A native
New Yorker, In May 1950, Ruskin—as Gobo the Clown—hosted the weekly children's show, ''Gobo's Circus'', on
WNBT in New York. On the sitcom ''
Here's Lucy'', Ruskin directed every one of the final three season's episodes with the exception of the last six, which marked the return of the show's original director,
Jack Donohue. In an interview published in 1998,
Andy Griffith scripter—and former actor—
Harvey Bullock fondly recalls his first-ever encounter with Ruskin (presumably circa fall 1957). The director, Coby Ruskin, was a darling man. I knew him vaguely from England, where he was directing a TV series. It was some sort of show with guest entertainers. I was in a comedy at the Garrick Theater London, and a segment from the play was to air on this show. The actors all trooped in for rehearsal with Coby, who was directing the segment. He was just marvelous. When he finished, the segment was better than anything else in our play, and we all wished that he had directed the whole thing. I will never forget it. His talent, his understanding and warmth just enveloped you, filled you with confidence, and made you as steady as a rock. Coby, you were great!” A not dissimilar note had been struck nearly four decades earlier, when, in 1959, Kathryn Kohnfelder Murray recounted her—and husband
Arthur Murray's—nearly-decade-long on-air collaboration with Ruskin. Coby has been with us ever since [1951], and I will always be grateful to him for encouraging me to be creative.[...] Coby had been an actor and a stage director before he entered television. He has unusual talent for comedy and is himself a skilled pantomimist. After he had been with us for a few months he suggested that I add to my M.C. role. As he put it, 'Let’s put Katie in the act.' I reminded him that I had no stage experience, that I couldn’t sing and that my dancing was limited to the ballroom variety. So he started me as a performer with record pantomimes which were then a popular novelty. To these, he soon added some incidental dance steps. ==Personal life and death==