40TH ANNIVERSARIES

 Seems like only yesterday, but nope--these shows are turning

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 SUPERCADE: Q*BERT

 

Q*BERT

(CBS, October 1, 1983-December 1, 1984)

 

Ruby-Spears Productions

 

MAIN CAST:

Billy Bowles – Q*bert

Robbie Lee – Q*tee, Q*val

Dick Beals – Q*bit

Frank Welker – Q*ball, Q*mongus, Coily, Ugg, Wrong Way, Slick, Sam, various

Julie McWhirter - Viper

 

 

            New Gottlieb programmer Warren Davis was looking for ways to practice his craft; particularly randomness and gravity mechanics. He came across artist Jeff Lee’s doodles of characters and concepts he had been drawing since childhood and asked if he could use them in his efforts.

            The resulting game is what would eventually be known as Q*bert. The player controlled the titular character, a round creature with no arms and a long nose, as they moved him diagonally around various pyramids comprised of cubes designed to give the illusion of being in 3-D, inspired by the works of M.C. Escher. The player was tasked with changing each cube to a target color by jumping on them—a suggestion from vice president of engineering Ron Waxman—while avoiding enemies and jumping off of the pyramid into the black void that filled up the rest of the screen.

Flyer describing Q*bert and its characters.

            Those enemies included Coily, a purple snake that hatched from an egg that bounced down the pyramid and actively pursued Q*bert; Ugg and Wrongway, two purple creatures that moved up the sides of the pyramid to the top until they fell off; and Slick and Sam (a play on “spick and span”), two green creatures that descended on the pyramid and reverted the colors of blocks Q*bert already changed. Additionally, there were bouncing balls: a red one that would kill Q*bert on contact, and a green one that would immobilize enemies for a brief period. Additional help came in the form of multi-colored discs located near the bottom of the pyramids that could bring Q*bert quickly back to the top in order to escape enemies (if Coily was close enough, this would cause him to leap off the pyramid in pursuit). Whenever Q*bert ran into something that hurt him, a word balloon would appear with “@!#?@!” in it accompanied by a gibberish voice sample designed by audio engineer David Thiel when he was unable to create coherent English phrases on the synthesizer he was using (meant to be gibberish, not swearing). Falling deaths were accompanied by a thud created by a pinball machine spring hitting the inside of the game cabinet; a contribution from technician Rick Tighe.

Flyer touting Q*bert's success.

            Davis began working on the game in April of 1982, and several months later it became an official Gottlieb project. Most of the decisions in the crafting of the game came from Davis’ desire to keep it simple for himself, as well as try to keep it simple for players. He championed his unusual directional controls against strong opposition, feeling players would appreciate their simplicity. While initial test audiences did find it difficult at first, many were able to adapt. The battle Davis lost, however, was in the game’s challenge level as Gottlieb had him make it slower and easier. The biggest hurdle, however, was the game’s name. Throughout its development it was given the unofficial title “Cubes”. Lee wanted to call it Snots and Boogers after the original concept of Q*bert firing “mucus bombs” from his nose, which Davis did away with because of its complexity to program. It, along with a list of suggestions from various employees, was discarded. Vice president of marketing Howie Rubin pushed for @!#?@! to become the official name, with some test cabinets being released emblazoned with it. This was rejected as a silly notion as nobody could pronounce it. Eventually, it was decided to name it after the character, with “Hubert” becoming a strong contender. The name was ultimately combined with “Cubes” to become “Cubert”, and art director Richard Tracy stylized it as “Q-Bert”, with the hyphen eventually giving way to the asterisk.

Attempting to expand the Q*bert empire.

Q*bert was officially released between October and December of 1982, becoming Gottlieb’s fourth title and only critical and commercial success with the sale of around 25,000 cabinets. It was among the 13 highest-grossing arcade games of 1983, and was widely merchandised with the character appearing on coloring books, board games and toys. A flyer released by Gottlieb boasted that the game was included on over 125 different products. A variant version of the game cross-promoting Mello Yello, Mello Yello Presents Q*bert, was released as a sweepstakes prize; with Gottlieb hosting a competition that would net a player 5 cases of the soda if they finished the game 10 times and sent a picture of Q*bert drinking it in the new cutscene. Gottlieb, at the time, was owned by Columbia Pictures who in turn was owned by Coca-Cola, the makers of Mello Yello. Gottlieb would also translate the game into a pinball machine called Q*bert’s Quest, but that only performed well in Japan.

