Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV offers former child stars and team members the opportunity to speak out about their damaging stories at Nickelodeon.
Investigation Discovery’s docuseries, which can air on Sunday, March 17, and Monday, March 18, focuses in particular on producer Dan Schneider’s infamous reign at the community. Schneider, 58, who's the founder and co-president of production company Schneider’s Bakery, helped create, write and produce hit displays in the overdue ‘90s and early 2000s including All That, Drake & Josh, iCarly, Sam & Cat, The Amanda Show, Victorious and Zoey 101.
Schneider’s projects helped release the careers of stars equivalent to Ariana Grande, Miranda Cosgrove, Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Jamie Lynn Spears and more. The sure enjoy, then again, wasn’t universal with All That solid participants Katrina Johnson, Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan and Bryan Hearne being some of the people breaking their silence about their time at Nickelodeon.
After being accused of inappropriate habits during his run at Nickelodeon, Schneider parted tactics with the community in 2018. Schneider later denied the allegations in opposition to him.
A spokesperson for Schneider released a statement before Quiet on Set’s release, which read, “Dan cared concerning the children on his displays even when on occasion their own households unfortunately did not. He understood what they have been going via and he used to be their largest champion. The fact is many of the children on these displays are put within the untenable place of turning into the breadwinner for their circle of relatives and the pressure that comes along with that.”
The commentary continued: “Add on top of that the difficulties of growing up and having to take action below the highlight while running a not easy job, all as a kid. That is why there are many ranges of standards, executives, attorneys, lecturers and parents all over, at all times, on every set, each day. However, it is nonetheless a difficult position to be a kid and nobody knew that better than Dan.”
Keep scrolling for a breakdown of everything stated about Schneider — and Nickelodeon — all the way through Quiet on Set:
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV airs on ID Sunday, March 17, and Monday, March 18, at 9 p.m. ET.
High Highs and Low Lows
During the first episode, Katrina Johnson opened up about how she first of all discovered good fortune at Nickelodeon.
“From the time I used to be nine to 16, I starred on All That. Dan Schneider was once my mentor,” she famous. “When we had been filming the pilot, he got here up to me and he stated, ‘I selected you. You are my choice and I know you'll be nice.’ It made me feel like a million dollars.”
It didn’t take long for Johnson, 41, to see the darker side of starring on successful series. She recalled her oldsters getting a call from Nickelodeon executives who claimed she was “getting too fat” and needed to lose weight to remain on All That.
“Shortly after that decision I went through puberty and then the manufacturers freak out as a result of now I appear to be a girl and I'm really not little girlish anymore,” she recalled. “Then that become a topic. After that I type of was once edged out by a younger version of me.”
Johnson revealed she was the reason Schneider came upon Bynes, 37, including, “When Amanda joined the display, I had much less and not more and then no time with Dan. The new favorite had arrived and I was out.”
According to Johnson, she used to be originally presented a show titled The Katrina Show. That never materialized and in the long run Schneider shifted his focus to Bynes, who would go on to star on The Amanda Show in the early 2000s.
Taking Part in Uncomfortable Sketches
Bryan Hearne and Leon Frierson had been just a few of the All That stars who weren’t overjoyed with probably the most content material they had to movie. Frierson, 37, specifically recalled feeling “very uncovered” while wearing leotards for various sketches. He additionally pointed out the Captain Big Nose sketches, which required him to put on a costume with what appeared like “a penis and testicles” on his shoulders.
“I at all times did my perfect to be a trooper and never whinge. Because we knew that being on the subject of Dan may mean an additional level of success,” Frierson famous. “It was vital to be on his excellent facet and he made it known who was once on his just right aspect.”
Hearne, 35, in the meantime, addressed the alleged racism that came about on set. “Dan had a nicer courting with one of the crucial different white youngsters. I didn’t feel just about him at all,” he admitted. “My time on Nickelodeon played a large role in how I dealt and still care for racial problems.”
