Suvari as Elizabeth Short Alessandra Torresani as Stephanie Boggs Ben Woolf as Thaddeus Montgomery / The Infantata Episodes Production Conception Creators Murphy and Falchuk began working on American Horror Story before their Fox series Glee began production. Murphy wanted to do the opposite of what he had done previously and thus began his work on the series. He stated, "I went from Nip/Tuck to Glee, so it made sense that I wanted to do something challenging and dark. And I always had loved, as Brad had, the horror genre. So it just was a natural for me." 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. "You want people to be a little bit off balance afterward," he said. The dark tone of the series is modeled after the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows, which Murphy's grandmother forced him to watch when he was younger to toughen him up. He also cited Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now, The Amityville Horror, and Stanley Kubrick's version of The Shining as influences for the series. Murphy and Falchuk planned that each season of the series would tell a different story from the beginning. After the first-season finale aired, Murphy spoke of his plans to change the cast and location for the second season, while retaining some actors from the first, "The people that are coming back will be playing completely different characters, creatures, monsters, etc. [The Harmons'] stories are done." In February 2011, FX officially announced that it had ordered a pilot for a possible series from Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, with both Murphy and Falchuk writing and Murphy directing. Dante Di Loreto was announced as executive producer. Production on the series began in April 2011. In July 2011, FX officially announced the project had been given a series order consisting of 13 episodes. In August 2011, it was announced that Tim Minear, Jennifer Salt, James Wong, and Jessica Sharzer had joined the series as writers. Crossover with Coven (AHS: Apocalypse) On October 30, 2016, Murphy announced that a future crossover season of the series would continue the Murder House and Coven stories, merging their characters and themes. He did not state which season it would be but that he had already reached out to actors from both seasons to reprise their respective