Q*burg architecture.

            Around this time, CBS was looking to get in on the video game craze and to combat ABC’s Pac-Man produced by Hanna-Barbera. Figuring to hedge their bets, they licensed several gaming properties and commissioned former Hanna-Barbera employees Joe Ruby and Ken Spears to handle it through their studio, Ruby-Spears Productions. The resulting series was Saturday Supercade. Making up the Supercade every week were segments based on Frogger, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., while Q*bert and Pitfall! rotated weekly.

Q*bert with Q*tee and Q*ball in the car, Slick and Sam, and Q*bit.

            Q*bert saw the titular character (Billy Bowles) as a high schooler—with arms!—in the town of Q*burg. It was a 1950’s-inspired world full of cube shapes (food, plates, records, even the buildings were cubes stacked on cubes) with names either containing the word “cube” or beginning with “Q*” (the asterisk was often replaced visually by the original hyphen). He was joined by a cast of new characters: his girlfriend, Q*tee (Robbie Lee); his little brother, Q*bit (Dick Beals); his laid-back and constantly hungry friend, Q*ball (Frank Welker); Valley girl Q*val (Lee); and monstrously-strong Q*mungus (Welker).

Coily with Wrongway, Ugg and Viper.

While the town was primarily populated by “nosers”, there were some that stood out; particularly snake Coily (Welker) and his gang of bullies: dim-witted Ugg and Wrongway (Welker) and his girlfriend, Viper (Julie McWhirter, impersonating Mae West). Coily and Ugg were dressed like greasers, while Wrongway wore tattered clothing and looked ferociously monstrous. Slick and Sam (both Welker) were also present, but they were more well-meaning troublemakers and friends of Q*bert’s rather than enemies (although, with friends like those…).

Wrongway and Ugg always causing trouble.

Most stories centered around Q*bert and his friends hanging out at school, Cube Pizza or the Sweet Shoppe (complete with a row of arcade games) and engaging in various activities with each other and around town while Coily and his gang always sought to disrupt their fun or show them up through underhanded means and pranks. Reintroduced was the original concept of Q*bert firing projectiles from his nose; in this case his “Slippy-Doos”, black balls that turned into oil slicks and tripped up enemies. In keeping with the games, the rainbow discs were present as the equivalent of skateboards (or, more accurately, the hoverboards eventually seen in Back to the Future Part II) and the surface of objects changing color when Q*bert bounced on them during a chase (although an explanation for the color change was ever given, nor acknowledged). Also, whenever Q*bert ended up hurt or annoyed, he would get his signature word balloon and the gibberish dialogue would be played.

Hanging out at the music story with Q*val.

Q*Bert made its Saturday Supercade debut on October 1, 1983 after two episodes of Pitfall! aired in a row. It was primarily written by story editor Gary Greenfield, with additional writing from Tony Benedict and Kayte Kuch. The Supercade theme was composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, while the Q*bert theme was done by John Bahler and Rick Segall. When Supercade was renewed for a second season, Q*bert was the only returning feature along with Donkey Kong. The other three segments were replaced by adaptations of Kangaroo and Space Ace.

Q*ball should know better than to hit on the girlfriend of  Q*jock.

Despite the initial marketability of the original game, follow-up efforts hadn’t received as much fanfare. The reception of the home ports by Parker Brothers varied from system to system. Bowles would reprise his role in animated commercials for them. The sequel, Q*bert’s Qubes, was released under Gottlieb’s new name, Mylstar Electronics, in 1984 and utilized free-floating rotating cubes and new enemies. It went beneath the public’s notice. Konami, who handled Gottlieb’s international distribution, produced their own Q*bert in 1986 for MSX computers utilizing the Qubes mechanic with Q*bert replaced by a dragon. Future home releases of the original would update the game to include new levels and visuals, while a cancelled version more in line with Davis’ original vision called Faster Harder More Challenging Q*bert was released by him onto the internet in 1996.

Q*bert on DVD.

