Slimer. Easily the most aggravating, irritating and plain pointless character in the history of animation.

You might suggest that Thundercats' Snarf deserves this accolade, but while Snarf was specifically designed to be a comedy character from the off, Slimer was once the stuff of Pete Venkman's nightmares. That The Real Ghostbusters took him and moulded him into, not only the show's obligatory comedy creature, but a talking one at that, was scandalous. It bothered me when I was a kid, and it still bothers me now.

Slimer out of the way, I can now fondly look back at a cartoon that expanded the Ghostbusters universe and brought a healthy dose of humour, action and general geekery to my television every week. For The Real Ghostbusters, while not as popular a choice for a revisit as, say, Ulysses 31 will no doubt prove to be, deserves its place in this series because it was bloody good fun as well as providing young kids with an insight into what is now classic geeklore.

Starting at the beginning, the show was already on to a winner with Ray Parker Jr.'s recognisable theme tune, bringing back memories of only my second ever visit to the cinema (Jungle Book was the first). I remember seeing Ghostbusters with my brother and his mate's family and being scared, confused and exhilarated. Most of all, I was utterly memorised by the spectacle of the big screen, and the cartoon and its theme tune, first aired two years after the film, brought back all those feelings again every week.

Broadcast on ITV, The Real Ghostbusters covered the exploits of the plucky foursome of Peter Venkman, Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore, plus secretary Janine was included with Louis Tully also being brought along for the ride in later series.

Wisely deciding that kids wanted to see action week-in, week-out, the show featured a new paranormal challenge for our heroes every episode, presenting us with some highly creative ghosts and ghouls along the way. And the plots really were creative.

Take a show like Mr Sandman, Dream Me A Dream, in which each of the Ghostbusters is put to sleep by a ghostly Sandman who is also putting people to sleep all over New York, allowing them to live out their dreams and the Sandman to take over the city. In the end, Janine saves the day and this high concept plotting helped elevate the show above the throng.

It didn't treat kids like kids and provided us with the kind of drama and comedic set pieces that our parents were used to watching on both big and small screens.

Perhaps its little surprise that the show's writing was so strong, given the fact that comic book scribe J Michael Straczynski was part of the writing team behind it. He left towards the show's final couple of series, perhaps partly explaining why the quality fell off towards the end of its run, but his influence on the show was clearly positive while he was working on it. Other writers to contribute to the series include Chuck Menville, who also worked on The Smurfs and Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Michael Reaves, who also wrote episodes for Batman: The Animated Series. The show, then, had a strong writing pedigree behind it.

The introduction of a fresh villain every week by the writing team also helped to keep the show feeling fresh. Unlike shows like He-Man and Thundercats, which pitched the heroes against the same enemy every time and you were never under any doubt as to who would win the day, The Real Ghostbusters put a new threat on screen every episode, and while the good guys still won out every week, there was still some genuine anticipation for the young viewers watching.

Animation was always brilliant with bright, vibrant colours jumping out from the screen. Better still, New York, the Ghostbusters world we knew from the movie, was perfectly realised, ending a realism that, looking back now, was crucial to its success. Basing a very unreal show in a very real environment was a brilliant juxtaposition that appealed to its many fans.

The voice work, too, was exemplary, with veteran Frank Welker (Scooby-Doo, Transformers, Muppet Babies, to mention but a few of his other works) taking on Dr Stanz and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche (Futurama and Animaniacs are on his CV) voicing Egon and a couple of actors, Lorenzo Music and Dave Coullier, covering Venkman at different stages in the show's history. As for Winston, the mighty Arsenio Hall from Harlem Nights and Coming To America voiced him in early seasons. The point I'm making is that, when it came to vocal talent, the show didn't skimp.

Naturally, the show was partly intended to make all those involved very rich and the opportunistic nature of it extended to a range of action figures, complete with plastic streams coming out of the proton packs, although, if you were anything like me, you'll have cut the plastic streams off before using the figures.

As an extension of the brand, then, The Real Ghostbusters brought more fans to the table and gave toy makers an opportunity to make a lot of money out of the show. Thank goodness it was so much more than simply a marketing opportunity, though.

It's fair to say that when the show changed to Slimer! And The Real Ghostbusters, it had lost much of its original charm and focus, becoming a show squarely aimed at younger viewers and with the scare and action factor reduced, I, and many others, turned off. In those first few series, though, it was quite brilliant.

Slimer still needed a good slap, though.

Here's the promo for the show, bringing back so many memories.

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