One of the masterminds behind Scooby-Doo has passed away at the age of 87. The animation writer and executive Joe Ruby died of natural causes Wednesday in Westlake Village, California.
Scooby-Doo and the gang of teenage detectives known famously as Mystery, Inc. first appeared on CBS in 1969. Ruby and co-creator Ken Spears conceived Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in response to parents’ complaints about the violent themes in existing children’s programming at the time. The duo met while working at Hanna-Barbera and later went on to establish Ruby-Spears Productions, the company behind a number of animated properties including the 1983 Alvin and the Chipmunks series.
Although Scooby-Doo inspired a number of reboots and spinoffs, including the 2020 Scoob! film, it wasn’t Ruby’s only brainchild at Hanna-Barbera. He was also responsible for characters like Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and Jabberjaw. Due to their success in the cartoon world, Ruby and Spears supervised Saturday morning children’s programming at CBS and later at ABC. All told, Ruby had a huge impact on changing the TV landscape, particularly with the shows he worked on in the 1970s.
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