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Ruby-Spears "Superman" Series Arrives Nov 3rd, 09

C

cylkoth

Commodore
Commodore
Finally, the very scarce, late '80s animated series produced by Ruby-Spears, flies to dvd Nov 3rd.
SUPERMAN SOARS INTO STORES WITH WARNER HOME VIDEO’S DVD RELEASE OF
RUBY-SPEARS SUPERMAN ON NOVEMBER 3, 2009!

At Last All 13 Ruby-Spears Episodes Are Released On DVD Over 20 Years Later​
As a 50th anniversary gift to fans, DC Comics’ Man of Steel was given a brand-new Saturday morning cartoon in 1988. Now, fans of all ages can finally join the celebration when Warner Home Video (WHV) and DC Comics release Ruby-Spears Superman, a 2-disc collection of cartoons from the Warner Bros. vault, on November 3, 2009 for $26.99 SRP. Order due date is September 29, 2009.

Debuting in 1988, the Ruby-Spears Superman series brought back some familiar foes and new unfriendly faces for battles against our favorite hero. In addition to the thrills of Superman’s weekly adventures, each episode also includes a mini-segment – a continuing series called Superman Family Album. These featurettes tell the real story of what it was like to grow up as the most powerful boy in Smallville. Watch young Clark Kent deal with not only the normal trials and tribulations of youth and adolescence, but learn to balance them with his newfound super powers.
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The one DC based superhero show that escaped my notice back in the day. I can't even recall why I didn't check it out. 20 years later, I get the chance to see it.

http://news.toonzone.net/articles/30679/updated-ruby-spears-version-of-superman-coming-to-dvd
 
It was kind of a cool show for its day -- less sophisticated and less serious than the Bruce Timm series that came later, but more sophisticated and comics-faithful than the Superfriends stuff, thanks to story editor Marv Wolfman and character designer Gil Kane, who'd worked together as writer and artist on the Superman comics earlier in the decade.

The music was by Ron Jones (ST:TNG, DuckTales), and the main titles combined John Williams's Superman theme with a new one by Jones. Superman was Beau Weaver (later Reed Richards on the '90s Fantastic Four), Lois was Ginny McSwain (a noted voice director on many shows including this one), Jimmy was Mark Taylor (character actor who's been in practically everything), and Perry, interestingly, was voiced by Stanley Ralph Ross, who had been the best writer for the '60s Adam West Batman series. Lex was Michael Bell (Duke from the '80s GI Joe, Groppler Zorn from the TNG pilot) doing a Gene Hackman-style characterization. Pa Kent was Alan Oppenheimer (Skeletor and Man-at-Arms from He-Man and the original Dr. Rudy Wells on The Six Million Dollar Man) and Ma Kent was Tress MacNeille (many voices on Futurama, The Simpsons, Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, etc.).

I don't remember much about the stories, except there was an episode with a Superman-Wonder Woman teamup; this was before the rules that inexplicably bar Wonder Woman from appearing in any film/TV adaptation where she isn't a lead character.
 
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OH HELL YEAH!!! It is about damn time!:techman: I remember watching this show back in the eighties. Here are the few things about it that I remember.

1. Wonder Woman appeared in one ep.
2. There was an ep where a cyborg appeared and starting borgifying people. This ep is significant because, while borgified, Jimmy and Lois finally learn Supes secret identity. Of course once they are normal again they conveniently forget.
3. There was an ep featuring the General Zod and his cohorts.
4. I of course remember the family album segments.

I am definitely looking forward to picking this up.
 
I don't remember this show at all but have heard about it for decades and always wanted to see it. I'll be picking it up too, money permitting.
 
Christopher said:
It was kind of a cool show for its day -- less sophisticated and less serious than the Bruce Timm series that came later, .
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Good. Bruce Timm seemed to forget that Superman was supposed to be a fun character and tried to make him Batman with a cape. I'll be interested in seeing a more faithful take on the character.
 
I liked the Bruce Timm Superman on Superman:TAS, on Justice League, not so much. That's where he became a jerk.

I don't remember ever seeing Ruby-Spears Superman back in the day. I've seen a few clips on Youtube.
 
Well, the JL/U Superman was, for a long time, in recovery from his heart-wrenching finale. He only got past it in the Cadmus finale.
 
