The entertainment industry has a reliable recipe with a few key ingredients: money, insider relationships, and abuse. The new five-part docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” adds a haunting and eerily unsurprising element to this recipe — Nickelodeon’s abuse of children.
Aired by Investigation Discovery in early March, “Quiet on Set” focuses on the inappropriate conduct of producer Dan Schneider (“All That,” “The Amanda Show,” “Drake & Josh,” “iCarly,” etc. ) and two convicted sex offenders: acting coach Brian Peck and production assistant Jason Handy.
Since its airing and subsequent release on platforms like Max and Discovery+, the docuseries has become the most-viewed unscripted Max show since the platform’s release last year.
Producers Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz embarked on this documentary journey after noticing compilations of clips online from old Nickelodeon shows that were sexual in nature. The series cycles between first-person accounts from child actors, executives, and parents as well as b-roll of the scenes called into question.
Whether it’s the “Zoey 101” scene of slime being shot into prepubescent Jamie Lynn Spears’ face or clips featuring Ariana Grande of “Victorious” pouring water onto her chest and face while upside down, the sexual undertones quickly become overtones in hindsight.
Since Schneider’s exodus from the network in 2018, his workplace conduct has been called into question by former employees and the children he worked with. On one end of the spectrum is his underpaying of female employees. On the other is enabling the sexual assault of child actors like Drake Bell, who described his abuse by pedophile Brian Peck as “the worst stuff that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault.”
Bell’s involvement in the documentary is poignant, considering his own sexual transgressions that came to light in 2021 when he pled guilty to child endangerment and a misdemeanor of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. His accuser claims Bell groomed her between the ages of 12-15. But despite pleading guilty, Bell continues to claim he is innocent online and says he cut ties with the girl once he realized she was a minor.
Bell appeared on DearMedia’s “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast after the release of “Quiet on Set” and claimed that the only reason he pleaded guilty was because he was financially devastated and didn’t want to put his family through further legal trials. Regardless of his current claims, Bell was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service in a Cleveland court in July 2021.
“Quiet on Set” highlights the expansive, lasting effects childhood abuse has: obliterating familial relationships, solidifying the abuse via digital footprint, and contributing to the well-known cycle of victims becoming abusers themselves.
It’s a step forward in examining the consequences of childhood stardom — a phenomenon many intuitively know is detrimental, but few whose full impact suffer. “Quiet on Set” cracks open a Pandora’s box of abuse in children’s entertainment.
