The series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” aired on March 17 and 18, exposing Nickelodeon and the troubling film industry for children. It has been alleged for years that Nickelodeon has had a dark history with child stars and abuse. After the release, people are finally hearing the truth of the exploitation and cruel treatment that children experienced on our favorite childhood shows.
The show mainly focuses on ex-producer Dan Schneider, who is behind many successful TV shows. “Drake and Josh,” “Zoey 101,” “iCarly,” “Victorious,” “Sam and Cat,” and “The Amanda Show” are all popular series that were the building blocks for children and their childhood. Many of these shows were focused on stars that were 16 years or younger, who since this show have come out revealed what was actually happening behind the scenes.
“Quiet on Set” revealed the weird relationship that Dan Schneider had with Amanda Bynes, a 13-year-old, who starred in “All That” and “The Amanda Show.” During her time on the show, Bynes was described as being “very physically close” to Schneider. There are also videos depicting Amanda and Dan sharing a hot tub as he asked her to massage his neck. It is also alleged that Schneider got her pregnant when she was 13 where she was forced to get an abortion to hide the truth from the public. This allegation was discovered through old tweets that Amanda Bynes tweeted after her time on Nickelodeon. People at the time deemed her crazy and felt like her mental state was slipping, but now people are reevaluating them after discovering the truth of childhood TV. Some tweets from 2017 read, “I self medicated and did a copious amount of drugs to help me forget about the abuse that I was forced to endure as a child.” Another one read, “Harvey Weinstein? Didn’t you mean, Dan Schneider? No? Oh, okay.”
Although he has been involved in abuse, he has not been formally charged with a crime. The series also called out Schneider for his suggestive and inappropriate jokes that he incorporated in all of the TV shows that he created. He was fired by Nickelodeon in 2018 when an investigation discovered that he had created a hostile and abusive work environment on set and every day, stars are continuing to speak out about the abuse they endured.
Another episode of “Quiet on Set” disclosed the sexual abuse that Drake Bell experienced as a child star on “Drake and Josh.” Brian Peck, a dialogue and acting coach, was convicted of over 11 counts of lewd acts with a minor. Bell finally made it public in this series that he was the 15-year-old who endured the abuse. Nickelodeon is known for hiring predators with Jason Handy, a production assistant, who worked on “All that” and “The Amanda Show” emailing inappropriate images to an 11-year-old on set, had over 10,000 images of children, and sexually assaulting a guest star on one of the shows he worked for. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
On April 7, the fifth episode of “Quiet on Set” is expected to air and people think that “iCarly” and “Sam and Cat” star, Jennette McCurdy, is going to be breaking her silence once again in this episode. McCurdy released her memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” in 2022 where she talked about being a child star. This book was the first big push in exposing the Nickelodeon industry for its twisted ways. While McCurdy was on set, she recounted several accounts of producers, including Dan Schneider, being out of line. She talked about how producers attempted to give the iCarly cast alcohol underage to loosen them up, while filming the show. The producers would say how the “Victorious” cast gets drunk on set, so they should be able to drink a little bit. She also talked about how she was offered $300,000 in “hush money” from Nickelodeon, but she didn’t take it because she knew that she wanted to eventually speak out about her experience.
This series has gone to show the dark and twisted side of the film industry and the vile treatment that young children had to experience. It has also exposed Nickelodeon for its gross and dark history behind our favorite shows. Hopefully, people will continue to reveal the unsettling truth behind Nickelodeon and Hollywood as a whole.
