The new ID documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” takes a deep dive into the working conditions of both child actors and adult staff on Nickelodeon in the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, the documentary tracks the influence producer Dan Schneider had on shaping Nickelodeon, creating shows and launching the careers of actors who would become major stars, like Amanda Bynes and
Drake Bell. In the documentary, some of the writers, former child stars and other staffers who worked with Schneider allege the atmosphere behind the scenes was toxic. Schneider does not appear in the documentary, but statements attributed to him responding to various allegations are shown on screen. He has consistently denied allegations of misconduct, most recently telling TODAY.com through a spokesperson that he "expected and asked a lot from his teams." "Dan (Schneider) expected and asked a lot from his teams. They worked long hours and consistently made successful shows. In the challenges of production, Dan (Schneider) could get frustrated at times, and he understands why some employees found that intimidating and stressful," the March 18 statement reads, citing "many" former colleagues who "still tell him how much they enjoyed and appreciated working on his shows. "But he also knows some people did not have a positive experience, and he is truly sorry for that. Dan (Schneider) knows he should have done better and feels awful about anyone who saw him at his worst, instead of his best," the statement reads. "The fact is many of the kids on these shows are put in the untenable position of becoming the breadwinner for their family and the pressure that comes along with that," the statement continues. "Add on top of that the difficulties of growing up and having to do so under the spotlight while working a demanding job, all as a child. Nobody understood that pressure better than Dan (Schneider) and that’s why he was their biggest champion." "Dan (Schneider) has said himself that he was a tough boss to work for and if he could do things over again he would act differently," the statement concludes. "But let’s be clear, when Dan departed Nickelodeon a full investigation was done and again, what was found is that he was a challenging, tough, and at times inappropriate and demanding person to work for and with, nothing else." Nickelodeon announced it was parting ways with Schneider in 2018. In a statement to TODAY.com on March 13, a spokesperson for the network said it had "adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.” “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,” the network said. The network also said its highest priorities were the “well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children.” Here’s what to know from the documentary, which aired March 17-18. The first part of the documentary begins by tracking how Schneider came to be involved with Nickelodeon . Following a stint as an actor, Schneider’s first writing
Job was for “Head of the Class.” Nickelodeon tapped Schneider to write the pilot for the kids-centric sketch show “All That,” which ran from 1994 to 2005. At the beginning of the “All That” era, Schneider “kept things pretty light” on set, former Nickelodeon director Virgil L. Fabian says, as footage of behind-the-scenes parties plays. Interviews with former stars, however, suggested there was an undercurrent of pressure exerted on child stars. “It was in our best interest to go with the flow,” former "All That" cast member Leon Frierson says. The second episode of the documentary spotlights more “All That” voices like Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Christopher Hearne and Kyle Sullivan describing their experiences. Sullivan calls the set “dysfunctional ... you could get away with more, like going overtime in ways that were pushing the envelope.” The cast members say certain scenes were grueling, like one that involved pouring sugar and coffee into their mouths. “It was gross, it was weird,” Sullivan says. “The show was full of these uncomfortable sketches. I think Dan got a kick out of walking the line with that.” Two cast members, Hearne and Samuels, describe the racial dynamics on set. Samuels says she was like the “token Black girl." Hearne says Schneider had a “closer relationship with some of the white kids,” and that he didn’t feel close to him “at all.” Hearne, who is Black, recalls a moment that brought him to tears on set. At the time, he was being fitted for a costume for “Lil Fetus," a sketch character meant to be the world’s youngest
