It may have been short-lived, but the 13-episode run of the Ruby-Spears Superman animated series is getting another lease on life, as it is being rereleased on DVD today. Warner Home Video sat down and talked with the animators on their experience working with the larger-than-life battles of the Man of Steel.
QUESTION: Why were there only 13 episodes to the entire series?
JOE RUBY: “I think the problem for us was our timeslot. It turned out 8:30 in the morning was a killer for Superman. Only the little kids were up, and they don’t understand Superman as well as the older kids. It wasn’t for 4- to 5-year-olds”
QUESTION: Was there a guiding theme to the series?
KEN SPEARS: “I think we were true to Superman to begin with – we produced a show that the audience expected Superman to be. He was the tried and true Superman, That’s who they wanted to see – that’s the feedback that we continue to get today.”
JOE RUBY: “We basically had Superman tackling anything and everything, with the marching orders to have bigger-than-life fights.”
QUESTION: What did you see as the strength of your Superman series?
KEN SPEARS: “We had the best talent in the business at the time – that was our strength. They were excellent. When you first create a show, you hope your talent will be able to plus it – and they really plussed it. There are so many shots in the show that weren’t written into the script – those kind of great additions come straight from the artists and the storyboarders.
JOE RUBY: “We had a pretty amazing crew – and an especially great crew of artists – including some of the best comic book guys in the business, and that made for good filmmaking. Guys like John Dorman and Gil Kane – we had an army of great talent on that show. Give credit to John Dorman – he’s a filmmaker and that’s the difference. He made sure the show had all the creative shots, the movement, some of that great left-to-right or down-angle camera moves. The show was well paced, well boarded, and I think John really put these things together well.”
QUESTION: Did splitting the production between two overseas studios in Japan and Korea cause any problems?
JOE RUBY: “It was an experience for us, from a production standpoint, traveling overseas and working with two different interpreters having to translate in three different languages. They’d be answering before I’d get done with my question. It was the worst torture I ever had in my life.”
QUESTION: Looking back now, can you see how Ruby-Spears Superman fits in the canon of productions surrounding the Man of Steel?
JOE RUBY: “As a kid, we all grew up with Superman. He’s the favorite, always. Your heroes stick with you. So we wanted to make the best Superman show we could, to really set it apart. I think everyone that worked on it felt that way. He’s Superman.”
KEN SPEARS: “It was like an honor to do something that classy and classic as Superman. He’s the No. 1 guy. We wanted to do it justice.”
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I don’t remember this series at all, and yet some of those images look startlingly familiar. Especially the one with Borg Lois and Borg Jimmy.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Can’t wait to get this set today.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I completely missed this series when it was on… I’d like to see some reviews on the show itself. The screen caps here look great, but I’m curious to know how good the writing was, how smart the stories were. It wasn’t for 4 or 5 year olds, apparently, but was this on the same level as the Timm-verse shows?
I had qualms with Timm’s Superman series (most notably how such a powerful character sure seemed to get clobbered a lot or needing saving by others, and that happened on Justice League too) but it was still, for the most part a really well-written show. If the Ruby-Spears show was on the same level, I’d probably pick it up.
Who was in the cast?
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
I remember this being on the late 80s on CBS. They’re right… the time slot was awful, especially when I was used to being up around 10 or 11 to watch the Super Powers Team in prior seasons. I remember missing it quite often sleeping in on a Saturday.
It was a fun show, but I thought it suffered from too many generic alien monsters of the week (from what my feeble mind can recall). I might pick it up to see what I remember.
November 4th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Out here in Arizona the show was never on the air.
Sat morning cartoons always started a little later due to local/national news on CBS and were constantly preempted by sports.
I think the show was preempted every week and CBS cancelled it before summer reruns.