As a child, I spent numerous hours watching The Amanda Present, a sketch comedy sequence starring Amanda Bynes that aired on Nickelodeon from 1999 to 2002. The present was created by Dan Schneider, who went on to helm lots of the channel’s most beloved sequence, together with Drake and Josh and iCarly. Along with offering loads of laughs, it was a uncommon instance of a youngsters’s present that took the comedic skills of its younger star critically. However after watching the brand new docuseries Quiet on Set, I do know my fond reminiscences of watching The Amanda Present won’t ever be the identical.
The four-part docuseries aired on Max and Investigation Discovery earlier this month, and a shock fifth episode is within the works for subsequent week. The present explores the darkish aspect of Dan Schneider’s tenure at Nickelodeon, portray him as a temperamental, manipulative boss with a disturbing behavior of inserting sexual innuendos into scenes with youngster actors. Particulars of Schneider’s conduct started to leak out in 2018, when Schneider left Nickelodeon amid allegations of abusive habits. The New York Times reported in 2021 that an inner investigation had discovered Schneider was verbally abusive to employees, whereas a 2022 Enterprise Insider investigation highlighted his controlling demeanor and sexism within the writers room.
On set, Schneider’s crew included two now-convicted intercourse offenders. In 2004, Jason Helpful, a manufacturing assistant, was sentenced to 6 years in jail after pleading no contest to performing lewd acts on a baby, distributing sexually specific materials, and youngster exploitation. The identical yr, dialogue coach Brian Peck pleaded no contest to 2 fees associated youngster sexual abuse in opposition to an nameless youngster actor and was sentenced to 16 months in jail. Quiet on Set’s largest bombshell is that Peck’s sufferer was Drake Bell, a star of Drake & Josh and a daily on The Amanda Present.
The documentary chronicles the Schneider years at Nickelodeon by interviews with former solid and crew members, journalists who reported on the scandal, and the mother and father of kid actors. It additionally resurfaces moments of inappropriate humor from Schneider’s reveals that appear alarming on reflection: In a single scene, a 16-year-old Ariana Grande, a solid member on Schneider’s Victorious, makes an attempt to “juice” a potato whereas moaning suggestively.
The fourth episode, initially slated to be the final within the sequence, ends with Bell sharing how the abuse impacted him emotionally. Within the final pictures, we see Bell and his dad strolling off the documentary set, then the digital camera cuts to a sundown. Because the credit rolled, I felt a mixture of anger and hopelessness. Whereas the filmmakers had carried out a skillful job of laying out the allegations in opposition to Schneider, the present additionally left many questions unanswered. Schneider declined to be interviewed for the documentary, although it included a written assertion from him, saying his content material went by many ranges of approval earlier than it aired. (Nickelodeon supplied a press release to the documentary saying it “investigates all formal complaints as a part of our dedication to foster a secure {and professional} office.”) After the documentary, Schneider supplied a lackluster mea culpa in a softball interview with a former iCarly solid member, the place he muddled his apology with asides that his habits was brought on by “inexperience” and letting pressures get to him.
Nickelodeon’s choice to sever ties with Schneider was needed and lengthy overdue, but it surely’s unsettling to suppose that he can proceed to dwell his life quietly with out taking full accountability. And what cuts deeper is that so many individuals within the trade allowed such a poisonous surroundings to fester—from the mother and father of kid stars who failed to talk as much as the trade insiders who wrote letters in assist of Peck earlier than his sentencing, together with actor James Marsden.
In the meantime, although Bell has rightfully obtained an outpouring of assist for talking out, the renewed good will towards the star treads a high-quality line. In 2021, Bell pleaded responsible to tried youngster endangerment fees associated to sexual conversations he had with a 15-year-old fan. In a sufferer impression assertion, she claimed Bell groomed and sexually assaulted her a number of instances. (Bell was charged solely with tried youngster endangerment and a misdemeanor for disseminating dangerous materials to a juvenile. He denies the allegations of sexual assault.) The documentary solely mentions these allegations briefly within the context of Bell’s downward spiral after his personal abuse, emphasizing that “he was not charged with doing something bodily.”
The abuse on Nickelodeon occurred earlier than the eyes of a complete technology, tainting media intertwined with our childhood nostalgia. After Quiet on Set aired, feelings ran excessive on-line. “Jail will not be sufficient!!!” wrote one X user, whose put up obtained nearly 5,000 likes. Social media customers demanded that Drake Bell’s former costar, Josh Peck (no relation to Brian Peck), converse out. Bell launched a press release saying that Josh Peck had personally reached out to him and requested followers to “take it somewhat simple on him.” On The View, host Sunny Hostin questioned Ariana Grande’s silence in regards to the documentary, saying, “She is an grownup now, so is silence complicity or not?” Within the wake of this explosive response, Investigation Discovery introduced {that a} bonus fifth episode of Quiet on Set would premiere on April 7. The brand new episode, a dialogue with former youngster actors moderated by Soledad O’Brien, is billed as “digging deeper into the essential conversations the docuseries ignited and exploring the lingering questions left of their wake to offer additional perception from the courageous voices who’ve spoken out.”
The choice so as to add a fifth episode felt like a tacit acknowledgement of the actual fact the ultimate episode of the present had left many questions unanswered. However whereas the brand new episode is a chance to channel outrage into productive conversations about how you can shield youngster actors from abuse, it might not reply each burning query. As viewers, there’s some uncertainty we’ve got to just accept: Public outrage mustn’t come at the price of victims’ choice to inform their tales if and once they’re prepared. It’s attainable we might by no means know the whole lot that occurred at Nickelodeon, or how each former youngster star was affected—and that’s okay. Justice won’t come swiftly, and it might not appear like what viewers count on. It would appear like victims remaining anonymous, going about their lives in personal, and simply attempting to choose up the items.