Holland Taylor Says Netflix's 'Hollywood' Was An Anthology Series

At least when it was first being conceptualized.

Earlier this year, Netflix debuted the series Hollywood, a cotton-candy coated revisionist history of Tinsletown's Golden Era. In it, Ryan Murphy questioned the possibilities of the entertainment industry if it had centered and promoted marginalized folks, allowing them to live openly as themselves, and to obtain power while doing so. For it, Murphy revisited the tales of the largely closeted queer folks of years passed and gave them alternate endings.

The series was well-received with many immediately asking for a second season. Originally, Hollywood was billed as a limited series. Now, actress Holland Taylor, who was a part of the cast, is saying that as far as she knew, the original plan was for the project to have multiple seasons. 

"There was talk of it right from the beginning," Taylor told Deadline in a recent interview. " I think the original plan was — I have no idea, so I’m talking out of school somewhat — but the original conversation was that there would be a series about Hollywood. It would be an anthology, the same way that Horror Story is. It’ll be the same cast, but it would be a different story. It would be Hollywood, but it would be different characters."

The idea is one that has been previously floated by Janet Mock, who was an executive producer on the project. Mock said that doing it as an anthology series was a "similar vision" to hers. But Murphy has gone on the record to say that wasn't his original idea. 

 I’ve done these anthology shows like American Horror Story and American Crime Story, and this was not designed like that," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "This was designed to be seven episodes. That’s kind of what it is." Still, he's later said on social media "who knows? I sure do love this cast though," due to the show's popularity and nagging questions from fans. 

Still, even if that was a road he wanted to go down it could take a while to happen. 

"Obviously, Ryan is doing a number of shows at once, and now there’s the whole question of when productions can even happen," Taylor said. "The pandemic is determining so much, and getting into production for any show within this time period is going to be an amazing and major challenge. They have to break a lot of ground, and they have to figure out an awful lot of things. So, Hollywood wouldn’t even be going back into production. I have no answer for you."