SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: RUBY-SPEARS PRODUCTIONS

 

RUBY-SPEARS PRODUCTIONS, INC.
Aka RUBY-SPEARS ENTERPRISES, RS HOLDINGS

(1977-96)

 

Key People: Joe Ruby (founder, president), Ken Spears (founder, vice president), Jerry Eisenberg (producer), Jack Kirby (production artist)

 

One of Ruby-Spears' former locations, just across from Hanna-Barbera.

 

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears began as sound editors at Hanna-Barbera Productions before turning into a valuable writing team; particularly with the creation of Scooby-Doo. When their contracts were up and their desires to advance to associate producers denied, they left Hanna-Barbera to be producers and writers at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Eventually, they were hired away by television executive Fred Silverman to supervise the Saturday morning programming for him at CBS, and then over at ABC. By 1977, Hanna-Barbera was stretched pretty thin making several programs for all the major networks and their work quality was suffering as a result. Feeling Hanna-Barbera needed some competition, Silverman decided that Ruby and Spears should start their own production company. ABC executive Peter Roth secured financing from Filmways and Silverman promised them a commitment for one series and one special. The special, The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy, was released in 1978 as an episode of the ABC Weekend Specials. It was nominated for an Emmy, and got three sequel specials before becoming an ongoing show called The Puppy’s Further Adventures. The series was Fangface, which was pitched as kind of a reverse Scooby-Doo, and did well enough to run for two seasons. From there came a steady output of shows and specials, including The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Heathcliff, Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, Rubik, the Amazing Cube, Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks (for the first five years until the Bagdasarians wanted to go elsewhere), Saturday Supercade and more. By that point, their exclusivity agreement with ABC was done, allowing them to expand to the other networks as well as syndication. Each production allowed the company to grow from a shoestring operation to a full-fledged one, poaching as many Hanna-Barbera talent as they could due to the shortages at the time. One of their most notable hires was legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby, brought to them by writer Mark Evanier, who reportedly enjoyed the best treatment of his entire career. In 1981, Ruby-Spears was sold to Taft Broadcasting, who also owned Hanna-Barbera making them sister companies (while still also competing for the same timeslots). In 1991, Ruby and Spears spun the company off into the independent RS Holdings, with most of their pre-1991 library being sold along with Hanna-Barbera to Turner Broadcasting System (excluding Rambo: The Force of Freedom which is owned by StudioCanal), resulting in a mix of both company’s productions populating the fledgling Cartoon Network. Ruby-Spears would produce three more series—Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa, Mega Man and Skysurfer Strike Force—and two more ABC Weekend Specials before finally closing up shop in 1996. Ruby and Spears continued to work on developing new projects under the Ruby-Spears banner for the next two decades up until the deaths of both men in 2020.

 

Promo image featuring some of Ruby-Spears' earliest characters.

Saturday Credits:
Fangface
ABC Weekend Specials (episodes)
The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show
Heathcliff and Dingbat/Marmaduke
Goldie Gold and Action Jack
Thundarr the Barbarian
The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour
The Puppy’s Further Adventures
Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour
Rubik, the Amazing Cube
Mister T
Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983)
Saturday Supercade
Dragon’s Lair
Turbo Teen
It’s Punky Brewster
Lazer Tag Academy
Superman (1988)
Dink, the Little Dinosaur
Piggsburg Pigs!
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: JACK KIRBY

JACK KIRBY

(August 28, 1917-Feburary 6, 1994)

Notable Roles: Comic book artist, comic book writer, comic book publisher, storyboard artist, character designer

Born Jacob Kurtzberg, Kirby was a comic book artist, writer and editor regarded as one of the medium’s major innovators, the most prolific, and the most influential; which is why he was affectionately dubbed “The King”. He began in the 1930s, drawing under various pen names before settling on Kirby. He frequently partnered with writer-editor Joe Simon, which led to the creation of Captain America for Timely Comics (later Marvel) in 1941. After serving in WWII, Kirby worked for National Comics (later DC), Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals, Crestwood Publications (where he and Simon created the first romance comic, Young Romance) and started his own short-lived publishing company, Mainline Publications, with Simon. He returned to Timely, now known as Atlas Comics, and in the 1960s, with writer-editor Stan Lee, created the bulk of the company’s major characters: the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, the Avengers and more. As Marvel began licensing out their characters for adaptation, Kirby provided storyboards for the first Fantastic Four cartoon by Hanna-Barbera. In the 1970s, Kirby felt he wasn’t being treated fairly by Marvel; he felt publisher Martin Goodman made him numerous unfulfilled promises, had a lack of creative control, received no recognition for his story or character contributions, and was resentful over Lee’s prominence in the media. After getting an unfavorable contract, he left the company to return to DC where he created his Fourth World saga, OMAC, Kamandi, Etrigan and Kobra. Because DC kept putting him on books he didn’t want to work on, he returned to Marvel where he created The Eternals, Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur. Once again dissatisfied with his working conditions, Kirby left Marvel to work for Hanna-Barbera; designing characters for Turbo Teen, The New Shmoo, Thundarr and others. He also worked on the second Fantastic Four cartoon for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Kirby also branched out to storyboarding and designing for films; part of which led to his drawings being utilized in the CIA’s “Canadian Caper.” Kirby spent the 80s and 90s working for a variety of smaller publishers like Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and Topps Comics, doing a lot of creator-owned work. DC executives Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz had him re-design the Fourth World characters for the Super Powers toyline in order to get him some royalties for his creations, and he helped create The Centurions for Ruby-Spears Productions. Kirby also spent a great deal of time in a legal battle with Marvel over the return of his tens of thousands of original pages, which resulted in his only getting a fraction of his total output for the company back (many of them had been lost, stolen, or given away as gifts). The last comic Kirby worked on was Phantom Force for Image Comics before he died in 1994 from heart failure. An episode of Superman: The Animated Series, which made extensive use of his Fourth World and modeled the character of Dan Turpin after him, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), which adapted an original Mirage Studios story inspired by Kirby, were dedicated to his memory.

Saturday Credits:

Fantastic Four (1967)

The New Shmoo

The World’s Greatest Superfriends

The New Fantastic Four

Thundarr the Barbarian

Space Stars

Goldie Gold and Action Jack

Superfriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show

Turbo Teen

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (characters)

The Incredible Hulk (1982, characters)

Mister T

Lazer Tag Academy

Pryde of the X-Men (characters)

X-Men: The Animated Series (characters)

Superman: The Animated Series (characters)

Silver Surfer (characters)

Avengers: United They Stand (characters)

X-Men: Evolution (characters)

Wolverine and the X-Men (characters)

Young Justice (characters)

Justice League Action (characters)