Love Conjuration premiered in 1983 and quickly became a hit, with audiences tuning in weekly to see which zombie flesh-eater that week’s guest would pick to take on a date. The show’s concept was simple, and that’s probably why it did so well: a guest would watch a tape of three separate undead creatures–sometimes it was zombies, sometimes it was the tortured souls of sinners, other times it was Hell Beasts–and then appear on the show to pick one of the three to take on a date and to see which creature the audience thought was the perfect match for the guest.

Supposedly, host Chick Ghoulery was responsible for conjuring all of the potential dates for the show. He wore a black mage’s cloak on set and used a binding spell to keep the creatures from leaving their booths and killing the live studio audience. As a result, sometimes the back and forth between Chick and the guest was lacking. If it was a lesser fiend, like a zombie, Chick’s banter was lively, but if a Level 9 Hell General was one of the dates, he had to focus all of his dark magic on keeping them bound or else everyone in the studio would be dead.

A taped interview with each potential date would play and then the audience would make their selection. Once their selection was made, but not yet revealed, the guest would reveal who he/she picked from the three. Then they would discuss their date, detailing how each other was dressed, what they did, and their overall impressions of the evening. Sometimes these segments were difficult, especially if zombies were involved, because there wasn’t much talking, only moaning and hissing. Vampires were also tough, since they didn’t show up on camera. Hell Beasts were also problematic because they spoke only in whispers that sounded like fire crackling, so it was hard to know what they were saying.

Ultimately, if the audience and the guest picked the same date, it would be declared a “Conjuration Connection” and they would be sent on another date. If the audience and the guest picked different dates, then the guest would be allowed to go on another date with the person he/she picked or try out an all-expenses-paid date with the audience’s pick. Whichever dates were not picked were immediately sent back to a void to wait as prisoners until the next show.

The show ran for eight more years, which Ghoulery growing weaker and frailer each season. On the series finale, he lost control of his binding spell and a Hell Beast escaped into the studio, killing 58 audience members and crew and setting on fire Ghoulery’s bones while they were still inside his body. All that was found was his cloak (which was flame-retardant) and a pile of ash. Some say the Hell Beast ravaged the crowd because he wasn’t the audience’s pick, but later, it was revealed that there was a technical error and the audience did pick the Hell Beast, but his totals were accidentally attributed to the Sewer Snake.