Ruby and Spears started out as
sound editors at
Hanna-Barbera and later branched out into story-writing for such programs as
Space Ghost and
The Herculoids. In 1969, they were assigned the task of developing a mystery-based
cartoon series for Saturday mornings, the result of which was
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. They left Hanna-Barbera shortly after because "they were having a hard time moving up" and wanted to be "associate producers". They were also writers and producers for
DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, particularly for
Barkleys and
The Houndcats. The company was founded in 1977 as a division of
Filmways (later
Orion Pictures) and sold in late 1981 to
Taft Broadcasting, becoming a sister company to Hanna-Barbera, while Ruby and Spears were network executives at ABC supervising the Saturday-morning programming.
ABC Entertainment president
Fred Silverman wanted to create competition for Hanna-Barbera, which then provided the bulk of the Saturday morning content for all three major networks. Silverman was concerned the studio was stretching their projects too thin, diluting the quality of their series, requiring competition. Ruby and Spears' favorite Ruby-Spears-produced show was
Thundarr the Barbarian. Only two pre-1991 series,
Police Academy: The Animated Series and
Piggsburg Pigs!, used Canadian rather than American voice talent like most of their other cartoons. Ruby-Spears was also responsible for the animated sequence in the 1988 film ''
Child's Play and replaying the sequence as a fictional commercial in the 1991 sequel Child's Play 3''. In 1991, Ruby-Spears was spun off into RS Holdings. Most of the pre-1991 Ruby-Spears Productions library was sold along with Hanna-Barbera to
Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn merged with
Time Warner (now
Warner Bros. Discovery) in 1996. The Ruby-Spears studio closed later that year, after 19 years of operation. As of now, Ruby-Spears' pre-1991 library is owned by
Warner Bros. through
Warner Bros. Animation. The few pre-1991 Ruby-Spears shows not owned by Warner Bros. are
Rambo: The Force of Freedom, which is owned and distributed by
StudioCanal which also own and distribute the first three live-action
Rambo films, ''
It's Punky Brewster, which is owned by Universal Television (but distributed by MGM Television outside the US, along with most of the pre-2004 NBC Studios library), and Piggsburg Pigs!'', which is owned by
The Walt Disney Company through its acquisition of
Fox Kids Worldwide (now ABC Family Worldwide) in 2001. Ruby-Spears' post-1991 library does not appear to be owned by any company; however, there are a few exceptions:
Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa is now owned by
WildBrain,
Mega Man is owned by
Shochiku and
Skysurfer Strike Force is owned by Invincible Entertainment Group under license from
41 Entertainment, along with most of the
Bohbot Entertainment library. The founders both died in 2020 within three months of each other – Ruby died of
natural causes on August 26 at the age of 87 and Spears died of complications from
Lewy body dementia on November 6 at age 82. == Filmography ==