Hearne’s mom, Tracey, additionally took phase within the docuseries, by which she pointed out that her son’s first comic strip on All That alluded to him being a drug dealer. She mentioned the location most effective were given worse when she tried to draw attention to how Hearne was being handled in comparison to his white costars.
In a confessional, Hearne recalled the problematic comments made about his “little fetus” comic strip.
“They have been fitting me for the little fetus role and essentially you are a fetus so you are naked. You have a bodysuit on you and it must be skin tone,” he shared. “Someone mentioned, ‘The pores and skin tone must be charcoal.’ I began to get teary eyed.”
The Snick On-Air Dare segment used to be every other project that wasn’t well-received by the forged. (On the display, a random kid actor would be picked to do dares, such as being submerged in worms, consuming scorpions or being covered in peanut butter which canine would then lick off.)
“Those have been specifically demanding. They have been type of designed to be,” Kyle Sullivan, who seemed on a couple of seasons of All That, instructed the cameras. “They had been taking one thing that exists in an adult context like Fear Factor. They had been transmogrifying it onto kids. When you do this, it is in reality an beside the point thing to do.”
Sullivan, 35, said the “dysfunctional” comedy unfold across most of Schneider’s content, including, “The display was filled with those uncomfortable sketches. I feel Dan got a kick out of strolling a line with that.”
In a remark to Us Weekly, Nickelodeon addressed the comments made in the Quiet on Set docuseries, adding, “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions many years in the past, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal proceedings as part of our commitment to fostering a protected and professional place of business environment freed from harassment or different varieties of beside the point habits. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best pursuits no longer just of our workers, casts and team, however of all youngsters, and we now have followed numerous safeguards over time to assist make certain we are living as much as our own high requirements and the expectancies of our target audience.”
Being a Woman within the Writers’ Room
Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen have been the primary girls hired to jot down for The Amanda Show within the late ‘90s. For Stratton, working with Schneider was once “like being in an abusive courting.”
“It used to be early on when we began that Dan mentioned he didn’t assume girls have been humorous,” she recalled in a confessional. “Dan ran the writers’ room. He was once there any time we did any paintings. He was very playful. We would chuckle and shaggy dog story around and being grimy was a part of the silliness.”
However, the humor briefly advanced into grownup content being hidden away in youngsters jokes. Stratton and Kilgen pointed out several examples of ideas that had a double which means — together with Bynes’ fictional persona Penelope Taynt.
The problems didn’t simply happen on display. According to Kilgen, the issues began early on when she and Stratton were asked to split a salary, which didn’t follow to any of the boys on staff. She also claimed Schneider would request for writers to yell out “degrading” words while working within the room.
“Dan was appearing pornography on his visual display unit. He would inquire from me several occasions to therapeutic massage him within the writers’ room and in the studio,” Kilgen recalled. “He would always provide it like a joke however you always felt like disagreeing with Dan or status up for your self could get you fired.”
Stratton admitted she was “scared” of Schneider, including, “He had fostered this very informal, a laugh setting however I felt like Dan could be very volatile and may flip any second.”
In a separate confessional, Kilgen claimed Schneider once requested Stratton to pretend she was once being “sodomized” while telling a tale to the opposite writers. Stratton, for her section, mentioned she didn’t need to elaborate on the incident.
“I’m now not proud of it,” she informed the cameras whilst getting emotional. “Thinking about it now, I simply bring to mind that deficient girl and what she needed to go through. I would no longer do that as of late but I did it then.”
Stratton was once in the long run not asked to return for season 2 of The Amanda Show. Kilgen got an be offering to go back but used to be told she had a 16-week contract whilst having to work Eleven more weeks without cost. In a statement featured in the doc, Schneider denied Kilgen’s claims and said he “had no keep watch over” over salaries.
After Schneider allegedly made a shaggy dog story about Kilgen up to now doing sex paintings, she give up. “I lasted 4 days in season 2,” she mentioned. “I used to be destroyed. I went outside, I’m crying. I will’t do that. I went home and I quit. And it was once so devastating and tough to let move of that process. But I just couldn’t do it anymore.”
