Sexism, favoritism, and abuse: Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV examines Dan Schneider's Nickelodeon

Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV acknowledges that it is, in many ways, a response to the online conversation about Dan Schneider. The creator of beloved Nickelodeon series like All That, The Amanda Show, iCarly, Drake & Josh, and Victorious parted ways with the network in 2018, but he’s long been the subject of side-eyeing over the sometimes strange and seemingly sexualized content on his shows. (In 2021, he had to come out and deny creating foot fetish content based on the sheer volume of weird feet stuff on his shows.) Given that, and the high-profile behind-the-scenes drama that happened on or around his sets (the public meltdown of Amanda Bynes, the teen pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears, and the many issues shared by Jeanette McCurdy), many wonder: what was going on on Schneider’s shows? The new Investigation Discovery docuseries, premiering March 17, sets out to answer.

Many of the allegations made in Quiet On Set were previously touched upon in a Business Insider investigation (the author of which is interviewed in the docuseries) as well as McCurdy’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. Nevertheless, Quiet On Set is a comprehensive view at the dysfunction, misconduct, and sometimes abuse that went on behind the scenes at Nickelodeon. And there are some bombshells, like Drake Bell’s revelation that he was sexually abused by a former All That staffer, Brian Peck. (Bell does not go into detail about being convicted of child endangerment himself in the docuseries, though he has denied some of the allegations against him elsewhere.)

There are no allegations in the documentary that Schneider had inappropriate sexual relationships with his young stars, although most of the interviewees—from outside observers to people who worked on Nick shows—agree that he set up his young performers in costumes, jokes, and sketches that bordered on sexually inappropriate. Former All That cast member Leon Frierson recalls discomfort with skintight spandex costumes, particularly for his “Nose Boy” character (the noses attached all over the costume looked phallic, he thinks now). The Amanda Show character name “Penelope Taint” was an intentional innuendo, according to two writers, but he lied to Nickelodeon about it and made the writers keep quiet about it. Multiple of the gags, from All That to Zoey 101, are described by the viewers and actors now as “cum shot” jokes. Viewers are given the chance to make up their own minds from the clips of Nick shows played throughout the episodes, like Ariana Grande pouring water all over herself and reacting in her breathy Cat Valentine voice. It comes across as pretty questionable.

Schneider has denied or disputed most of the allegations made in the docuseries. In a statement to The A.V. Club, Nickelodeon said, “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct. 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.”

Below are four major takeaways from Quiet On Set.

Dan Schneider was allegedly a sexist, abusive boss (to adults)

Throughout the documentary, former staffers and colleagues of Schneider describe him as a temperamental egomaniac whose mood swings from fun, jovial boss to controlling, belligerent dictator made him hellish to work for. Both adults and children interviewed for the series testify to how tense and difficult the set could be because of Schneider’s volatility.

As detailed in the Insider investigation, Schneider had a particular problem with female staffers; he pressured women he worked with into giving him massages and allegedly declared that women couldn’t write comedy because they weren’t funny. (Schneider has apologized for the former but denied the latter claim.) Most upsetting are the accounts from former Amanda Show writers Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen, who despite not knowing each other were hired to the otherwise all-male writers’ room as a partnership and forced to split one salary. The women detail the incredible harassment they went through under Schneider’s leadership; Kilgen recalls Schneider sending instant messages encouraging her to shout “I’m an idiot” or “I’m a slut” and would scream at her “Say it!” until she did. She also remembers him pressuring Stratton into telling a story while leaning over the table and pretending she was “being sodomized.”

Stratton was dropped from the writers’ room after the first season in what Kilgen believes to be retaliation for having taken a minor amount of personal time. Kilgen alleges that Schneider threatened her with retaliation after she went to the Writers Guild over their split single salary, and was offered a paltry contract to return for the second season. She ultimately quit after Schneider humiliated her in front of the male staff by suggesting that she used to be a phone sex worker. Kilgen left the room crying and feeling “destroyed” and ended up quitting the show and filing a gender discrimination lawsuit against the series’ production company, which she believes ended her career.

According to Insider, none of Schneider’s shows ever hired more than two female writers, and Zoey 101 and Drake And Josh had no women in their writers’ rooms at all.

Schneider played favorites—and Amanda Bynes was the most favorite of all

Former All That and Amanda Show cast members say they were all aware, even as kids, that Schneider played favorites. “It was important to be on his good side, and he made it known who was on his good side,” Frierson says. “You wanted Dan to like you, because if he didn’t, he was mean to you,” adds Amanda Show cast member Raquel Lee Bolleau, who remembers Schneider yelling that she shouldn’t have been given a birthday cake on her 13th birthday. This was particularly difficult for Black cast members, some of whom felt that their white co-stars got preferential treatment from Schneider and the network.