Rapper. “Someone said the skin tone should be charcoal. I started to get teary-eyed. That was a moment when I felt, ‘I could go get my mom about this.” But also, I know my mom and I know she would’ve rose hell,” Hearne says. Tracy Brown, Hearne’s mom, says she tried to tell Hearne’s agent about the show’s conditions. “She was like, ‘Tracy, come on. Do it for Bryan. Shut up,'" Brown says in the documentary. "But I was like, ‘Things are weird here.” The cast members say the “On Air Dares” segments of the show, seemingly modeled on the show “Fear Factor,” were “traumatic.” The segments involved the show's cast sitting in vats of fish or worms. In one clip, a cast member has a scorpion placed in his mouth. Hearne, at one point, recalls being covered in peanut butter, which was then licked off by dogs. “It was really uncomfortable. I didn’t like that,” he says. “The thing that was most uncomfortable was having to watch your fellow cast mates be essentially tortured,” Hearne says. Hearne was eventually let go from the show. In her interview, Brown says she was relieved her son left a “house of horrors.” In the documentary, Katrina Johnson, who starred on “All That” from age 10 to 16, alleges she was “edged out” after puberty by a "younger version" of herself: Amanda Bynes . “The new favorite had arrived,” Johnson says. Johnson says she discovered Bynes after watching her perform at the Laugh Factory
comedy club in Los Angeles. Impressed, Johnson recommended Schneider see Bynes for himself. "Dan (Schneider) saw her and immediately knew she'd be a star," Fabian, the former Nickelodeon director, says. Bynes was cast on "All That" and got her own spinoff, "The Amanda Bynes Show," in 1999. Johnson and Frierson — who were cast members from Bynes’ “All That” era — say her father, Rick Bynes, "carefully crafted Amanda's career" with Schneider. The documentary emphasizes their close relationship. Fabian says Bynes and Schneider were "very close on the Amanda Show." "Very few people made Dan laugh, and Amanda did," he says. Karyn Finley Thompson, who worked as an editor on "All That," says she and Schneider had a "close relationship." She recalls seeing Bynes massaging Schneider's shoulders. The documentary also looks into how their relationship soured as Bynes got older. Schneider and Bynes moved from Nickelodeon to The CW for "What I Like About You," co-created with Will Calhoun. He denies he was pushed out from the writers' room, according to a statement aired in the documentary. But their relationship soured when Schneider involved himself in Bynes' failed effort to emancipate herself from her parents, the documentary alleges. TODAY.com has reached out to Bynes for comment and has not heard back at the time of publication. The documentary revisits some of the jokes on Nickelodeon shows and how they might have had inappropriate subtext, referencing adult content on kids’ TV. For example, in “Victorious,” a young
Ariana Grande tries to “juice a potato “ by moving her hands over a brown potato. Frierson, the former “All That” cast member, remembers being cast as “Nose Boy.” For the costume, Frierson wore a large brown prosthetic nose on his face and shoulders, which seemed to resemble male genitals. During the punch line, he sneezed snot. “Frankly, it was just uncomfortable,” Frierson says. “But I always did my best to be a trooper, never complained. We knew being close to Dan could mean an extra level of success. It was important to be on his good side, and he made it known who was on his good side.” The name of Penelope Taynt, a character on “The Amanda Show” who was Bynes’ alter ego, was a joke about the taint, a slang term for the part of the body between the anus and the genitals. Writers say Schneider asked them to “keep it a secret” from Nickelodeon executives. TODAY.com reached out to Grande for comment and has not heard back. A spokesperson for Schneider told
NBC News “every scene was approved by the network and these shows are all still being aired today. If there was an actual problem, they would be taken down, but they air constantly all over the world, enjoyed by kids and parents.” Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen, two former writers on “The Amanda Show,” allege in the documentary that there was an abusive environment in the writers’ room. “Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship," Stratton says. “He had fostered this very fun, casual atmosphere, but I felt Dan could be very volatile and could turn any moment. I was scared," she says. “You always felt like disagreeing with Dan could result in getting fired,” Kilgen says. The writers, the only