Kilgen revealed she sued the production company, Storybook Productions, in 2000 for gender discrimination. She claimed the display exploited the one two female writers, created a “sexually hostile” paintings environment, denied them equal pay and took part in “illegal retaliation.”
“The reason I did this used to be as a result of I didn’t need this happening to other girls in the future,” Kilgen defined. “In reaction, they did an inside investigation. They settled but it had a lasting have an effect on on my profession. I knew that this was the end of my profession so it higher be price it. And he higher forestall. It didn’t prevent and it was once desirous about nothing.”
Stratton weighed in on the aftermath of the lawsuit. “We were all afraid. That is why simply me and Jenny are talking to you,” she noted. “People are terrified of him.”
In reaction to manufacturers’ questions, Nickelodeon said it “investigates all formal lawsuits as a part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional place of business …[W]e have adopted a lot of safeguards through the years to lend a hand be certain we are living up to our personal high standards and the expectancies of our audience.”
Hiring Several Sex Offenders
The 2d episode of Quiet on Set introduced MJ, whose daughter Brandi was a guest star on The Amanda Show.
“We as parents weren’t allowed back on the set. We have been greeted by way of manufacturing assistant Jason Handy, he guided the entire kids to where they needed to be,” MJ recalled. “When he wasn’t on set with the kids, he would talk with all the mothers. You idea, ‘I might be friends with this particular person.'”
Handy, now 49, exchanged numbers with the youngsters and fogeys on set. He started emailing a then 11-year-old Brandi, which MJ mentioned used to be “very innocent” at first. MJ was once later alerted to a message Handy sent to Brandi of him “bare and masturbating.”
“I went from side to side with, ‘Should I name the police?’ They will suppose I'm a foul dad or mum because I allowed her to speak to this particular person. I struggled with this and I in the end told myself, ‘I can’t name the police,'” she detailed. “‘All I will be able to do is make certain I keep her some distance away from him.’ She left the industry and never returned.”
Handy was arrested in 2003 after the authorities searched his home and located over 10,000 pictures of child pornography. He was once sentenced to six years in prison after pleading no contest to 2 prison counts: certainly one of lewd acts on a kid and considered one of distributing sexually specific material by means of e mail. Handy additionally pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor rate related to kid sexual exploitation.
In 2009, Handy was released from prison and had to sign in as a intercourse wrongdoer in North Carolina. He was arrested once more in 2014 on 3 counts of indecent liberties with a kid and two counts of sex offender registry violations, consistent with the Los Angeles Times. Handy was once held on $1 million bail however there were no public updates on his case since then.
MJ printed within the docuseries that her daughter testified within the case in opposition to Handy. They gained a call from a detective in 2003 after Handy’s house was once searched and so they discovered ziplock bags with tokens from more than a few underage ladies.
According to journalist Kate Taylor, Handy’s journals had been additionally confiscated, by which he referred to himself as “a pedophile, full blown.”
The docuseries mentioned Nickelodeon’s employment of Ezel Channel, as properly. Channel was arrested in 2005 on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old boy, who he brought onto the Nickelodeon set where he worked as a brief production assistant. He was discovered in charge via a jury in 2009 of misdemeanor battery and a legal depend of making an attempt to turn pornographic material to a minor.
Channel won a six-month prison sentence and used to be sentenced to serve Sixteen months in state jail for the pornography depend. Channel, who is a registered intercourse offender, had his criminal conviction thrown out on attraction due to the loss of proof proving the video he was appearing the minor used to be of pornographic nature.
Brian Peck’s Time at Nickelodeon
According to a couple of All That forged individuals, Brian Peck (who has no relation to former Nickelodeon superstar Josh Peck) “worked carefully” on Schneider’s tasks as a dialogue trainer.
“Everybody loved Brian. He was captivating and suave. He was once round always,” Sullivan recalled. “All the oldsters cherished him too. Everybody relied on Brian.”
