The most confusing part of your childhood...

You may not know this, but I know the most confusing and disturbing part of your childhood. No, it's not the awkward sleepovers at your uncle Ted's studio apartment or the grabby clown from your 4th birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. It's the fact that there were TWO different Ghostbusters cartoons that aired on Saturday mornings. One was called The Real Ghostbusters and was based on the 1984 movie starring Dan Akroid and Bill Murrey. The other was simply called The Ghost Busters with a similar plot, but very different characters and (for some reason) a gorilla. After staying up all night playing The Legend of Zelda and eating an entire box of Blue Raspberry Blowpops from the Price Club, watching these two cartoons sequentially would make your nose bleed as your body welcomed a soothing epileptic seizure.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, I can now explain to you the reason why and perhaps you can shake the childhood psychological trauma this paradox undoubtedly caused you (in addition to this). The story actually begins in the mid 70s before you were born when gas was expensive and the economy sucked (creepy). A firm called Filmation had a one season, 15 episode flop called The Ghost Busters where two guys and a gorilla drove around in an old Studabaker and hunted ghosts. Obviously, this was not the kind of show that one would build a career out of.

Following the SNL inspired blockbuster hit move The Ghostbusters, Filmation sued Columbia pictures over the naming rights and they settled out of court with the help of a shyster lawyer. Columbia proceeded to name their cartoon show The Real Ghostbusters to directly distinguish it from the Filmation show. Additionally, to capitalize on the movie's success Filmation created it's own cartoon series with a very similar name and made WAY more money than the original series.

So now you know why you always cried at the sight of Santa Claus and you still sleep with a night light. And tell your therapist to address her thank you cards to Hallmark Entertainment, who now owns the rights to most of the Filmation back catalog.