James Marsden and Taran Killam are among the celebrities who supported a convicted abuser in his child
Sexual Abuse trial, according to a new documentary. The new series , Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, features former Nickelodeon cast and crew members detailing the abuses that took place on the network’s sets in the late Nineties and early Noughties. While a significant focus is placed on TV executive Dan Schneider , the showrunner for hit programmes such as The Amanda Show , iCarly and Sam & Cat , the four-part documentary also shines a light on the conduct of Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck . In 2004, Peck was convicted for child sex abuse.
Drake Bell , star of the series Drake and Josh , identified himself as the victim of Peck’s abuse in the documentary , accusing the coach of assaulting him when he was 15. Though Peck pleaded no contest to two child sexual abuse charges in 2004, 41 people submitted letters of support to the judge in the case in the hopes that their accounts would be considered when determining Peck’s sentence. Among the supporters named in the series is Jury Duty star Marsden, who was 31 at the time of Peck’s trial. According to the documentary, Marsden told the judge that he had known Peck since he was a teenager and wrote, “I assure you, what Brian has been through in the last year is the suffering of a hundred men.” Killam, who starred on Nickelodeon shows All That and The Amanda Show , was 22 at the time and is also mentioned as having submitted a letter. He wrote, “I’ve seen the effects this situation has had on Brian, and I know for a fact that he regrets any mistakes made.” The Independent has reached out to representatives of Marsden and Killam for comment. Another figure that the documentary says wrote a letter to the judge on Peck’s behalf is Alan Thicke, the late
Actor and game show host. It is claimed that Thicke told the judge of his “sincere and heartfelt vote of confidence in Brian’s future”. Thicke died in 2016, aged 69. Boy Meets World stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle also wrote letters in support of Peck at the time, and later shared their regret for doing so on an episode of their podcast Pod Meets World . It is unclear how much of the case that Peck’s letter supporters were aware of at the time of their support. In the documentary, Bell, now 37, describes being “shocked” to find that Peck’s “entire side of the courtroom was full” with supporters when he turned up for his sentencing, adding that there were “definitely some recognisable faces”. Speaking in the docuseries’ fourth episode, Business Insider reporter Kate Taylor notes: “We don’t know exactly what these people were told about Brian’s crimes before they wrote the letters, and we don’t know which of these people, if any, were in the courtroom for Brian’s sentencing. “But these letters show how strong the support for Brian Peck was with people with industry connections.” Peck was sentenced to 16 months in
prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.