O'Hare joined the cast in late March as Larry Harvey.^[11] Jessica Lange joined the cast in April as Constance, marking her first regular role on television.^[12] Lange was attracted to the role because it didn't require a 22 episode commitment. "That was huge for me!" she said. "I wasn't about to commit to, you know, six months. It was cable, rather than network...I've been offered network [shows] before, and determined not to do it, just because I can't make that kind of time commitment."^[13]

Dylan McDermott was cast as the lead, Ben Harmon, in late April 2011. His character was initially described as "a handsome and masculine but sensitive therapist who loves his family but has hurt his wife."^[14] McDermott stated that he wanted to do the role to break away from his previous role as Bobby Donnell in the ABC series The Practice. "This was exactly why I wanted to do this show – to change it up and do a different kind of character," he said. "People think of me as the guy from The Practice...I wanted to turn that [notion] on its head and hopefully I'm doing that [with this show]."^[15]

In May 2011, Taissa Farmiga and Evan Peters were the last lead actors to be cast, portraying Violet Harmon and Tate Langdon, respectively.^[16] Farmiga said that she loved Violet "immediately" and that "she had spunk to her, she had attitude."^[17] Ryan Murphy has described Tate as the "true monster" of the series, adding, "To Evan's great credit and the credit of the writers, I think Evan's done an amazingly difficult job making a monster sympathetic."^[18]

The pilot episode was shot on location in a house in

As part of the promotion for the series, FX launched a "House Call" campaign, in which viewers at home could sign up and come face-to-face with a character from the series.[22] Prior to the series premiere, FX released several clues to shine light on the series. They were offered on the show's official YouTube channel. Ten clues were released, entitled "Cello", "Baby", "Couples", "Coffin", "Lying Down", "Fire", "Stairs", "Melt", "Red Cello" and "Rubber Bump".^[23]

Reception

In its original American broadcast, the premiere of American Horror Story was seen by an estimated 3.18 million household viewers and gained a 1.6 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to