Tom Ruegger, Animator-Producer-Writer-Episode #369
Manage episode 514997810 series 1440006
Tom Ruegger is the fourteen-time Emmy Award-winning producer and creative force behind many of the most popular and successful animated TV series of all time, including: Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Histeria, Road Rovers, and the feature film, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Tom also co-wrote the pilot and served as a script editor of the Emmy Award-winning animated series Tutenstein.
Tom began his career as an animator at Hanna-Barbera Productions on such familiar cartoon series as Scooby Doo, The New Flintstones, Casper, and Godzilla. Later, as a story editor and producer, he worked on shows like Pound Puppies, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Tom created and produced A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the first Scooby-Doo series to be nominated for an Emmy.
After honing his writing skills working at Filmation Studios on TV series like Blackstar, and Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Tom would subsequently join Warner Bros. Animation where he went on to head up production on Tiny Toon Adventures, beginning a decade-long, wildly successful creative collaboration with Steven Spielberg, spanning five hit series resulting in over 30 Emmy Awards in numerous categories.
In 1993, in collaboration with Mr. Spielberg, Tom created a cast of breakout characters for Animaniacs, the multi-award-winning "hellzapoppin'-style" cartoon show, starring the zany siblings Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner. Tom served as the show's senior producer, story editor, writer and lyricist.
Tom served as chief creative executive of Warner Bros. Animation during its second "Golden Age." Along with Jean MacCurdy, Tom executive-produced: Taz-Mania and Batman: The Animated Series.
385 episodes