Original All That cast member Katrina Johnson says Schneider and Nickelodeon were talking about giving her her own show before she was “edged out by a younger version of me”—Amanda Bynes. Frierson remembers some of the kids felt jealous of Bynes’ immediately close relationship with Schneider, who discovered her and “carefully crafted Amanda’s career.” No one in the doc accuses Schneider of having an explicitly inappropriate relationship with Bynes, but one editor recalls seeing them physically close (i.e., Bynes hugging him from behind or giving him massages) on occasion, and cited the Amanda Show hot tub sketch (where a young Bynes in a bathing suit interviews a clothed Schneider in a hot tub) as a blurring boundary.

The docuseries alleges that Schneider tried to help Bynes become emancipated from her parents after he co-created her young adult sitcom, What I Like About You. However, her attempt fell through, and elsewhere Schneider was pushed out of the show, which seems to have ended their working relationship and possibly their personal relationship as well.

Drake Bell, Brian Peck, and the pedophilia charges

Quiet On Set details three different instances of child endangerment surrounding predators that were hired to work at Nickelodeon, two of whom had close contact with the young stars. One of those is Jason Handy, who the cast remember as a nice, genuine, goofy young man. However, he was eventually jailed for his behavior, which included preying on one of the child extras on All That. (Another, a janitor, had less direct contact with the cast.)

More significantly is the story of Brian Peck, a dialogue coach and actor who played “Pickle Boy” on All That. He was also beloved by the young cast and their parents alike, and would host parties at his house. All That cast member Kyle Sullivan shares that when he was 14, he attended one such party where Peck showed off a clown self-portrait given to him by serial killer John Wayne Gacy and revealed letters he’d exchanged with Gacy while the latter was in prison.

Peck was arrested and charged after being accused of abuse by an at the time anonymous child star; in Quiet On Set, Drake Bell comes forward for the first time to share his story. According to Bell, he met Peck on The Amanda Show and Peck encouraged Bell’s parents to hire him as a dialogue coach to further his career. When Bell’s father became suspicious of Peck’s intentions, Peck drove a wedge into the family that led to Bell’s mother taking over his career and Peck gaining more power, control, and access over the teen star; he drove Bell to jobs and auditions and often had Bell sleep over his house. Peck began abusing Bell when he was 15, and Bell says he kept quiet for a long time out of fear and shame. The abuse “was extensive and it got pretty brutal,” Bell shares. “Think of the worst thing that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault, and that’ll answer your question.”

Bell eventually shared everything with his mother, leading to an investigation and Peck’s ultimate arrest. Bell says Peck, an industry veteran, enjoyed a lot of support and had many “recognizable faces” there for him in the courtroom, despite being convicted of child molestation. According to Insider journalist Kate Taylor, stars who wrote statements of support for Peck ahead of his sentencing include James Marsden, Taran Killam, Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, and Kimmy Robertson, many of whom attested that Peck would never have done anything with a young man if he hadn’t been extremely pressured. (Boy Meets World stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong recently spoke to this on their podcast, saying that Peck obfuscated the extent of his crimes when asking them to show him their support.)

Despite being a registered sex offender, Peck continued to work in Hollywood after his conviction, including on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody.

Nickelodeon executives didn’t do a great job protecting their young talent

Bell says Schneider was supportive of him in the wake of the trial, but since his name was kept anonymous until now, he’s not sure if any other Nickelodeon executives knew he was involved with the case. (In a statement to The A.V. Club, the studio said, “Now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”) Regardless, it’s clear that the company should have done a better job protecting its young casts from potential predators. Further, the former All That stars say Nick execs handled sharing the news about Peck badly; they recall Schneider asking the parents to leave the room before the studio’s lawyers questioned if they’d had negative experiences with Peck.

In general, all of the former stars interviewed admit to some level of exploitation as child actors. All That frequently pushed boundaries on overtime and put them in uncomfortable and sometimes scary situations with the “On Air Dares” (cast members would be made to do outrageous things like eat toenails or have peanut butter licked off of them by dogs). Katrina Johnson says her parents were called by producers and told, “Hey, Katrina’s getting too fat. We already have a fat one, she can’t be the fat one.” Bryan Christopher Hearne recalls multiple instances of racial micro- (or macro-)aggressions; his mother Tracey shares that his first day filming he was put in a sketch that mimicked a drug deal. “Oh, the Black kid gets to be the crack dealer?” Tracey remembers questioning. Both Hearne and his mother believe that her outspoken nature as a parent—an attempt to protect her son—led to his firing from the show. And Hearne and others express feeling hung out to dry by the network and the industry at large when their contracts were not renewed.

All in all, Quiet On Set is a sadly familiar tale—one in which child stars are consistently left vulnerable to a system that, by nature, exploits them. The docuseries can be uneven at times, undecided on whether it should focus on Schneider, Nickelodeon, or the system as a whole. However, if you have any interest in the machinery of child stardom, it’s well worth a watch.