Even in an unprecedented era of vigilance following the exposure of sexual predators Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, the #MeToo movement and revelations from the Adult Survivors Act, Hollywood retains its capacity to shock. The latest scandal swept through tinseltown like a tornado this week – and it was not a good look for Nickelodeon, the doyen of children’s television networks.
The whirlwind was a four-part documentary called Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, streamed over two consecutive nights on the Investigation Discovery network.
What it revealed blew away any notion that making children’s television was an entirely wholesome process. Instead, it shone a harsh spotlight on a pervasive, toxic culture in the studio, the sexual and psychological abuse suffered by child stars in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the misogyny and racism of the adults in charge.
At its heart was the once-lauded producer Dan Schneider, a man hailed as the “Norman Lear of children’s television” for his creation of hit programs such as iCarly, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 and Victorious, before his 2018 fall when the first allegations came to light.
Six years after he was fired, in the wake of the docuseries release, Schneider issued a groveling YouTube apology on Tuesday. He apologized to those he offended during a quarter-century as Nickelodeon’s undisputed – and untouchable – commander of kids’ television. He promised to be better.
To the victims, some of whom fell prey to on-set pedophiles, and whose trauma evolved into anxiety, depression, alcoholism or mental breakdowns as they grew older, apologies aren’t enough. They’re seeking change and accountability in an industry that turned a blind eye to predatory behavior.
“A lot of the people that are talked about in the documentary, and the networks we’re talking about, are still in existence, they’re still engaged in the same programming, so I would hope things will change, that it will overhaul how Nickelodeon works,” said Scaachi Koul, a popular-culture journalist and consultant for Quiet on Set.
“Fundamentally I would hope it makes them fully reinvestigate how they employ these kids. I’m realistic, they’re not going to say we’re going to kill this programming, but I hope it will force them to reorganize how they do it.
“There are a lot of people involved in the story who should have a conversation with themselves about what they could have done, what they failed to do. When it comes to children, you should be able to ask for accountability forever. Until you get it.”
The documentary is not the first to question Schneider’s closeness with young cast members, such as Amanda Bynes, with whom he was filmed sharing a hot tub when she was 13 and in a bikini, or the sexualized nature of jokes he had children perform.
In her 2022 biography, Jennette McCurdy, star of iCarly who played opposite a teenage Ariana Grande in its spin-off Sam & Cat, recounted how Schneider, whom she did not name at the time, had her drink alcohol underage, massaged her shoulders, and made her feel uncomfortable by insisting she wore a small bikini in the show at 15.
Scenes involving Grande, at roughly the same age, have also previously come under scrutiny, including one that had her attempting to squeeze juice from a potato she was fondling.
What Quiet on Set achieves is pulling together fragmented episodes and anecdotes from a dark period during which Schneider reigned supreme. It’s a comprehensive account of his failures, and those of others, which allowed exploitation and abuse of children to flourish.
One episode tells the story of Drake Bell, child star of The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh, who identified himself as a victim of Brian Peck – a dialogue coach convicted in 2004 for child sexual abuse and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
Bell, now 37, revealed how he was groomed by Peck while starring on The Amanda Show, and how it went unnoticed until it was too late. Bell says his later troubles including alcoholism, bankruptcy, and a conviction for child endangerment stem from the trauma.
Peck wasn’t the only sexual offender. Jason Handy, a production assistant who worked closely with the young casts of All That and The Amanda Show and received a six-year sentence in 2004 for molesting two girls, is also featured on the docuseries.
A third Nickelodeon employee, animator Ezel Channel, went to prison for more than seven years after his 2009 conviction for sexually abusing teenage boys at the studio.
In addition to Bell, several other former child stars spoke out about their experiences in the series. Bryan Hearne, a Black actor in All That, said he was racially abused then fired when his mother spoke up; Giovannie Samuels said she was considered “the token Black girl” on set; and Alexa Nikolas, former star of Zoey 101, appeared on the documentary and later even streamed her own lengthy response to Schneider’s apology.
“That wasn’t proper accountability. That was avoiding a lot of the main discussions that were mentioned in Quiet on Set, that was him playing the sympathy card, centering himself, playing the victim,” she said.
Schneider, 58, parted with Nickelodeon in 2018 after McCurdy’s revelations prompted an internal inquiry. No evidence of sexual misconduct was found, but Nickelodeon’s parent company, ViacomCBS, said he was prone to tantrums and verbal abuse.
In his video, Schneider said: “Watching [Quiet on Set] was very difficult, facing my past behaviors, some of which were embarrassing and I regret, and I definitely owe some people some pretty strong apologies.”
He maintained jokes in his shows were never intentionally sexualized.
“Every one was written for a kid audience. Now you have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens,” he said.
Nickelodeon issued a statement, reported by Variety, that it could not “corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago”.
“Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience,” the company said.
Mary Robertson, one of the documentary’s co-directors, told the Hollywood Reporter she thought Quiet on Set was much more than the story of just one network and its failure to keep children safe.
“I think we’re in a moment as a culture where we’re reflecting more often, and perhaps understanding more deeply, the downside to fame,” she said.
“In the case of Quiet on Set, we’re paying more attention to what it means for these child actors to experience incredibly high highs and incredibly low lows, and they’re experiencing those as children.
“We look at what it means for them to exist in an environment where they’re celebrated, and where they get to have fun, and sometimes sing and dance and tell funny jokes, but where boundaries are sometimes blurred, where it’s hard for them to have agency and to feel comfortable speaking out.”