To date, Saturday Supercade hasn’t seen any form of release on home media. Warner Archive announced via their Facebook page in 2010 that plans were underway to release Supercade to DVD, but because of rights issues with the various game properties the project needed extensive research before it could happen. However, unlike the other parts of Supercade, the rights to Q*bert remained with Columbia after they sold off Gottlieb, and came under the ownership of Sony with the rest of the studio. To coincide with the release of the Sony film Pixels in 2015, which featured an appearance by Q*bert (Billy West) along with a variety of other video game characters, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released The Best of Q*bert onto DVD. The title alluded to the fact that only 17 of the 19 episodes were available to transfer onto the disc for release, preventing it from being the complete series.

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“Disc Derby Fiasco” (10/1/83) – Coily steals Q*bert’s new disc so he can’t win the upcoming derby.

 

“The Great Q*tee Contest” (10/15/83) – Coily plots to spoil Q*tee’s chances to win a teen contest and make Viper the winner.

 

“Q*bowl Rigamarole” (10/29/83) – Coily plans to cheat his way into becoming a star quarterback.

 

“Crazy Camp Creature” (11/12/83) – After Q*bert makes Coily look like a coward, he plans to crash their campout and return the favor.

 

“Thanksgiving for the Memories” (11/26/83) – Q*bert’s class gets a history lesson about the first Thanksgiving in Q*Burg.

 

“Dog Day Dilemma” (12/10/83) – Q*bert and Coily intern at a dog groomer for the hopes of winning a permanent position.

 

Season 2:

“Take Me Out to the Q*game” (9/8/84) – Worried about his father’s job if they beat Q*boss in the father/son ball game, Q*bert tries to convince his friends to help him lose.

 

“Noser P.I.” (9/15/84) – Q*bert and his friends have to find who took Q*Puppy before Q*Ball ends up expelled.

 

“Hook, Line and Mermaid” (9/22/84) – Q*bert accidentally hooks a mermaid on a cruise, and Coily plots to capture her and sell her to the zoo.

 

“Q*historic Days” (9/29/84) – Taking refuge from a storm in a cave, Q*bert translates some cave paintings for his friends to pass the time.

 

“Q*bert’s Monster Mix-Up” (10/6/84) – Q*ball is accidentally turned into a monster and joins Coily’s gang.

 

“Game Shoe Woe” (10/13/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

 

“The Wacky Q*bot” (10/20/84) – Q*bert and his friends try to help a klutzy robot prove he’s useful to prevent his being sent back to the factory and dismantled.

 

“Q*beat It” (10/27/84) – Q*bert and his friends are making a music video to win a contest, and Coily plans to sabotage them so that his group’s video will win.

 

“Q*urf’s Up” (11/3/84) – A trip to Q*waii gets interrupted by bullies who challenge Q*bert to a surfing contest.

 

“Little Green Nosers” (11/10/84) – Q*bert and his friends accidentally get launched into space and encounter aliens that want them for scientific experiments.

 

“Rebel Without a Q*ause” (11/17/84) – Q*bert and Viper have to join forces with their friends to get their stuff back from Q*bully and his gang.

 

“Looking for Miss Q*right” (11/24/84) – The gang tries to help Q*ball get a date for the dance.

 

“The Goofy Ghostgetters” (12/1/84) – Q*bert and his friends set out to ensure three troublesome ghosts are sent back to the afterlife from whence they came.

SATURDAY SUPERCADE

 

SATURDAY SUPERCADE

(CBS, September 17, 1983-December 1, 1984)

 

Ruby-Spears Enterprises

 

 

MAIN CAST:

Soupy Sales – Donkey Kong

Peter Cullen – Mario

Judy Strangis – Pauline

Billy Bowles – Q*bert

Robbie Lee – Q*tee, Q*val

Dick Beals – Q*bit

Frank Welker – Q*ball, Q*mungus, Coily, Ugg, Wrongway, Slick, Sam, Donkey Kong Jr. (season 1), Bongo, Fred (both season 2), various

Julie McWhirter – Viper

Bart Braverman – Bones (season 1)

Bob Sarlatte – Frogger (season 1)

Marvin Kaplan – Shellshock “Shelly” Turtle (season 1), Sidney Squirrel (season 2)

B.J. Ward – Fanny Frog (season 1)

Ted Field, Sr. – Tex Toadwalker (season 1)

Robert Ridgely – Pitfall Harry (season 1)

Noelle North – Rhonda (season 1)

Kenneth Mars – Quickclaw (season 1)

Jim Piper – Space Ace (season 2)

Sparky Marcus – Dexter (season 2)

Nancy Cartwright – Kimberly (season 2)

