As I'm very passionate about the shows history, I was intrigued as to what regular viewers thought of the Slaters up on their arrival in 2000?

1998-2002 was undoubtedly the peak of EastEnders, and the Slater's arriving smack bang in the middle played a big part in this. Even though there had always been new characters, and the likes of Mel, Steve, Jamie and Lisa gave EE a huge revamp back in the late 90's, I imagine the Slaters would have been a shock to viewed as there had never actually been a big family with so many fiesty females arriving on the show at once.

After a really successful 15 years with great characters, such as Grant and Tiffany, Den and Angie, etc... There were many complaints suggesting a lot of viewers hadn't warmed to the Slater's and found they dominated the screen.

I've been watching a lot of their early episodes on Dailymotion, and I seem to find they were great in 2000 and 2001, but did grow a bit tired around 2002 time.

Are there any long term viewed who would like to offer their insight? I've always found the love/hate divide on here towards the family quite amusing.

I didn't have any strong opinions on most of them either way when they first arrived, although I loathed Kat for ages before she eventually became my favourite of the original bunch.

They got off to a rocky start like the Battersbys in Corrie. I remember criticism that the contrast between Ethel's funeral and their rowdy arrival didn't work.

Rough as old boots 😱. It didn't take me long to start enjoying them. Kat soon proved to be the star of the family. Had a soft spot for big Mo as well.

They were the breathe of fresh air the show needed - a big family of adults with so many secrets and lies between them. There was no way they weren't going to be TV gold if I'm honest.

It took a while for them to fit in though - they weren't the usual type of EE characters (believe it or not) and it's a bold move to bring in so many (in their own ways) strong minded and independent women in one go.

In the few years leading up to their arrival, EE had lost a lot of its popular females - Tiffany, Bianca, Kathy, Cindy etc - so the Slaters filled the gap so to speak. I also liked how they just moved them onto the square, without any of them being introduced first. I just loved Kat from the start though - the star of the family.

It's funny to think now, but with 2 years they became the biggest family on TV and created some of the most iconic moments in British drama and became the stuff of EE legend.

The Carter introduction I feel tried to emulate what the Slaters achieved, but unfortunately the individual members didn't really have any ongoing problems that they brought with them (unless you count Stan, who was a gift of a character for the family) - and whilst it's nice to have a relatively normal, honest family on the square, the Carters fail because they don't really have any baggage to draw upon.

Loved them a lot and enjoyed all the story-lines.

I miss them a hell of a lot

Would love a slater reunion one day.

I loathed them all, especially Kat, embarrassingly (well at least on DS) it was Alfie Moon that made Kat lovable to me anyway

I can't quite remember but I've always loved Kat and I hated Stacey when she first joined but now she's one of my favourites!

I seem to remember viewers hated them at first, same with Stacey when she arrived, but after a few months opinion changed massively and they soon became favourites among a lot of viewers. Eastenders will never be as good as it was back in the late 90's and early 00's, those days were brilliant.

I wasn't the biggest fan of any of them at first, especially Kat, I couldn't stand her!

I did however warm to them and loved their storylines and Kat became my firm favourite and I cheered when she and Alfie got together and I still love and miss them even now!

I loved them especially Stacey and Kat, I remember looking at what Stacey was wearing and trying to copy her look she used to wear some really nice jacket's

I remember liking Kat but not really liking any of the others when they first arrived. It didn't help that they were *everywhere* for their first few months either. It really was Slater Central. Little Mo even got involved in the Frank/Pat/Peggy story by finding the fateful confession letter and giving it to Peggy.

EastEnders viewers weren't used to such a large family made up of rather loud/brash characters all descending on the Square at once, so I think that's why they didn't get a good reception at first. I even remember people speculating that they would all be killed off in a house fire However there seemed to be a big turnaround in opinion and within a year they were hugely popular.

My only concern was their was too many members but whilst they were involved in many storylines it never felt either forced or shoved down our throats (see the Carters for both of these).

It seems the characters were all well thought out in advance apart from Lynne who just served tea at the caff.

By 2005 they had run out of steam particularly Little Mo. And Kat got the perfect ending and should never have come back

so SLaters 2000-05 - 10/10
Slaters 2006-2016 - 0/10

I'd argue Kat was the biggest character of EastEnders that decade. Like Den in the 80's and Grant in the 90's, she defined 00's EE.

The first half of the decade, yes. Although Sharon was also very prominent in the early 00s as well.

The late 00s were dominated by Stacey and Ronnie.

