By Olivia Fleming
HBO Max released a heart-wrenching documentary, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” on the weekend of March 17 and 18. The four-part docuseries covers alleged issues of exploitation and abuse of child actors on popular Nickelodeon kids television shows.
The series investigates the alleged toxic culture of kids shows in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The first episode introduces Dan Schneider, a producer of successful TV shows such as The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly, and Victorious. Interviews with former child stars were featured throughout the series, uncovering the truth behind working in such a toxic work environment.
Something that was mentioned by a lot of the child stars was the dirty jokes that Schneider used in his shows. He liked to push the boundaries with his jokes, and his writing style had a lot of edge to it. Clips of these inappropriate jokes were played in the series, highlighting that kids don’t understand the deeper meaning behind many of the jokes they’re being forced to tell. Now that these actors are older, they were deeply disturbed by Schneider and are speaking out about the inappropriate behavior seen on set.
Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen were the only female writers to work on season one of The Amanda Show. Listening to them recount their time working for Schneider was appalling. The two writers were asked to split a single salary, which only the female writers were asked to do. It was also reported that Schneider acted inappropriately towards the women, asking them to massage him on multiple occasions. Kilgen stated she would be asked to massage Schneider, and as a reward, he would put one of her sketches on the show. Since the documentary was released, Schneider denied controlling the salaries. The writers expressed that he was on a power trip after Schneider’s success with The Amanda Show. Stratton compared working for Schneider to being in an abusive relationship. “Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship,” says Stratton in episode one of the docuseries.
Even though Schneider was known to create an uncomfortable work environment for child stars, parents, and coworkers, he has not been convicted of any crimes on the Nickelodeon set. Three men who worked on the set with the children were convicted of child and sexual abuse accusations. All of these men worked closely with the children on set.
At the end of the first episode, it’s discussed that one of the children on the show had been assaulted by someone working on set. “It wasn’t a child actor on one of our shows, was it,” is the question asked before actor Drake Bell gets on camera to tell his story.
For the first time, Bell publicly shared his story, where he details a pattern of sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his dialogue coach, Brian Peck. Peck worked on Nickelodeon for years, working closely with child actors. Viewers were shocked to hear about the abuse Bell went through before even starting the popular TV show Drake & Josh. Bell has received a lot of love and support from fans through social media, who thank him for his bravery in sharing his story.
Peck was arrested in 2003 for 11 counts, including lewd acts with a minor, as stated in a press release shared by the Los Angeles police department. In 2004, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender. Bell recalled that when he went to the courtroom, Brian’s entire side was filled with people supporting him. Watching this part of the series was extremely difficult since you can see how hard it is for Bell to talk about this situation on camera. Bell was only 15 years old at the time he was assaulted.
The series has a theme of power that highlights what having power in Hollywood can do for someone. During Peck’s sentencing, many well-known actors wrote letters to the judge. Peck was older and had a lot of support from people in the industry he’d worked with before. The 41 letters in support of Peck tried to blame the victim, saying Brian was tempted and that this was very out of character. These letters had been concealed for decades until now.
Bell is visibly in distress when recounting these times of his life. It was truly horrible to hear about the torture this poor child had to undergo, and the fact he put it behind him and masked his emotions is unbelievable. The part that stood out to me was when Bell discussed that time in the courtroom when Brian received a room full of support while he stood on the opposite side of the room with just his mother and brother. Bell looked at the people supporting Peck while giving his testimony and said, “How dare you. You will forever have the memory of sitting in this courtroom and defending this person. I will forever have the memory of the person you’re defending violating me and doing unspeakable acts and crimes, and that’s what I’ll remember.”
The most disturbing fact that Bell shared was not one of the people who wrote letters reached out to Bell after it was publicized that Brian was a predator. In 2005, Peck was released, and shortly after, Disney Channel hired him to work on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Since then, it has been stated in an article published by Variety that Peck did voiceover work for three episodes but had no interaction with the cast or crew on set. After Disney Channel learned about his conviction, he was immediately terminated, and his voiceovers were replaced. Disney terminated him in 2006, but he continued to work other jobs until 2018. It makes you question the extent of background checks and further stresses the importance.
After the arrests, Nickelodeon grew tremendously and entered its golden era in the mid-2000s with the success of iCarly, Zoey101, Drake & Josh, and Victorious. Schneider was making more money than ever, thus gaining more power. Due to the high success rate of Nickelodeon, it was brushed under the rug the fact that the television channel had hired three child predators.
The actors in these popular TV shows were mostly minors and were seen doing inappropriate things. In Victorious, there are multiple scenes where props are used as sexual innuendos. As a kid, you watch these shows, and the jokes go right over your head. Adults raised an eyebrow at a lot of the content seen in these shows since they are marketed towards children, yet the jokes used are for adults. It made people question whether Schneider was using these children for his entertainment.
In 2017, the Me Too movement happened, which helped to reevaluate what is appropriate vs. inappropriate in the workplace. It wasn’t until this movement that child actors, writers, and people in the industry decided to speak out and share their stories.
The docuseries was genuinely eye-opening and moving in inexplicable ways. It’s hard to see the reality behind a lot of these TV shows that I grew up watching and loving, not even knowing the abuse that these children went through. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest you watch this docu-series; it’s empowering to hear the stories of these people we grew up idolizing. As hard as this series was to watch, it was amazing to see how these people have turned their lives around and are getting the peace they deserve.