CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

American Horror Story: Murder House

first season of American Horror Story

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ689821 ↗
Source-derived summary

The first season of American Horror Story, retroactively subtitled Murder House, centers on the Harmon family, who, after dealing with a miscarriage and infidelity, move to a restored mansion in Los Angeles, unaware that the ghosts of its former residents and their victims haunt the house. The ensemble cast includes Connie Britton, Dylan McDermott, Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Denis O'Hare, and Jessica Lange.

Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk for the cable network FX, American Horror Story was announced in February 2011, with production commencing that April. The season was broadcast between October 5 and December 21, 2011, being produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Dante Di Loreto served as executive producer alongside Murphy and Falchuk.

Murder House generally received positive reviews from critics and drew consistently high ratings for FX, ending its cycle as the biggest new cable series of the year. The season was nominated for various industry awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama, and received a total of seventeen Emmy Award nominations. In addition, Lange won the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Primetime Emmy Award for her supporting role.

Cast and characters

Main

Connie Britton as Vivien Harmon

Dylan McDermott as Ben Harmon

Evan Peters as Tate Langdon

Taissa Farmiga as Violet Harmon

Denis O'Hare as Lawrence "Larry" Harvey

Jessica Lange as Constance Langdon

Special guest stars

Kate Mara as Hayden McClaine

Zachary Quinto as Chad Warwick

Charles S. Dutton as Detective Granger

Eric Stonestreet as Derrick

Recurring

Frances Conroy as Moira O'Hara

Lily Rabe as Nora Montgomery

Matt Ross as Dr. Charles Montgomery

Jamie Brewer as Adelaide "Addie" Langdon

Morris Chestnut as Luke Maxcy

Christine Estabrook as Marcy the Realtor

Alexandra Breckenridge as Young Moira O'Hara

Sarah Paulson as Billie Dean Howard

Celia Finkelstein as Nurse Gladys

Michael Graziadei as Travis Wanderley

Rosa Salazar as Nurse Maria

Teddy Sears as Patrick

Sam Kinsey as Beauregard "Beau" Langdon

Rebecca Wisocky as Lorraine Harvey

Guest stars

Adina Porter as Sally Freeman

Christian Serratos as Becca

Eric Close as Hugo Langdon

Malaya Rivera Drew as Detective Barrios

Brando Eaton as Kyle Greenwell

Alexander Nimetz as Amir Stanley

Ashley Rickards as Chloe Stapleton

Mena 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.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “American Horror Story: Murder House” as first season of American Horror Story. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where American, Horror and Story can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as first season of American Horror Story. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q689821. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “American Horror Story: Murder House”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow American Horror Story: Murder House primary sources, American Horror Story: Murder House archive and American research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “American Horror Story: Murder House”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “American Horror Story: Murder House” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.