| rdfs:comment | - Ruby-Spears Productions (also known as Ruby-Spears Enterprises) was a Burbank, California-based entertainment production company that specialized in animation. The firm was founded in 1977 by veteran writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.
- Ruby-Spears is an animation house that was one of the more prolific animation studios of the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Studio founders Joe Ruby and Ken Spears started out as sound editors at Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s, eventually moving up the studio ladder into writing positions. This later led to the two creating the iconic Scooby Doo franchise for Hanna-Barbera, though they also played a hand in many of Hanna-Barbera's successes before and after as well. Their former employer had a great influence on the new studio's output, as the animation style mimicked Hanna-Barbera's tried and true Limited Animation methods. The visual similarities led to many of the early shows often being mistaken for actual Hanna-Barbera shows.
- The firm's credits include the animated series Fangface, Fangface and Fangpuss, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Dink, the Little Dinosaur, Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Rickety Rocket, and other animated series such as Mr. T, Rubik the Amazing Cube, Turbo Teen, the 1983 version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Centurions series, the 1988 Superman series, and the American Mega Man cartoon series. The Ruby-Spears studio was purchased in 1978 by Filmways Television and was sold in late 1981 to Taft Broadcasting, becoming a sister company to Hanna-Barbera.
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| abstract | - Ruby-Spears Productions (also known as Ruby-Spears Enterprises) was a Burbank, California-based entertainment production company that specialized in animation. The firm was founded in 1977 by veteran writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.
- The firm's credits include the animated series Fangface, Fangface and Fangpuss, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Dink, the Little Dinosaur, Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Rickety Rocket, and other animated series such as Mr. T, Rubik the Amazing Cube, Turbo Teen, the 1983 version of Alvin and the Chipmunks, The Centurions series, the 1988 Superman series, and the American Mega Man cartoon series. One series, Piggsburg Pigs!, used Canadian voice talent rather than American voice talent like most of their shows. Ruby-Spears was also responsible for the animated sequence in the movie Child's Play The Ruby-Spears studio was purchased in 1978 by Filmways Television and was sold in late 1981 to Taft Broadcasting, becoming a sister company to Hanna-Barbera. In 1991, most of the original Ruby Spears library was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn merged with Time Warner in 1996. Time Warner holds most pre-1991 Ruby Spears shows outright today. (Notably, the animated version of Police Academy and the 1988 Superman series were always owned by Time Warner due to them being based on other Warner Bros. properties.)
- Ruby-Spears is an animation house that was one of the more prolific animation studios of the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Studio founders Joe Ruby and Ken Spears started out as sound editors at Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s, eventually moving up the studio ladder into writing positions. This later led to the two creating the iconic Scooby Doo franchise for Hanna-Barbera, though they also played a hand in many of Hanna-Barbera's successes before and after as well. Their former employer had a great influence on the new studio's output, as the animation style mimicked Hanna-Barbera's tried and true Limited Animation methods. The visual similarities led to many of the early shows often being mistaken for actual Hanna-Barbera shows. While Ruby-Spears did turn out a few original properties, such as Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Turbo Teen, and the Scooby Doo knock-off Fangface, they became particularly well known for churning out a great deal of licensed properties during their hey day. These ranged from animated adaptations of live-action sitcoms, to action shows centered around then-popular film and television celebrities (most notoriously, Mr. T and Chuck Norris), to the wildly successful 80s update of Alvin and The Chipmunks, to a great deal of collaboration with Warner Bros to adapt several DC Comics mainstays for Saturday Morning, most well known being the 1988 Superman cartoon. This even extended to toys such as the Lazer Tag and Rubik's Cube cartoons. The history of the studio is a turbulent one. After their founding in 1978, they were bought out by Taft Broadcasting in 1981, making them a sister company to Hanna-Barbera (and also leading to a Scooby Doo co-production). Eventually their entire library prior to 1991 was sold, along with Hanna-Barbera, to Turner Broadcasting (later Time Warner), which has led to further confusion over their properties today as some of their shows have been released with a Hanna-Barbera production logo. After the sale, the company restructured into RS Holdings, which led to them working on projects such as Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa and the infamous American Mega Man cartoon. The rights to many of these later shows have scattered as their partners absorbed them. Ruby-Spears output slowed dramatically by the late 90s, and while the studio still exists today, it's a shadow of its former self and mainly handles some direct-to-video productions. However, some of their cheesier works have picked up a reputation as Snark Bait as adults who watched their shows as kids look back on them now with a little nostalgia and a lot of irony. A full list of their output can be found off-site.
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