 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of American Horror Story and to celebrate I thought I'd break down some of my favorite facts about the show but before I get into that I would just like to say that this video was made possible thanks to the support of my channel members and if you would like to become a channel member there is a join button below this video and you can join for as little as 99 cents a month and as a member you will receive early access to every video as well as exclusive videos every month and to those of you who are my channel members I just once again would like to give a very special thank you it really does help me out a lot also spoiler alert for American Horror Story as a whole so if you're not familiar with every season and you want to watch them spoiler free this may not be the video for you or go ahead and proceed with caution but with that being said let's just jump in with fact number one Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk began conceptualizing the series before their fox glee began production back in 2009 they wanted to tap into their shared love of the horror genre as well as work on something much darker than glee Murphy also cited the abc gothic soap opera entitled dark shadows that aired in the 60s as an inspiration for the tone of murder house other inspirations included rosemary's baby don't look now amityville horror and the shining once the pilot began filming in 2011 the location of the harman's home of horrors was chosen as a collegiate gothic style home in los angeles that was built in 1908 way back in the history of the house it was used as a residence hall and an administration building of a convent and more recently it appeared in the season four halloween episode of buffy the vampire slayer season one is synonymous with the murder house itself but the actual house in la was only used in the season's pilot and exterior shots with the rest of the episodes being shot on a sound stage that recreated the interior of the actual home the first season marked the first iteration of the now iconic title sequence which features clues regarding several plot points in the season the hole in the floor may represent the hiding spot of the infantata as well as the spot where violet harman's corpse was left to decompose the medical utensils and fetuses in jars represent the houses passed with charles mt gummary as well as bloody hedge clippers which may be more specifically referring to the black dahlia and the three skeletons that are seen could represent the three harman's that did not make it out of the house alive murder house has a handful of references to future seasons one being the roanoke colony which is mentioned by billy dean howard this obviously foreshadowed season six's roanoke but billy dean also mentions the antichrist bringing the end of times which is later explored in season eight's apocalypse in early development for season two ryan murphy and brad falchuk threw around the idea of setting it in a prison but after fox debuted their own show about alcatraz ryan and brad scrapped this concept and instead landed on the season taking place at an asylum for the criminally insane after his appearance in murder house modern family star eric stone street was cast for a role in asylum he was reported to be playing a serial killer who shares scenes with lana winters but the scenes were cut from the final season similarly actor chris zealka was initially cast to play a deaf character at bryer cliff however the actor was dismissed from the role after he refused to shave his head for his two episode arc the role was written out of the entire season as a result of this the iconic exterior for bryer cliff asylum is actually the orange county courthouse in california while the interior was painstakingly created by the show's set designers with the help from 50 to 60 carpenters at fox studios in los angeles like murder house asylums opening credits also have many hints regarding the season's plot the bloody gloves handling organs refer to bloody face a doctor suffocating a patient represents dr ardent's killing and reviving of his own patients and shots of a woman walking backwards upstairs and a demented statue of the virgin mary represent sister mary unis's possession by the devil the third season swapped filming locations from los angeles to new orleans louisiana making coven one of three seasons to not be filmed entirely in california along with season four's freak show and the upcoming tenth season which will still be primarily shot in california with some scenes shot on location in province town massachusetts coven introduced many iconic characters into the world of american horror story including frances conroy's instantly recognizable myrtle snow many attribute myrtle's iconic look to grace connington the creative director of vogue coven's title sequence is also packed with references to the season itself this shot of a girl surrounded by floating witches seems to represent zoe benson's arrival at robert chose and the image of santum huerte also known as the lady of the seven powers appears behind sarah paulson's name foreshadowing cordelia's destiny to master the seven wonders and become the next supreme and similarly lily rave's name is the only one to disintegrate foreshadowing misty day's death freak show marks the first of many times that an american horror story character makes an appearance in multiple seasons with pepper from asylum returning later in the season we get the return of sister mary unis from asylum as well due to the difficulty of filming the conjoined characters of bet and dot each scene with them in it reportedly took up to 10 to 15 hours to shoot the character was achieved by sarah paulson acting with a prosthetic second head then acting alongside pre-taped lines from her twin jessica lang regards her freak show character elsa mars as her favorite character she has played on the show and she considers freak show her favorite season before the fifth instalments theme was announced fx chief john land graff stated that the season would mark a huge reinvention for the show and when the theme was announced in february of 2015 the newest addition to the cast was revealed as none other than lady gaga in her first and only main role in a television show one of the main inspirations for the hotel cortez is the sassel hotel in los angeles the hotel and its real life counterpart interestingly tie in some threads from other seasons of american horror story for instance richard ramirez visits the hotel cortez in the fourth episode and the fictional character of the real life night stalker reappears in american horror story 1984 elizabeth short also known as the black dollia is involved in the haunting past of season one's murder house and the real life elizabeth short was allegedly seen at the sassel hotel just days before her death emma roberts was initially supposed to make her third appearance on american horror story for a guest role in hotel in connection to james patrick march towards the end of the season however her role was scrapped after she had scheduling conflicts with the filming of billionaire boys club hotel marked the last season with michael goy as director of photography and consequently hotel is the final season to be shot on film as everything moved to digital with ron oak ron oak is the only season to not feature an opening title sequence due to the attempt to make the season feel like a show within the show the first five episodes act as episodes of the fictional docu series my ron oak nightmare and the latter five act as episodes of a deadly reality show called return to ron oak three days in hell colt's title sequence features many representations of events that happened in the season with the b imagery representing the colt itself as well as men in hazmat suits carrying a coffin which could be references both to the gas that was dispersed in front of ali's home as well as the colt's murder of the couple by trapping them in coffins the dead dog could represent the colt's murder of mr guinea or the colt's planting of dead birds on ali's lawn despite vowing that her days on a hs were over jessica ling returned to the series in apocalypse to reprise her role of constance langdon in episode six returned to murderhouse and episode ten apocalypse then who are you i'm constance langdon and this is my f***ing 1984 marks the first season without evan peters or sarah poulsen however a hs alums emma roberts codie fern john carroll lynch and leslie grossman all returned as main cast members and finne wittrock leslie jordan dylan mcdermott and lily rabe also returned as guest stars or recurring characters 1984 marks the final season that aired in the decade that the show started with the first season beginning in 2011 american horror story is the longest running fx series that is still going well there you have it those are some of my favorite facts about american horror story feel free to share any of your favorite facts in the comments below if i missed any of your favorites like this video if you liked it and maybe we'll do another round of american horror story trivia before season 10 premieres later this year but thank you guys so much for watching and i'll see you next time