Writer of Pop Culture

According to Investigation Discovery (ID), over 16 million people have watched the docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV since it debuted on streamers Max and Discovery+ on March 17 and 18, 2024. According to Variety, the four-episode show reached the largest audience of an unscripted series since Max was launched last May. Despite my knowing very little about the various Nickelodeon shows talked about within the series, I was curious and joined in with the 16 million.

Hearing the stories of what went on behind the scenes saddened me. By the time that the third episode aired, which featured an extended interview with Drake Bell sharing about the sexual abuse he endured by an acting coach, gutted me. His abuse happened many years ago, but this was the first time that he had the nerve to speak about it publicly.

Today, it was announced that a fifth episode titled “Breaking the Silence” would be airing on ID on April 7 and then stream on Max. It will continue the conversation with cast members who starred in such hit series as The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly and All That with journalist Soledad O’Brien “for an important discussion about the industry, then and now.”

Of the four episodes that have already aired, the story of sexual predators has taken center stage. One story involved a girl who guest-starred in one episode of Amanda Byrne’s show, The Amanda Show. During this time, she started getting flirty email messages from Jason Handy, a seemingly squeaky-clean production assistant. However, one of those messages included a picture of himself nude and a nasty note. This led to an investigation which landed him in prison for six years for lewd acts on a child and distributing sexually explicit material by email, and a misdemeanor charge related to child sexual exploitation. At least she wasn’t sexually assaulted. The same cannot be said for Drake Bell.

Having already taken small roles on TV for shows like Home Improvement and Seinfeld, Bell began working on Nickelodeon’s The Amanda Show in 1999. In 2003, he was offered a role to star opposite of Josh Peck on the series, Drake & Josh. Both shows were created and led by Dan Schneider who was the network’s king of sitcom comedy.

Eventually Bell got the courage to come forward and accuse his abuser. Brian was arrested and later sent to prison for lewd conduct with a minor.

It is only speculation, but is it possible that this abuse would not have happened or would have been stopped sooner if Dan Schneider had been more approachable during that time? No one has blamed Schneider for the abuse that happened to Bell, but as many people who worked on his shows have stated, although not unlikeable, Dan was a tyrant to work with. However, he would like you to think otherwise.

While Bowman tried to present himself as a caring person just wanting to set the record straight, you could tell that he has much affection for Schneider and is not a neutral party. And while Schneider owned up to a lot of his faults during the interview, at one point he said that he felt so bad watching the documentary that he “wanted” to pick up the phone and call some of these people to make things right. He didn’t do it, but he “wanted” to. Maybe he was being sincere or maybe he didn’t because of some advice from his lawyer or some other nonsense, but Schneider comes off as if he were the victim in these tales. (Nickelodeon did eventually part ways with Schneider in 2018.)

But the shocking details don’t end with the behind-the-scenes tales. They include some of the content that actually made it on the air and are still shown in reruns of the shows. These include veiled sexual jokes or at best, tasteless attempts at humor. Some characters had names that sounded too closely to certain body parts, girls got squirted in the face with goo and one boy played the part of a superhero named “Nose Boy” with images on his costume that looks like something else. Even Brian Peck himself had bit parts as “Pickle Boy” who once slipped a pickle into a hole of a dressing room.

“Every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny — and only funny,” Schneider says during his YouTube interview. “Now, we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens and they’re looking at them and they’re saying, ‘I don’t think that’s inappropriate for a kids’ show.’ And I have no problem with that… Let’s cut those jokes out of the show.” He goes on to say that “there were many, many levels of scrutiny” from executives, crewmembers and even the kids’ parents that seemingly approved of the questionable content.

It’s hard to believe that any adult would not view these things as anything other than inappropriate then or now. But even if they the people on the set didn’t see anything wrong with them, why didn’t the parents of the kids watching these shows at home complain? I suspect it’s because the parents weren’t actually watching these shows. Nickelodeon is meant for kids. It’s the network that aired wholesome shows like Blue’s Clues and Dora the Explorer. We trusted the network.

Quiet on Set isn’t just a history lesson, it’s a warning for today’s parents. The material shown on all of our screens these days needs to be monitored whether the content is being shown on Nickelodeon, Disney Channel or any other outlet “meant” for children. As for the production of these types of shows, the powers that be needed to not only be award of the content that their company is producing, but also take a critical look at every part of a production of a show. Hopefully, this docuseries will have a similar effect in show business that the “Me Too” movement did a few years back.

Main Images: Nickelodeon and Pixabay