I remember there being a fair few complaints about them initially. People claimed that all they did was SHOUT. A part of the problem was that their early introduction focused a lot on Big Mo and her cliched feud with Pat. There was even an absolutely cringeworthy Western-style standoff between the two in the Square early into their tenure - that was a real low point. But once the undeniably excellent Kat/Zoe and Little Mo/Trevor storylines got going, they quickly became an excellent family and a hit with most of the viewers.

I think that's what put me off them straight away. They seemed to be everywhere all the time, then Kat and Mo's stories exploded and I loved them, particularly Kat.

I felt physically sick.

Well it's inevitable really.

Back then, the cast was spot on. You had the likes of the Slater family, Phil/Mel/Steve/Lisa/Dan/Janine, Pat/Peggy/Pauline/Dot/Frank, and originals like Ian/Sharon/Mark/Nick. Plus the storylines and the writing/continuity were 10x better.

She was a great addition to the somewhat burned out Slater family in 2004. When Kat, Little Mo and Zoe left, it was a shame, but I think the producers did a really great job with the Stacey, Jean, Sean, Charlie and Mo set up. It gave them a breath of fresh air and they were a huge part of the Santer era.

I disliked Kat and especially loathed Stacey who funnily enough I've grown quite fond of since her return this time.

I was intrigued by them all.
I loved the girl gang vibe of the sisters Lynne, Kat, Mo and Zoe arriving en masse, with the put upon father Charlie and matriarch grandmother Mo. It is interesting to see how Big Mo was written and played differently in the beginning, to how she was much later on.

I could see early on, some great storylines were developing, but I never expected the Kat/Zoe story until Kat said it to Charlie on Zoe's 18th birthday. This was a time shortly before spoilers were everywhere, so that to me was a big OMG moment. Kat was my favourite, I could see of all the sisters hers was the biggest story and that Jessie Wallace was a bona fide soap star in the making.

Little Mo and Trevor's story gripped me from start to finish.
One of the most amazing EastEnders episodes of 2001, was New Years Eve when Mo clobbered Trevor with the iron. This was one big story, packed into an episode that also featured Phil Mitchell throwing his weight around over Mark and Lisa Fowler's cover up that Baby Louise was actually a Mitchell. The episode also featured the iconic across the bar row between Peggy and Pauline "Strawberry blonde at 70!"

Yet, the Slaters were front and centre. The scenes between Lynne, Kat and Mo were fabulous and they had such a great onscreen chemistry.

I think the Slaters success inspired the McQueen family in Hollyoaks, in their original form. And true enough, they too were a huge success for Hollyoaks.

Families arriving en masse doesn't always work, but I think they got it right with the Slaters. The writing was good, the characters were interesting, they were loud, feisty and really like them or loathe them, it was never a dull moment.

I was a kid at the time but my grandparents hated them.

I don't remember having any real feelings, positive or negative about them.

I remember sensing that EE felt their arrival was a big thing from the tailor made trailer (ie not clips and also not ordinary people chatting about the show with the "everybody's talking about it" tag) and that Kat was signposted as the 'star' from the start. I remember commenting to my Mum "the one we are obviously meant to think is the prettiest" re her flirting with Steve Owen. Also them being introduced on the day of Ethel's funeral - it did seem to herald a new start for a new decade, as the Mitchell's had in 1990.

But, we'd had the Di Marcos only a couple of years before, the Tavernier before that. I was used to big families coming in with a fanfare and not doing so well so concentrated on other characters really.

It was probably about 4 months in, when we had Mo and Kat deliver Bex and then the reveal that Kat was Zoe's Mum (which i guessed a week before when they mentioned for the first time that Kat was 31 and Zoe was nearly 17 and I went - 'she's her Mum, that's why she is being funny about the party") that they got interesting.

It was probably about a year in that i felt that as much as i liked them, they were dominating at the expense of other characters and EE is an ensemble show, not the Slater Show.

Unfortunately this one family domination is something that has continued ever since.

I was very happy when the Slaters arrived. As I am happy when a new family arrive. However the Slaters introduction was so perfectly done that all of the family members had big and gripping storylines within a year of their arrival, such as the Kat/Zoe revelation, Little Mo's domestic violence story, Lynne and Gary wanting a baby etc. Each Slater got their own airtime. Something that doesn't happen very much when a new family is introduced, usually there is one or two characters who get the big storylines, an example of this would be the Carters. Shirley, Mick and Linda just get all the stories, while Tina, Johnny, Nancy and Lee got very little. The writing behind the Slaters introduction was key to their success