Admiral James Kirk said:
Good. Bruce Timm seemed to forget that Superman was supposed to be a fun character and tried to make him Batman with a cape. I'll be interested in seeing a more faithful take on the character.
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Like Batman, Superman has had many incarnations over the decades, so there's no one way to be "faithful." The original late-30s Superman was a hardcore vigilante. In the Fleischer cartoons of the '40s, he was toned down a bit from that, but was still a no-nonsense, two-fisted character. The Timm Superman was influenced by the Fleischer cartoons (which were also an influence on B:TAS, so you're getting your cause and effect kind of backward), as well as by the George Reeves TV series and its portrayal of Clark Kent as a hard-hitting crime reporter rather than a Christopher Reeve-style bumbler.

And the Timm/Dini S:TAS had its share of light and comedic episodes (such as "The Main Man," "Mxyzpixilated," and "Speed Demons"), although they sometimes misfired (two words: "Monkey Fun").
 
I never really liked the Christopher Reeve "bumbling Clark Kent". Honestly that's really the only place that Clark was that clumsy and bumbling. Dude could barely walk a straight line without tripping. Even in the late 70s/80s Clark wasn't that goofy. Superman was more goofy than Clark. Clark was pretty cool - to an extent. And especially after the Byrne revamp he went from the geek to well... less geeky.

I don't recall ever seeing this show and I used to watch anything superhero back when i was a kid. I would have been around 7 - but I still enjoyed Superman.

There's another one that I don't recall ever being aired again, wasn't there a Plastic Man cartoon earlier in the 80s, like maaaaybe 84 ish?
 
This escaped my attention back in the day as well. I would've been 8yr old in '88 and I can't say that I saw this. Will have to check it out.
 
Christopher said:
Like Batman, Superman has had many incarnations over the decades, so there's no one way to be "faithful." The original late-30s Superman was a hardcore vigilante. In the Fleischer cartoons of the '40s, he was toned down a bit from that, but was still a no-nonsense, two-fisted character. The Timm Superman was influenced by the Fleischer cartoons (which were also an influence on B:TAS, so you're getting your cause and effect kind of backward), as well as by the George Reeves TV series and its portrayal of Clark Kent as a hard-hitting crime reporter rather than a Christopher Reeve-style bumbler.
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Moreover, the 1930s-40s daily strip showed Clark Kent to very much be a hard-edged investigative reporter, who was only a milquetoast whenever Lois was around. He often stood toe-to-toe with George Taylor, later Perry White, on several story assignments.


NickRyder said:
. And especially after the Byrne revamp he went from the geek to well... less geeky.
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A version of Clark Kent that was also influenced by the George Reeves TV series.
 
It seems there are more forgotten cartoons than there are stars in the heavens, to coin a phrase. While watching a copy of 'Popeye Meets The Man Who Hated Laughter' (featuring like, pert near EVERY newspaper comic strip character in existence as of 1972) I found included 'Super President'--yesss, the story of a POTUS with super-powers and a secret ID as welll-'Super President'. The most scrutinized man in the world regularly snuck out of the post-1963 White House to save the world. And it wasn't even that absurdity did it in. Someone somewhere objected to the depiction of an unkillable President in the era of the big assassinations, circa 1968. Having seen it, I can safely say, you're missing nothing but a good laugh.
 
C.E. Evans said:
I'm another one that doesn't remember this show at at all. What the hell???
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It was only on for a single season, so I'm not surprised it isn't well-remembered. And most of the attention of Superman fans in 1988 was probably directed at the syndicated live-action Adventures of Superboy series that debuted that year as well.
 
I remembered this show well. I am thinking a lot of you were too young or just caught up in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the only super hero show on at the time. Those were very said days. So unlike now.
 
Galactus said:
I remembered this show well. I am thinking a lot of you were too young or just caught up in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was the only super hero show on at the time.
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Well, the TMNT were superheroes, so you're kind of contradicting yourself there. Also in 1988 there was C.O.P.S., about a team of superpowered police officers; Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, about a team of superpowered space lawmen; BraveStarr in a similar vein; and Marvel Action Universe featuring Robocop along with reruns of earlier Spider-Man cartoons.

And that's just animation. As I said above, the live-action Adventures of Superboy debuted in the same year as the Ruby-Spears Superman.
 
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