Joe Ruby

Joseph Clemens Ruby (March 30, 1933 – August 26, 2020) was an American animator, television editor, writer, and producer.He was the founder of television animation production company Ruby-Spears Productions, together with Ken SpearsThey were noted for co-creating Scooby-Doo.

Ruby was born in Los Angeles on March 30, 1933.He attended Fairfax High School.After graduating, he joined the United States Navy and worked as a sonar operator on a destroyer during the Korean War.

Ruby studied art and began his career in animation at Walt Disney Productions in the inbetweening department, later moving over to editing. He later worked for a short time in live-action television editing before moving to Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he met Ken Spears. 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, before leaving the studio due to a wish to become associate producers. They also worked as writers for Sid and Marty Krofft Television Productions and DePatie–Freleng Enterprises.

For Hanna-Barbera, Ruby and Spears created Scooby-Doo, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and Jabberjaw, among other programs. At DePatie–Freleng, they created The Barkleys and The Houndcats. In the early 1970s, CBS president of children's programming Fred 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.

Wanting to create competition for Hanna-Barbera, ABC set Ruby and Spears up with their own studio in 1977, as a subsidiary of Filmways. 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, and Superman, among others. 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. Current reissues of Ruby-Spears shows on DVD and digital platforms are therefore copyrighted by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Ruby died on August 26, 2020, at his home in Westlake Village, California.He was 87, and died of natural causes.