Animation writer and executive Joe Ruby, who created cartoon series with “Scooby-Doo” with his partner Ken Spears, died Wednesday of natural causes in Westlake Village, California. He was 87.
At Hanna-Barbera, Ruby and Spears made series, including “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?”, “Dynomutt” and “Jabberjaw.”
“He never stopped writing and making, even when he got older,” said his grandfather Benjamin Ruby.
“Scooby-Doo” launched on CBS in 1969 after going through a number of versions. It was launched as a softer series in part in response to complaints about violence in cartoons such as “Space Ghost.” Together with character designer Iwao Takamoto, Ruby and Spears visited a number of titles and approaches, such as making the characters part of a rock band, before deciding on the now classic combination of Freddie, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and a Great Dane with the name Scooby-Doo.
Ruby and Spears wrote the first five episodes, accompanying and editing the rest of the first season. The original series ran until 1976 and produced numerous series of remakes and theatrical films.
In a light-hearted interview with ScoobyAddicts.com, Ruby was asked if he had ever eaten a Scooby snack. “No, we never ate a Scooby snack,” he replied. “We imagined them just going to be a super delicious doggy snack.” Spears told the site that they did not expect the characters to survive. “We were worried it would only take one season.”
Ruby started as an interlude at Walt Disney Productions. After serving in the Navy and working in television editing, he met Spears while working at Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The duo left Hanna-Barbera to become more involved in production, then worked as writers for Sid and Marty Krofft Television Productions and with Depatie-Freleng, where they made “The Barkleys” and “The Houndcats”.
After “Scooby-Doo” became a hit, Ruby and Spears were hired by CBS president of children’s programming Fred Silverman to oversee Saturday morning’s cartoons. When Silverman went to ABC, they went with him and set up their own studio in 1977. Among the series produced by Ruby-Spears Productions were “Mister T”, “Alvin and the Chipmunks”, “Superman”, “Thundarr the Barbarian, “” Fangface “and” The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour. “
Hanna-Barbera’s parent company Taft Entertainment acquired Ruby-Spears in 1981, and its catalog went to Turner Broadcasting in 1991.
Ruby further served as executive producer on animated versions of live-action shows and movies, including “Punky Brewster,” the “Rambo” series and “Police Academy: The Animated Series.”
A lifelong comic book fan and artist and writer, he has worked with artist Jack Kirby on numerous characters and stories they hope to put into production.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Carole, four children and 10 grandchildren.
