Ruby-Spears: Classic cartoons continue to entertain fans

Ruby-Spears beginning

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears are the men behind Ruby-Spears Productions (AKA Ruby-Spears Enterprises) and some of the most beloved animated tales. The company was founded in 1977 as a subsidiary of Filmways when the duo were ABC network executives supervising the Saturday morning programming. They were based in Burbank, California, specialized in animation, and had a branch of their company in Rome, Italy.

Baby Boomers (those born between 1948 and 1964) and their children grew up watching Ruby-Spears productions and enjoyed the cartoons without knowing of the behind-the-scenes drama. It all began when Fred Silverman, ABC Entertainment's president wanted to create competition for Hanna-Barbera. At the time Joseph Hanna and William Barbera's company dominated Saturday mornings by providing the majority of Saturday morning content for all three major networks ABC, NBC, and CBS.

Ruby-Spears first successful program was The Puppy Who Wanted A Boy which was followed by the animated series Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Goldie Gold and Action Jack.

They were also responsible for Mister T, Sectaurs, Thundarr the Barbarian, Rubik, the Amazing Cube, the Police Academy animated series, the American Mega Man cartoon series, the 1983 version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Centurions, and the 1988 Superman series. Of all the cartoons they produced Joe Ruby and Ken Spears agreed that Thundarr was their favorite.

The Hanna Barber connection

Spears and Ruby began their careers at Hanna-Barbera and were assigned the task of developing a mystery-based cartoon series in 1969 for Saturday mornings. This is how they became veteran writers for Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and they wrote and edited all but four of the first 25 episodes of the classic cartoon.

When Scooby and the gang moved from CBS to ABC in 1975, Joe and Ken supervised all the writing and production on the show. They also wrote for cartoons like The Herculoids and Space Ghost. They also had been writers and producers for DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, for The Houndcats, and The Barkleys.

Ruby-Spear soon left Hanna-Barbera because they were not moving up the ladder and desired to become "associate producers". Only 4 years later, in 1981 the company was sold to Taft Broadcasting and became a sister company to Hanna-Barbera. In 1991, Ruby-Spears was spun off into RS Holdings.

Most of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library was sold along with Hanna-Barbera to Turner Broadcasting System, which then merged with Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) in 1996. After 19 years in operation, the Ruby-Spears studio closed in 1996, and after walking away from Joe Hanna and Wiliam Barbera all of Ruby-Spear's pre-1991 cartoons are now owned by Hanna-Barbera.

Ruby-Spear in later years

The changing of hands and corporate buy-outs all sound so technical but it is a part of the entertainment industry. As of 2019, no one knows for certain where Ruby-Spears' post-1991 library is being held but there are two exceptions. Skysurfer Strike Force is owned by Invincible Entertainment Group, along with most of the Bohbot Entertainment library the and Mega Man series, is at least partially owned by DHX Media which is now WildBrain.

The founders of Ruby-Spears both passed away in 2020 within three months of each other. Joe Ruby died at age 87 from natural causes on August 26 and is survived by his wife of 67 years, Carole and their four children; Cliff, Deanna, Craig, and Debby. Ken Spears died of complications from Lewy body dementia on November 6 at age 82. He is survived by his wife Sandra and children Kevin and Chris.

At this time, the only Ruby-Spears cartoon that continues on television is Scooby-Doo Where Are You! Perhaps at some future date, some of their other animated classics will be available for viewing once more.