- 2 years ago
"Quiet on Set" left us with a lot to talk about. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re looking at the biggest bombshells from Investigation Discovery’s 4-part exposé about Nickelodeon.
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00:00 "I've been waiting 17 years for today."
00:02 Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:04 And today, we're looking at the biggest bombshells
00:07 from Investigation Discovery's four-part exposé about Nickelodeon.
00:11 "Everyone knew it, from New York to California.
00:13 So who would we go to?
00:16 Who could we possibly go to to complain about this?"
00:19 Amanda Bynes replaced Katrina Johnson.
00:21 "I had less and less and less and then no time with Dan.
00:29 So the new favorite had arrived.
00:31 I was out."
00:33 From 1994 to 1997, Katrina Johnson was the youngest cast member
00:37 of Nickelodeon's hit sketch comedy series, All That.
00:40 During her time on the show, she was one of Dan Schneider's favorite young actors.
00:44 And as she recalled in the docuseries, he even considered giving Johnson her own show.
00:49 But as she got older, her appearance became an issue for the producers,
00:53 particularly her weight, which they called attention to.
00:56 "I mean, that stuck with me.
00:58 You can't be the fat one.
01:01 Like, I still hear those words in my head to this day."
01:05 With the addition of rising star Amanda Bynes in 1996,
01:09 Johnson felt she was progressively sidelined by her former mentor,
01:12 and she left the show a year later.
01:14 Schneider would go on to be a significant figure in shaping Bynes' successful career,
01:19 which some people, including her parents, saw as concerning.
01:22 "Maybe at the time, people viewed it as comedy.
01:25 But I think now, some people are very uncomfortable with the application."
01:29 Gender discrimination and a toxic work environment.
01:32 In the late 90s, Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider created a spin-off series
01:36 to All That centered on Amanda Bynes.
01:38 For Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgan, the only women in the Amanda Show writers room,
01:42 it was a dream job.
01:44 "I had been in L.A. for seven years.
01:47 And so it felt very satisfying that, um,
01:53 someone was gonna pay me to write comedy."
01:57 However, there were red flags from the start.
01:59 Stratton and Kilgan were made to share one salary between them,
02:03 which isn't exactly legal.
02:05 And along with other female staffers,
02:07 they allegedly endured Schneider's misogynistic behavior,
02:10 degrading jokes and harassment.
02:12 "I don't want to talk about that.
02:13 [laughs]
02:14 I mean, it's not that I'm not, like, I'm not proud of it,
02:16 and I'm also like, 'bleh.'
02:17 Thinking about it now,
02:21 yeah, it's like, 'oh boy, I just think of that poor girl
02:25 and what she had to, you know, go through.'"
02:28 Stratton was reportedly fired shortly before the end of season one.
02:32 Kilgan quit just days into season two
02:34 and filed a lawsuit against the production company for gender discrimination,
02:38 ultimately settling out of court.
02:40 The awful experience had a lasting impact on their careers in the television industry.
02:44 "I knew that this was the end of my career,
02:46 so it had better be worth it.
02:48 Like, it had better stop.
02:49 And to learn that it didn't stop, that it was all for nothing."
02:54 Sexualizing the female casts
02:57 In the early 2020s, people revisiting Nickelodeon shows from their childhood
03:01 have noticed that some content was undeniably bizarre,
03:04 bordering on the explicit.
03:05 "Once I saw it again as an adult was when that memory came back.
03:09 That was like, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh.'
03:13 Wasn't funny.
03:14 It still isn't funny to me."
03:16 Old webisodes of Ariana Grande went viral,
03:18 showing her Victorious and Salmon Cat character Cat Valentine
03:21 attempting to "juice" a potato, among other suggestive acts.
03:25 Former employees also noted that Schneider was instrumental
03:28 in choosing revealing clothing for the young cast
03:31 and writing adult jokes into the episodes.
03:33 "It was clear that there was a permissibility
03:36 around these sexualized jokes with children."
03:38 "It was par for the course.
03:41 Like, strange things amused Dan,
03:42 and that was just one of the things he thought was funny."
03:45 Prior to Quiet on set,
03:47 Zoey 101 cast member Alexa Nicholas had already been vocal
03:50 about her discomfort working on the show.