Peter Renaday – Space Marshall Vaughn (season 2)

Arthur Burghardt – Borf, Mr. Friendly (both season 2)

David Mendenhall – Joey Kangaroo (season 2)

Mea Martineau – Katy “K.O.” Kangaroo (season 2)

 

 

            By the time the 1980s rolled around, the American video game market was booming. Arcades were experiencing a Golden Age with rapid advancement in technology and growing cultural impact beginning with the release of Space Invaders in 1978. Likewise, home consoles were entering their second generation thanks to the affordability of new microprocessor technology, with the Atari 2600 leading the charge. This resulted in a combined revenue of $11.8 billion for the video game industry by 1982.

Hanging out at the arcade.

            Television and studio executives were not ones to let a popular trend go by without finding a way to capitalize on it. ABC and Hanna-Barbera struck first: adapting the highly successful arcade game Pac-Man into a hit animated series. TBS was next with a game show that utilized arcade games, Starcade. CBS, looking to compete, decided to hedge their bets by not just licensing one hit game, but several from both the arcades and home consoles.

The stars of Supercade: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, Pitfall Harry and Frogger.

            Among the chosen properties was the game that saved Nintendo of America from bankruptcy, Donkey Kong, and its sequel, Donkey Kong Jr.; Gottlieb’s most successful game, Q*bert; Konami’s hit Frogger; and Activision’s home console smash, Pitfall! These five entries were combined under the banner Saturday Supercade where they would air four segments over the course of an hour every Saturday (Q*bert and Pitfall! would alternate weeks). Naturally, as video games at the time were a bit limited in their story and presentation, some liberties were taken in adapting them for the small screen; such as making Frogger (Bob Sarlatte) an investigative reporter or setting Q*bert in a pastiche of the 1950s in a town dominated by cube shapes.

Character models for Donkey Kong's Pauline and Mario.

            Saturday Supercade debuted on CBS on September 17, 1983. The series was produced by former Hanna-Barbera employees Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their company, Ruby-Spears Productions. Despite sharing screen time in the intro and during commercial bumpers, and that both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. were set in the same universe, none of the shows or characters crossed over or interacted with each other. Jack Enyart, Gary Greenfield, Gordon Kent and Michael Maurer served as story editors, while Haim Saban and Shuky Levi composed the series’ theme. Dean Elliott handled the rest of the series’ music.

            Supercade was renewed for a second season; however, there were some changes. Donkey Kong Jr., Frogger and Pitfall! were dropped from the line-up. In their place came Sun Electronics’ (aka Sunsoft) hit arcade Kangaroo, and the second game from notable Disney animator Don Bluth, Space Ace. Richard Merwin, Cliff Roberts and David Villaire served as story editors this season. CBS also expanded their video game offerings with a series based on the racing game Pole Position, but as it was by DiC Entertainment it was kept separate from Supercade. Supercade continued on until December of 1984, and then left the airwaves forever. 

Article published during Atari's decline.

One of the contributing factors to its cancellation was that it was unable to compete with the powerhouse Smurfs over on NBC. The other factor was that during the show’s production, the video game industry was hit by the crash of 1983: too many consoles, too many similar games of questionable quality through the establishment of third-party publishers, plus the rise of the home computer meant that there was a lot more product than consumers. Arcades fared no better as there really hadn’t been any major innovation in game design and they were blamed for instances of delinquency in their vicinity. Video games had lost their luster for Americans and wouldn’t begin to rebound until Nintendo imported their revamped Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. The console wars began anew when Sega entered the fray, challenging the 8-bit Nintendo console with its high-speed 16-bit Genesis. With this new era in gaming came new attempts to adapt them for the screen, but those are stories told in their own entries.

A revived console war meant a new lease on life for video games--and new shows based on them.

Because Sony owned Q*bert through Columbia Pictures’ previous ownership of Gottlieb, it remains the only entry in Supercade to have seen a home video release. The Best of Q*bert came out in 2015 to coincide with the release of their film Pixels, which featured the character. Warner Archive announced via their Facebook page in 2010 that plans were underway to release Supercade to DVD since they currently own the Ruby-Spears library, but because of rights issues with the various game properties the project needed extensive research before it could happen. Segments from Space Ace have appeared as filler between programs on Boomerang and Toonami, but otherwise the various segments have only become viewable through recorded uploads on sites like YouTube.