Joe Ruby was a very important person in the history of TV animation and — of way less importance — my career. A native of Los Angeles, Joe graduated from Fairfax High School, spent time in the Navy and eventually wound up at Disney Studios in a program that trained young artists to become animators. That had always been a dream of Joe's — to work in cartoons or comic books — but the immediate financial prospects at Disney forced him to transfer to a more lucrative position as an editor in their music department.
He worked as an audio and film editor elsewhere before landing at Hanna-Barbera where he met his lifelong friend/partner, Ken Spears. H-B needed writers so he and Ken submitted some story and gag ideas…and I'm pretty sure Joe said they started with interstitial gags for the Huckleberry Hound show. Eventually, they were writing (not cutting film on) many Hanna-Barbera shows and their work found great favor with the networks. This was at a time when the studio was selling shows to CBS, NBC and ABC and there were many instances when the execs at one of those networks would say, "We'll buy this show if you put Joe and Ken on it."
At one point, Fred Silverman at CBS reportedly told H-B that they would buy nothing from the studio unless Ruby and Spears were employed exclusively on what CBS bought. Fred did the same when he moved over to ABC and finally, ABC just hired them…which is why Joe and Ken created and supervised, for example, segments like Electra-Woman and Dynagirl or Wonderbug on The Krofft Superstar Hour…on ABC.
They worked on many shows but their biggest hit, of course, was Scooby Doo. I don't know if Hanna-Barbera and its various owners ever formally acknowledged Joe and Ken as the creators of TV animation's longest-running character but almost everyone in the industry seemed to. They were also responsible for a dozen or more shows at H-B including Dynomutt and Jabberjaw, for The Barkleys and The Houndcats for DePatie-Freleng and on both the live-action and animated TV versions of Planet of the Apes. I am leaving out an awful lot of credits here.
In 1977 with the financial backing of Filmways and a commitment from ABC to buy programming from them, Joe and Ken founded their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions. Their output included dozens of shows including Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour, Thundarr the Barbarian, Saturday Supercade, Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks and the 1988 Superman series.
They also produced a number of ABC Weekend Specials and it was for one of those that Joe Ruby hired me to write my first animation script. He also hired me to write my second animation script, my third, my fourth…I wrote a lot of material for that company. At that point, Joe and Ken — somewhat replicating the division of labor between Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna — had things divvied up so Joe handled most of the selling of shows and writing of them, while Ken handled the actual animation and production. So I worked with Joe a lot.
He was bright, honest and great to work with, especially over lunch, especially when he grabbed the check. He had very definite ideas of what should and should not be in a script but once you understood those parameters, it was a joy to write a script for Joe. At the time, the studio paid its writers and artists a bit better than its competitors but I would have worked for them if they'd paid a bit less…maybe even more than a bit less.
I did not think the studio was well-served by its business people and at times, I think it was undermined by the mighty H-B. It was then bought by the corporation that owned Hanna-Barbera, whereupon it was treated even worse. Some of what happened then caused me to leave but I was always fond, personally and professionally of Joe. And Ken, for that matter.
And I should mention the following for the benefit of Comic Book Historians reading this: At a time when Jack Kirby could not find a good place to work in the comic book industry, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears kept him working and drawing and very, very happy with how he was treated.
Joe had been in poor health for some time and he passed away yesterday at his home, surrounded by a large and loving family. He was 87 and one of the best people I ever knew in the cartoon business — or any business, come to think of it.