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Led by animation veterans Joe Ruby
and Ken Spears, Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc. is a prominent producer
of family and children's entertainment. The company was launched and commenced
production in 1977.
Confirming ABC's faith and exceeding their expectations, Ruby-Spears produced the Emmy-nominated special, "The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy" as its first effort. The "Puppy" was so successful that it led to three additional specials and a three-year run as a series. Following closely on the success of the "Puppy" came "Fangface", the first of a long string of hits from Ruby-Spears. Less than a year later this first series became part of a two-hour block called "The Plasticman Adventure Hour" ... 72 half hours of animated programs, all originals, that included "Mighty Man and Yukk," "Rickety Rocket," "Fangface and Fangpuss" and the pliable comic book hero come-to-life "Plastic Man". In the following decade, Ruby-Spears had produced thirty-six television series including "Alvin and the Chipmunks," the highest rated series of the 1987-88 season. Alvin was eventually purchased for syndication by Lorimar Telepictures for a sum in excess of $25 million. Their productions have ranged from the original action adventure world of "Thundarr the Barbarian," to the comedy of "Saturday Supercade" and "Heathcliff and Marmaduke," to the drama of "Mr. T." Their "Rubik the Amazing Cube" was the first network series to feature a Hispanic family as its central characters. In addition to their series, they have produced over two dozen television animated specials, including in Prime Time "The Cabbage Patch Kids First Christmas," "I Love The Chipmunks Valentine Special" and "A Chipmunk Reunion" which dealt sensitively with adoption. Another first for Ruby-Spears, was the NBC broadcast of their unique live and animated Prime Time special, "A Mouse, A Mystery and Me." It starred Dick Van Patten as Santa Claus and featured the voice of Donald O'Connor as Alex the mouse, the sole animated character in this Christmas Broadcast. Their production of the one-hour live-action CBS Schoolbreak Special, "The Day They Came to Arrest the Book," was awarded an Emmy and the prestigious Humanitas Prize. In addition, this Ruby-Spears production received the ACT (Action for Children's Television) Award as the outstanding one-hour program for children and family. Ruby-Spears pulled the coup of the 1988-89 season by acquiring the rights to two heavily sought after properties. Debuting that September on CBS was the classic, "Superman", which celebrated its 50th anniversary, and it was with much acclaim that Ruby-Spears was selected to produce the animated series for the network schedule. A few days later, Ruby-Spears was again in the spotlight when they were selected to produce the animated version of the highly successful theatrical series, "Police Academy." Sixty-five half-hour episodes were produced and released in the fall of 1989 for first-run syndication. For the 1989-90 season, Ruby-Spears sold "Dink, the Little Dinosaur" to CBS. "Dink" was the only original program to be sold to the networks that year. Another original program from Ruby-Spears, "Piggsburg Pigs," was sold to the Fox Network for the launch of their Children's Network for the 1990-91 season. The renewal of "Dink" by CBS gave Ruby-Spears two concurrent original series on the networks, breaking the long-standing "pre-sold" properties trend. Most recently Ruby-Spears produced the "C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa" series for ABC and the surprise hit and highly rated series of 1994 "Mega Man", in association with Ashi Productions LTD. of Tokyo, Japan, for the syndicated market. Also, the famous Mozart opera "The Magic Flute" was adapted for television by Ruby-Spears and premiered as a two part ABC Weekend Special in May of 1994. This highly acclaimed special has been followed by the African Folktale Special "Jirimpimbira", also for ABC, which aired in February of 1995. 1995 brought to television one of Ruby-Spears most exciting series "SKYSURFER STRIKE FORCE"... which was launched on the Bohbot Entertainment Amazin' Adventures Block and was fully supported by a major toy and video game commitment from Bandai, and a full, worldwide merchandising program by Bohbot. Also in 1995, Ruby-Spears produced 13 additional 1/2 hour episodes of MegaMan which was the number one rated weekly syndicated animated series. It was distributed by Summit Media, the company that currently produces and distributes the mega-hit, Pokemon. For the 1996-97 television season, Skysurfer Strike Force was again featured on the Amazin' Adventures block with 13 new 1/2 hour episodes. In 1999 and 2000, Ruby-Spears supervised the creative and preproduction work for a direct to video production for SSA Productions, entitled "Slammin' Sammy...the Sammy Sosa Story" The video is an animated biography of the homerun hero, Sammy Sosa. With the new millennium comes new types of entertainment adventures as Ruby-Spears enters the Internet world by developing content for the animation hungry worldwide web. Evidenced by their own site and findcannibal.com, Ruby-Spears will offer a variety of content for Internet syndication as well as the more traditional broadcast and cable universes. Continuing in syndication are Ruby-Spears award winning series, "Alvin and the Chipmunks," which along with "Punky Brewster," "Turbo Teen," "Mr. T" and "The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show," which add up to over two hundred and fifty half hours of animated programming being shown across the country, and over six hundred half hours being shown in syndication around the world on the Turner Cartoon Network. Above all, creative abilities and quality of execution have been the hallmark of their success. Messrs. Ruby and Spears are co-executive producers involved in every aspect of the project from inception to production to delivery. Mr. Ruby is primarily involved on the creative side with the writing and presentation of the shows. Mr. Spears oversees the production and the day-to-day operations of their Burbank-based company.
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While known for their animated series and specials work, Ruby-Spears is also well versed in live action television, specials and movies in a variety of capacities — from writers and story editors to creative development executives as well as producers.
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Home • About Ruby-Spears Productions • Legal • Contact Us! (c) Copyright 2001 - 2002 Ruby-Spears Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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