Scooby-Doo co-creator Joe Ruby died Wednesday at the age of 87 in Westlake Village, California, according to Variation en Deadline.
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Everett Collection
Together with his writing partner Ken Spears, Ruby made a number of cartoons for Hana-Barbera Productions in the late ’60s and’ 70s. Scooby-Doo is the most famous of them, but there were also Dynomutt en Jabberjaw. Ruby once said he and Spears accepted Scooby-Doo would have the same fate as those other cartoons (one season of TV and then mostly forgotten), but instead it has inspired decades of franchise spin-offs and sequels – from a few live-action movies to countless comic books, snack tie-ins, animated show starts anew, and several animated films, the last of which was this year’s CGI animation Scoob!
Scooby-Doo was so successful that Fred Silverman, CBS ‘presenter of children’s programming, hired Ruby and Spears to oversee Saturday morning’s cartoons. They followed him a few years later to ABC, and in 1977 set up their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions. There they produced more shows as well Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Superman, en Thundarr the Barbarian. Ruby-Spears also hired legendary comic artist Jack Kirby (who co-created most of the Marvel superheroes that populated the Marvel Cinematic Universe) to develop shows and concepts for her. Unfortunately, most of that work has never seen the light of day, despite young efforts in the early 2010s.
© Everett Collection
Joe Ruby, along with co-writer Kevin Spears, made ‘Scooby-Doo’ and other favorite cartoons for kids.
Ruby himself went over overseeing animated versions of live action shows and movies as well Punky Brewster, Rambo, en Police Academy: The animated series. He is survived by his wife Carole, four children, and 10 grandchildren.
“He never stopped writing and making, even when he was older,” Grandpa Benjamin Ruby said Variation.
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