03:52 Although she doesn't appear in the docuseries,
03:54 they referenced Jeanette McCurdy's 2022 memoir
03:57 I'm Glad My Mom Died,
03:58 in which she detailed "the creator's"
04:00 verbal abuse and inappropriate interactions.
04:03 "He'll call people idiots, buffoons, stupid, dumb,
04:06 sloppy, careless, and spineless.
04:09 The creator knows how to make someone feel worthless."
04:13 Inappropriate adult humor.
04:15 "I remember someone from Nickelodeon sitting with us
04:18 and saying like, 'Oh, does this mean, you know,
04:21 this dirty thing?'
04:22 And Dan was like, 'No, why would you think that's like tainted,
04:26 like you've tainted something?'
04:28 And they were like, 'Okay.'"
04:29 Kids programming tends to have some jokes and references
04:31 for the parents,
04:32 but Dan Schneider's shows like All That and The Amanda Show
04:35 often crossed a line.
04:37 From character names with slang terms
04:39 to costumes with phallic imagery,
04:40 it was clear to some people behind the scenes
04:42 what the writers were alluding to.
04:44 "Wait, why is this in the show?
04:46 What is the joke here exactly?"
04:49 "There's this weird element of like,
04:51 they all were able to like pull a fast one
04:54 and get away with it.
04:55 And that's like a part of the joke."
04:58 Crew members and parents would notice questionable jokes
05:01 and sexual innuendo,
05:02 but the environment made it difficult
05:04 to express these concerns, especially to Schneider.
05:07 And as former cast members recall in the docuseries,
05:09 they were often uncomfortable with the material,
05:12 even if they didn't know exactly what the innuendos meant.
05:15 "I'm just looking back at it, it's just very strange.
05:17 Frankly, it was just uncomfortable."
05:21 Traumatizing on-air dares
05:23 Nickelodeon's on-air dare segment
05:25 was essentially fear factor for kids,
05:27 challenging the young actors to endure gross
05:29 and scary dares on camera.
05:31 All That cast members Kyle Sullivan
05:33 and Brian Christopher Hearn recounted moments on the show
05:36 that made them extremely uncomfortable for themselves
05:39 and their castmates.
05:40 "Those were particularly traumatic
05:42 and they were sort of designed to be.
05:44 The whole idea was that you would have to do something scary
05:48 on camera and they got pretty scary."
05:50 Hearn had one particularly awful challenge
05:53 of getting covered in peanut butter
05:54 and laying down as multiple dogs lifted off of him on stage.
05:58 In the video clip from the segment,
06:00 he clearly says that he doesn't like it.
06:02 "I don't like this. I feel drunk."
06:05 Sullivan pointed out just how torturous it could be,
06:07 with challenges that involved worms,
06:09 dead fish and scorpions.
06:11 Young viewers would likely see this as funny,
06:13 but for the actual participants, it was anything but.
06:16 "I think that people kind of just look at us and go,
06:19 'You made some money, so what are you complaining about?'
06:23 And yeah, we collect our money, sure, but at what cost?"
06:28 Racist sketches starring black child actors.
06:31 "My time on Nickelodeon played a big part
06:34 in how I dealt and still deal with racial issues."
06:40 With shows such as Kenan and Kel,
06:41 Nickelodeon always seemed to value and encourage diversity.
06:45 But in the docuseries, All That stars Giovanni Samuels
06:48 and Brian Christopher Hearn said that compared
06:50 to their white castmates, they felt, quote, "overlooked."
06:53 "I understood the magnitude of being the token black girl,
06:57 but I didn't realize how significant that was
07:01 until years later."
07:03 Hearn recalled a hurtful incident when a strange character
07:06 required him to wear a bodysuit, and someone offensively joked
07:09 about the skin tone color it should be.
07:11 But fearing repercussions, he didn't say anything back.
07:14 "Whoever was doing my makeup at the time was kind of like,
07:16 'Hand on my shoulder, like, it's gonna be okay,
07:19 like, don't worry about that s***'" he just said."
07:20 Samuels and Hearn also occasionally had to play
07:23 into racial stereotypes.
07:25 Hearn's mother, Tracy, discussed a sketch that she viewed as racist,
07:28 one where her son pretended to sell cookies,
07:30 but believed it was made to seem like he was really selling
07:33 illegal substances.