Despite Peck’s friendly demeanor, Sullivan mentioned there was an example that stood out to him. Sullivan and different Nickelodeon child stars — and their parents — have been at Peck’s house for a celebration when Sullivan spotted a painting.
“It was of a birthday clown protecting balloons. Brian got very excited and on the back it mentioned, ‘To Brian, I hope you enjoy the portray. Best needs, your pal John Wayne Gacy,'” Sullivan claimed. “I used to be 14 so I didn’t know the main points however I knew this man was once a f—king serial killer.”
He persisted: “All the fogeys and kids come into the room and he items the portray again. Brian in reality evolved a pen pal dating with John. He stored this pile of letters and footage from John Wayne Gacy in his nightstand subsequent to his mattress. He pulls them out and begins appearing them.”
(Gacy used to be a serial killer and sex perpetrator who raped, tortured and murdered dozens of younger males and boys. He was once sentenced to loss of life after being convicted of 32 murders and died by way of deadly injection in 1994.)
Sullivan explained why he thought the purple flag didn’t get addressed more at the time.
“Your intuition is to provide the advantage of the doubt,” he famous. “Even within the face of this in point of fact bad signal, it was once a type of vintage disasters of workforce psychology.”
Several months later, Peck used to be arrested for sexually abusing a then-unnamed child celebrity. The 11 fees brought towards Peck included oral copulation, sodomy and forcible penetration. He pleaded no contest to 2 charges of kid sexual abuse and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and had to sign up as a sex offender.
Drake Bell revealed that he was the then-minor concerned within the lawsuit. In the 3rd episode of Quiet on Set, Bell, 37, detailed how Peck groomed him once they met on the set of The Amanda Show. Bell later informed his mother that Peck had molested him, which resulted in the arrest.
Us Weekly has reached out to Peck for remark.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, touch the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
A Difficult Time on Set
Later within the docuseries, workforce participants from several of Schneider’s shows discussed his alleged toxic habits.
Director Fabian, who collaborated with Schneider on more than one presentations, claimed, “Dan would come down and yell and scream. There have been occasions the place I might move, ‘You are developing an environment on this set that is not wholesome.'”
Meanwhile, All That editor Karyn Finley Thompson stated running stipulations have been terrible at the back of the scenes.
“You had to be as just right or better or put more hours or do longer things than Dan did. We all did it or you were given fired,” she claimed. “Dan Schneider would sit down within the very back row [of the editing room] and he would make feedback the whole time. They were occasionally very degrading. He would now not talk to me. He would inform his associate manufacturer, ‘Tell her to make this edit. Tell her to trim this.'”
Thompson said she would edit from early within the morning to nighttime. She allegedly didn’t eat or cross to the toilet whilst at paintings.
“Every day used to be constant power to get things carried out faster, faster, faster,” she persisted. “One day, I keeled over and I stopped up having to visit the clinic. As I'm leaving and curled over I may pay attention someone say, ‘How is the display going to get completed?’ I keep in mind saying, ‘I will be proper back!'”
Thompson concluded: “Then he promised me a job and he didn’t give it to me. It used to be given to a younger man and not using a revel in. I used to be livid. I got up out of my chair and not got here back.”
In a statement featured on screen, Schneider claimed he “by no means as soon as thought to be gender” whilst hiring.
In a separate interview, an off-screen dress fashion designer from Schneider’s displays introduced up how he requested female group members to massage him. (The docuseries showed a photograph of Schneider on set while a woman was once status behind him to offer a massage.)
“It used to be humiliating,” the former worker said. “It felt like a type of sexual harassment.”
A supply with regards to Schneider previously addressed the allegations, telling Insider in 2022, “[Schneider] regrets ever asking any individual [for a massage] and has the same opinion it was once no longer appropriate, despite the fact that it handiest took place in public settings.”