Women hired on the show, were asked to “split a salary,” and agreed to for similar reasons. “This was my dream job,” Kilgen says. “Don’t be a complainer. Do whatever you have to do to get this job.” In a statement that airs during the docuseries, Schneider said he had no control over staff salaries on the show. Stratton says the early days were “great,” but they didn’t stay so. Stratton and Kilgen felt targeted as women. “It was early on that Dan said he didn’t think women were funny,” Stratton says. Kilgen says Schneider “challenged” the room to “name a funny female writer.” “That was my first indication of trouble, that maybe this guy didn’t value women in the writers’ room,” Kilgen says. Kilgen and Stratton say Schneider would force pranks on the staff, pestering them to say random sentences out loud, like “I’m a slut.” Stratton also says Schneider once challenged her to eat two pints of ice cream in 30 minutes for $300 dollars. Stratton agreed because she had “no money.” She completed the challenge, throwing up afterward, but then “the money didn’t come.” Kilgen says Schneider got “worse and worse.” He played pornography on set and asked Kilgen to “massage him” several times in the writers’ room and the studio, Kilgen says. Then, Kilgen recounts “the wrongest thing I’d seen happen to a woman in a professional environment, ever.” The women say Schneider pressured Stratton into retelling a story, but acting like she “was being sodomized” while doing it. “I think, ‘That poor girl and what she had to go through.’ I would not do it today, but I did it then," Stratton says. Both eventually left the show. Kilgen filed complaints against the production company for gender discrimination, hostile work environment and harassment. In response, Nickelodeon did an internal investigation and settled. Kilgen says the experience had a “lasting impact on her career.” Karyn Finley Thompson, an editor on "The Amanda Show," also shares her experiences as a woman on set, which included Schneider making “degrading” comments to her. Working around the clock, from 8 a.m. to midnight, Thompson said she once “keeled over” and had to go to the hospital. “As I’m leaving and curled over, I could see someone say, ‘How is the show going to get finished?’ I remember saying, ‘I’ll be right back,’” Thompson says. Thompson says she left after Schneider gave a job he had promised to her to a younger man with no experience. “I was livid ... I got out of my chair and I never came back,” she says. Schneider says he never considered gender when hiring, per a statement that appears in the documentary. The documentary spotlights two convicted sex offenders on the set of Nickelodeon shows: Jason Michael Handy, a former production assistant, and Bryan Peck, an
Actor and dialogue coach . Both were convicted while they were working on Nickelodeon sets. The mother of a former "Amanda Show" child actor, listed only as MJ in the documentary, speaks out in the documentary about her daughter's exposure to Handy. Brandi, MJ's daughter, was booked on the show at 11. Handy "(guided) the kids to where they needed to be," Brandi's mom says. "You thought, 'Oh, I could be
Friends with this person," she says of Handy. On the way home, MJ says her daughter told her that Handy had asked to email with her. A week later, Brandi received an email from Handy. "I didn't see any harm in it," MJ says. That changed when Brandi received a lewd photo of Handy naked and masturbating, MJ says. MJ says she went back and forth about reporting it but decided not to, afraid the
police would think she was a "bad parent," instead resolving to keep her away from Handy. Her daughter never returned to show business. Law enforcement searched Handy's home in 2003 and found sexually exploitative images of children. They also found a journal in which Handy describes himself as a "pedophile, full-blown," per the documentary. Handy was sentenced to six years in
prison in 2004 after pleading no contest to two felony counts involving two girls, one of whom was Brandi. It was not immediately clear if Handy currently has legal representation. The documentary also spotlights Peck, an actor and dialogue coach who was a constant presence on set. “Everybody loved Brian,” Sullivan says. “He was charming, he was clever, and he was around all the time.’” He starred in every episode of the show as Pickle Boy, a recurring bit that saw him carrying around a towering plate of pickles. He also was a regular behind-the-scenes as a dialogue coach. Sullivan's opinion of Peck changed during a party at his house when he discovered Peck had a self-portrait by convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy on his walls. Sullivan and his "All That" co-stars later learned Peck had been accused on 11 counts of sexually abusing a minor. Brian Peck is not related to former “Drake and Josh” star Josh Peck. In the series finale, former Nickelodeon child star Drake Bell opens up for the first time about the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of his former acting and dialogue coach, Brian Peck. TODAY.com reached out to Peck’s attorney for comment and has not heard back at time of publication. In its statement on March 15, Nickelodeon 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.” Bell says the abuse took place at Peck’s home over several months after the acting coach ingratiated himself in Bell’s life. “He had pretty much worked his way into every aspect of my life,” Bell says. Bell says Peck started laying the groundwork to drive a wedge between the young actor and his dad, who had until then served as his manager. "Our relationship was just completely eviscerated," Bell says of his relationship with his father after Peck's influence. "This is going to make me cry if I think about it like that." Once Bell's father was essentially out of the picture, Bell says Peck started driving him around
