Currently everyone is revisiting their favorite old TV shows they watched as a child, not for nostalgia, but rather to see what hidden messages were portrayed for an adult audience. Why is this happening? Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV was released on Max on March 18 and it is exposing the corrupt system behind some biggest names in Nickelodeon.
Quiet on Set was directed by critically acclaimed directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, who only released the allegations they could prove. With that, a lot of new information that was previously kept secret was exposed. The four episode series held nothing back as to give a better look into the abuse of the kids TV industry.
One thing that made this documentary stand out against the others were the big names that stood behind it. These people include Alexa Nikolas from Zoey 101, Giovonnie Samuels from All That, and even Drake Bell from Drake and Josh.
Drake Bell was a real stand out in this show because he spoke out about his sexual abuse by former dialogue coach Brian Peck. Previously, the name in the Brian Peck case was undisclosed because of the fact that the abuse was with a minor. The showrunners reached out to Bell, after which he opened up that he was the John Doe in the case. The directors gave him the opportunity to open up to the public for the first time and he took it.
The majority of the show covered how none of this abuse would have happened if Dan Schneider wouldn’t have been hired by Nickelodeon. Dan Schneider worked on some of the biggest kid shows in Nickelodeon’s history, such as ICarly, Victorious, and Henry Danger. In this documentary, they don’t talk of his accomplishments, they talk about his mental abuse he inflicted on his employees. This included making women split salaries, making employees yell crude things in the workplace or give him back rubs, and even making children act out inappropriate scenes.
The documentary also covered the fact that if Nickelodeon had kept a closer eye on their shows, he would not have put a lot of the adult messages into children’s TV, which was normal in his shows. One reason that the documentary thinks made Nickelodeon stay silent is the fact that if the uppers were to speak out, they could risk losing Schneider to another company, such as Disney, and because his shows were hits and they’d lose their money maker.
On April 7, the next episode of Quiet on Set will be released, covering the responses to the show. Make sure to catch up before then by watching this insightful four part documentary on Max.