The ‘Sam & Cat’ Drama
Following the luck of both iCarly and Victorious, Schneider created a spinoff collection titled Sam & Cat, which starred McCurdy, 31, and Grande, 30. The display, then again, handiest ran from 2013 to 2014 amid rumors of tension between costars and Schneider’s involvement on set.
According to All Your Screens author and founder Rick Ellis, Nickelodeon introduced an inner investigation because “the location got so unhealthy.” Taylor, in the meantime, said that Schneider “was now not allowed to engage with the cast” after the community allegedly found that he was once “contributing” to a “toxic” environment.
Schneider told producers of the docuseries in a remark that he “was not barred from operating with the actors” however “chose to provide notes from his place of job” as an alternative.
The Subsequent Downfall
Three years later, the unnamed costumer mentioned she used to be one of the staff individuals that reported Schneider to her union according to the Me Too motion. She called it a “much happier” place of work following his go out from the community.
Ellis claimed that Nickelodeon gave Schneider “around 7 million” dollars. Meanwhile, Taylor famous that the investigation allegedly “did not to find any evidence of inappropriate sexual habits or inappropriate relationships with children.” But “it did to find proof of being abusive to others in the workplace.”
Schneider’s rep stated in a commentary, “this is not a correct description” of why he and Nickelodeon “parted ways.” However, Schneider famous that as of late he would “absolutely perform a little issues in a different way.” Schneider admitted he “realized a lot over the years about methods to be a greater boss.”
Dealing With Their Past
According to Alexa Nikolas, her time on Zoey One zero one has affected her in the end. “I wasn’t happy. I in fact couldn’t display as much as set anymore without crying,” she defined. “A lot of my self-worth was once deeply damaged from that set revel in. Me as an individual was altered for lifestyles.”
Raquel Lee Bolleau also discussed how “being let go” from The Amanda Show after one season “broke” her self belief.
“That used to be a very younger lesson to learn in my occupation is that everybody is replaceable,” she noted. “It sent me down a actually dark path. I needed to in reality pick myself back up and keep it moving in an trade that showed me very early on that it has no love for me.”
In his own confessional, Frierson mentioned being a child famous person harm him “mentally and somewhat bodily.”
“The alcoholism that I handled I imagine is a right away connection to the emotions I had after leaving the industry and not having the ability to handle the good fortune that I had,” he stated, noting Nickelodeon should provide “more reinforce with regards to consulting, mental health and wellness tests.”
Johnson recalled feeling “burned out” after All That, adding, “I was excited for the following chapter. Not everyone gets to be normal afterwards because you don’t know what that appears like.”
For Hearne, the aftermath of child stardom has stayed with him. “When I was on All That, it used to be a candy enjoy however the bitter facet of it was pretty sour. There is a dismal underbelly to child stardom,” he explained. “Kids are just a buck sign once they show up on set. No one is taking someone’s mental well being critically. That is completely unlucky.”
Sullivan weighed in on his time at Nickelodeon, as nicely.
Thank You!
You have effectively subscribed.
“There was a toxic environment and seeing how the display simply kept on rolling and those people who were criminals simply disappeared, it made me slightly cynical about the truth of power dynamics,” he shared, adding that youngsters want “extra coverage” on set. “It made me believe other folks less.”
Schneider supplied another statement based on the various claims made in Quiet on Set.
“Everything that happened on the presentations I ran was once carefully scrutinized by dozens of concerned adults. All stories, discussion, costumes, and makeup had been fully licensed by means of community executives on two coasts,” he stated. “A standards and practices staff read and in the end authorized each and every script, and programming executives won and approved all episodes. In addition, each day on every set, there have been always folks and caregivers and their pals staring at us rehearse and movie.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tr%2FMmp6aspmjsm%2BvzqZmnqakmr%2B1rcinpJ6mpGS7psPSaKiuoZWperC6jKycrWWUpLC2v8SroJ6rXZrFsbvSnqpmrJ%2BttqR5xKetoqqfo7qmutNmmK1lnp6wrLHLqJuep55k