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Ken Spears, Co-Producer of 'Ruby-Spears Superman', Passes Away
Ken Spears, co-creator of the classic animated series "Scooby-Doo" and co-founder of Ruby-Spears Productions, has passed away at the age of 82 from complications related to Lewy body dementia.
"Ken will forever be remembered for his wit, his story-telling, his loyalty to family, and his strong work ethic," said Spears' son Kevin in a statement to Variety. "Ken has not only made a lasting impression on his family, but he has touched the lives of many as co-creator of 'Scooby-Doo.' Ken has been a role model for us throughout his life and he will continue to live on in our hearts."
Born March 12, 1938, Spears grew up in the Los Angeles area, and was a friend of the son of animation producer William Hanna. As an adult, Spears was hired at Hanna's company, Hanna-Barbera Productions, as a sound editor in 1959. He met Joe Ruby in the editing department of Hanna-Barbera, and the two men began a writing partnership. Spears and Ruby wrote teleplays for several animated and live-action television programs, both freelance and as on-staff writers for Hanna-Barbera, Sid and Marty Krofft Television Productions and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
For Hanna-Barbera, Spears and Ruby created Scooby-Doo, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, and Jabberjaw, among other programs. At DePatie-Freleng, they created The Barkleys and The Houndcats. In the early 1970s, CBS president of children's programming Fred Silverman hired Spears and Ruby to supervise the production of CBS's Saturday morning cartoon lineup, a position they assumed at ABC when Silverman defected to that network.
Wanting to create competition for Hanna-Barbera, ABC set Spears and Ruby up with their own studio in 1977, as a subsidiary of Filmways. Ruby-Spears Productions produced animated series for Saturday mornings, among them Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour, Thundarr the Barbarian, Saturday Supercade, Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Superman, among others. Ruby-Spears was bought by Hanna-Barbera's parent company, Taft Entertainment, in 1981, and its back catalog was sold along with the Hanna-Barbera library and studio in 1991 to Turner Broadcasting.
Spears passed away in Brea, CA on November 6th, 2020. Prior to his death, he had continued to work with Ruby on the production and development of animated series up until Ruby's death on August 26th, 2020.
Spears is survived by his two sons, Kevin and Chris; their wives, his five grandchildren and his three great-grandchildren. The Superman Super Site wishes to extend our deepest thoughts and prayers to the Spears family during this difficult time of mourning.