Los Angeles and having him spend the night at the acting coach's home. When he was 15, between Bell's jobs on "The Amanda Show". and "Drake and Josh," Bell says Peck started to sexually abuse him. “I was sleeping on the couch where I would usually sleep and I woke up to him … I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me,” Bell says. “And I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react.” Bell says the "extensive" abuse continued for months. “It just got worse and worse. And worse. And worse,” he said. “And I was just trapped. I didn’t — I had no way out.” Bell says he finally "exploded" while on the phone with his mom one day. He says the police had him call Peck on a recorded line to get a confession and then Peck was arrested shortly afterward. In October 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to two charges and was found guilty of both. He spent 16 months in prison and was made to register as a sex offender. Bell says Schneider was the only person from Nickelodeon who reached out to him after news about Peck made headlines. Bell says that when he and his family arrived at Peck's sentencing, he was shocked to find that Peck's side of the courtroom was "full" of his supporters. "It was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen," Bell says. "(Peck's) entire side of the courtroom was full." "There were definitely some recognizable faces on that side of the room," Bell says. The documentary producers and Insider petitioned the court to unseal the letters of support sent on Peck's behalf. The court records, which TODAY.com has not reviewed, revealed that several celebrities had submitted letters to the court in support of Peck. "Brian had been convicted, but getting all this support from a lot of people in the industry and yeah, I was pretty shocked," Bell says. " I addressed my statement to everyone in the room. I looked at all of them and I just said, 'How dare you?'" "I said, 'You will forever have the memory of sitting in this courtroom and defending this person. And 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.'" In the docuseries, Bell reveals that he “didn’t know how to process” the abuse that happened to him. “I think that led to a lot of self-destruction and a lot of self-loathing,” he says. “I would try and just escape with alcohol abuse, substance abuse. Really just anything to escape really.” Bell was the subject of several headlines following his time on the children’s network . “I would have stints of sobriety and then the pressure would be too much and all of these demons that I had were very difficult to work through,” Bell recalls. “And so I think a lot of my self-destructive behavior would always just be a temporary fix...” Bell specifically mentions getting DUIs and pleading guilty to child endangerment in 2021 as “behaviors that were happening because I was lost.” In the 2021 case, a female fan accused Bell of
Sexual Misconduct, alleging the “Drake and Josh” star had sent her graphic photos and had been “grooming” her since she was 12. Bell took a plea deal and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. “I took responsibility for that, I did what was asked of me,” Bell says in the docuseries. “But the media grabbed a hold of so much misinformation and it destroyed me and I started to spin out of control.” He says he went through bankruptcy and lost his home before hitting “rock bottom” and checking into a treatment center. “If I continued down that path, that could very likely be the end of my story,” he says. When asked if he believes
Hollywood is a good place for children, Bell doesn’t seem to know how to answer. “I wanted nothing more in life but to get on stage,” he replies. “There is so much in this industry that you have to be cautious of. But would I want the experiences that I’ve had, the good experiences that I’ve had ripped away from me? I don’t know... But I would love to be able to create an environment where we’re not so vulnerable and susceptible to outside dangers.” CORRECTION (March 18, 2024, at 10 p.m. PT): An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Schneider worked for
Netflix. It has been corrected to say Nickelodeon.