Joseph Clemens Ruby (March 30, 1933 – August 26, 2020) was an American animator, writer, television producer, and music editor. He was best known as a co-creator of the animated ''

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

'' franchise, together with

Ken Spears Charles Kenneth Spears (March 12, 1938 – November 6, 2020) was an American animator, writer, television producer and sound editor. He was best known as a co-creator of the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise, together with Joe Ruby. In 1977, they co-foun ...

. In 1977, they co-founded the television animation production company Ruby-Spears Productions. Ruby would work with Spears and would co-create several other shows including, '' Fangface'', '' Dynomutt, Dog Wonder'' and '' Jabberjaw'' among others. Ruby would meet Spears in 1959 at

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

, when the studio was being interviewed by Life Magazine and the two would start working together on animated shows. Before Ruby founded Ruby-Spears he would work with at several studios including

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films and short films for the Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a s ...

, Hanna-Barbera,

DePatie–Freleng Enterprises DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, Inc. (also known as Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng Productions when involved with the Mirisch brothers and Geoffrey Productions, and DFE Films) was an American animation studio founded by former Warner Bros. Car ...

and with

Sid and Marty Krofft Sid Krofft (born July 30, 1929) and Marty Krofft (April 9, 1937 – November 25, 2023), known as The Krofft Brothers and born as Cydus and Moshopopoulos Yolas, were a Canadian sibling team of television creators, writers and puppeteers. Through ...

. In 1996, the Ruby-Spears studio closed, and Ruby would keep working with Spears until his retirement in 2002. Ruby died on August 26, 2020. Spears died three months later of natural causes. He was 87 years old.

Biography

Ruby was born on March 30, 1933, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, the son of Mildred (''née'' Fineberg) and Carl Ruby, a doctor. His family was Jewish, and his parents were Canadian. He attended Fairfax High School. After graduating, he joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

and worked as a sonar operator on a destroyer during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. Ruby studied art and began his career in animation at

in the

inbetweening Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image int ...

department. He began as a music editor, knowing it would take a long process to become an experienced animator, but nonetheless pursued his passion at the side as a freelance comic book artist and writer. He later worked for a short time in live-action television editing before moving to

, where he met

, when Life Magazine was interviewing members of the studio, Joe Barbera would introduce the two to the writers at Life Magazine, Spears was also ex-Navy. The two men teamed up to become writers for several animated and live-action television programs, both freelance and as on-staff writers, starting at Hanna-Barbera in 1959, before leaving the studio due to a wish to become associate producers. They also worked as writers for

Television Productions and

. For Hanna-Barbera, Ruby and Spears created the ''

'' franchise and its main characters: Fred Jones,

Daphne Blake Daphne Blake is a fictional character in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. She is a core member of Mystery Incorporated and is depicted as coming from a wealthy family. She is noted for her beauty, fashion sense, and her knack for getting into dan ...

Velma Dinkley Velma Dinkley is a fictional character in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. She is usually seen wearing a baggy orange turtleneck sweater, a short red pleated skirt, knee high socks, Mary Jane shoes, and a pair of black square glasses, which she ...

Shaggy Rogers Norville "Shaggy" Rogers is a fictional character and one of the main characters in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. He is characterized as an amateur detective, and the long-time best friend of his dog, Scooby-Doo. Character description Shaggy ...

, and the eponymous title character. The original series, ''

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning cartoon schedule on Septem ...

'', debuted on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on September 13, 1969. After

Fred Silverman Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937 – January 30, 2020) was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as '' ...

, then head of daytime programming at CBS, concluded that, after about 15 drafts, a

Great Dane The Great Dane is a German list of dog breeds, breed of large mastiff-sighthound, which descends from hunting dogs of the Middle Ages used to hunt bears, wild boar, and deer. They were also used as guardian dogs of German nobility. It is one o ...

was the star of the project, Ruby and Spears tried multiple ideas before settling on a cowardly dog who solves mysteries. For H-B, they also created '' Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!'', '' Dynomutt, Dog Wonder'', '' Jabberjaw'', and ''

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels ''Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels'' is an American animated mystery comedy series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for ABC. The series aired during the network's Saturday morning schedule from ...

'', among other programs. At DePatie–Freleng, they created ''

The Barkleys ''The Barkleys'' is an American animated television series produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, which aired on NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1972. Premise Taking inspiration from the CBS sitcom ''All in the Family'', the cartoon ...

'' and ''

The Houndcats ''The Houndcats'' is an American Saturday morning cartoon series produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. The series was broadcast by NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1972, with reruns continuing until September 1, 1973. Thirteen episodes ...

''. In the early 1970s, Silverman hired Ruby and Spears to supervise the production of CBS's Saturday morning cartoon lineup, a position they assumed at ABC when Silverman defected to that network.Shostak, Stu (February 5, 2012).
Interview with Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
. ''Stu's Show.'' Retrieved March 18, 2013. Wanting to create competition for Hanna-Barbera, ABC set Ruby and Spears up with their own studio in 1977, as a subsidiary of

Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...

. Ruby-Spears Productions produced animated series for Saturday mornings, among them '' Fangface'', '' The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour'', '' Thundarr the Barbarian'', '' Saturday Supercade'', '' Mister T'', ''

Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks, originally David Seville and the Chipmunks and billed for their first two decades as the Chipmunks, are an American animated virtual band and media franchise first created by Ross Bagdasarian for Novelty records in ...

'', and ''

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

'', among others.Shostak, Stu (01-16-2013).
Tribute To Joseph Barbera". ''Stu's Show.'' Retrieved 05-9-2019.
/ref> Ruby-Spears was bought by Hanna-Barbera's parent company, Taft Entertainment, in 1981, and its back catalog was sold along with the Hanna-Barbera library and studio in 1991 to

Turner Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its ass ...

. Current reissues of Ruby-Spears shows on DVD and digital platforms are therefore copyrighted by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Death

Ruby died of

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinc ...

at his home in

Westlake Village, California Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County, California, on its western border with Ventura County. Upon its incorporation in 1981, Westlake Village became the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.Baker, Pam (2002). ''Thousand Oaks We ...

, on August 26, 2020, at the age of 87. His widow, Carole, specified that he died of complications from a fall. Dan Haskett made a dedication poster for Ruby's contribution to ''Scooby-Doo'' five days after his death. In November 2020, three months after Ruby passed, Ken Spears would die at the age of 82.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruby, Joe 1933 births 2020 deaths Animators from California American television writers American male television writers Television producers from California American animated film producers Hanna-Barbera people Military personnel from California Writers from Los Angeles Ruby-Spears Accidental deaths from falls Music editors American Jews American character designers