07:34 Jason Handy allegations
07:36 As a production assistant on Nickelodeon shows All That
07:39 and The Amanda Show, Jason Handy was a familiar face
07:42 to young actors and their parents.
07:44 Speaking in the docuseries, MJ details how her daughter Brandi
07:47 booked a background role in one episode,
07:49 and began corresponding with Handy via email.
07:52 "She let me read it, and it was a very innocent email.
07:55 It just talked about the shows that he had been working on."
07:59 But what she thought was seemingly harmless progressed
08:01 into him sending her an explicit photo.
08:03 And while MJ didn't go to the police herself,
08:06 Handy was finally arrested in April 2003,
08:09 and charged with multiple felony counts involving
08:11 inappropriate acts and material.
08:13 "Keep your trust in God, and don't forget me.
08:16 You and all the kids are why I work for free half the week.
08:22 I love ya, Jason."
08:24 He pled no contest and received a six-year sentence.
08:27 Shockingly, he wasn't the only convicted predator
08:29 employed by Nickelodeon.
08:31 Registered sex offender Ezell Channel,
08:33 another Nickelodeon employee, was arrested in 2005.
08:37 "When you look at having multiple child predators
08:40 who worked at Nickelodeon, it raises some confusing questions
08:44 on who to hold accountable."
08:46 Brian Peck's connection to John Wayne Gacy.
08:49 "Hi, I'm not just pickle boy, but I'm also a trained professional
08:52 who works here on the set of All That.
08:55 You can tell by my very important looking headset."
08:57 Like Jason Handy, Brian Peck was well-known at Nickelodeon,
09:00 though the acting and dialogue coach was much more involved
09:03 and even appeared on screen at times.
09:05 Kyle Sullivan recalled a get-together he attended at Peck's home,
09:08 where he found a weird portrait of a clown.
09:10 "Brian got very excited when I asked him about it.
09:12 He flipped the thing around, and on the back, it said,
09:16 'To Brian, I hope you enjoy the painting.
09:20 Best wishes, your friend, John Wayne Gacy.'"
09:24 He learned that the man had a disturbing, quote,
09:26 "pen pal" relationship with John Wayne Gacy,
09:29 a convicted serial killer who targeted young men.
09:31 Even at his age, Sullivan knew this was strange.
09:34 However, he alleged that other guests, including adults and parents,
09:38 also saw Peck's collection of letters and art from Gacy.
09:41 "In his nightstand, next to his bed, and he like pulls them out
09:45 and starts showing them to me.
09:47 Your instinct is to give someone the benefit of the doubt
09:51 if you've known them for that long.
09:53 Even in the face of like this really bad sign."
09:57 Drake Bell was John Doe.
09:59 "Have you ever told your story publicly before?"
10:02 "I have never told my story publicly."
10:05 Quiet On Set centered its third episode on Drake Bell,
10:08 former star of The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh.
10:11 For the first time, the actor-musician detailed the alleged abuse
10:14 he suffered at the hands of Brian Peck as a young actor.
10:17 "You know, anytime I would have an audition,
10:18 or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything,
10:22 I somehow ended up back at Brian's house.
10:25 And it just got worse and worse and worse."
10:33 The acting and dialogue coach became a constant presence,
10:36 managing to turn Bell and others against his father, who was his manager.
10:40 Peck was arrested just months after Jason Handy in 2003.
10:44 Due to his age at the time, Bell's name was kept hidden
10:47 and he was referred to as John Doe, something very few people knew until now.
10:51 "Unfortunately, there was no therapy and was left to my own devices,
10:56 which at that age probably isn't the best thing."
10:59 Peck's famous supporters.
11:01 Drake Bell was in attendance at the day of the sentencing for Brian Peck in October 2004.
11:05 Though he was relieved his tormentor was finally caught,
11:08 Bell was shocked to see the amount of support he received
11:10 from notable people in the industry.
11:12 "His entire side of the courtroom was full.
11:21 Full.
11:21 There were definitely some recognizable faces on that side of the room."
11:26 These included Growing Pains cast members Alan Thicke and Joanna Kearns,
11:30 the Amanda Show crew members Rich and Beth Correll,
11:32 along with actors James Marsden and Taron Killam.
11:36 In 2024, Boy Meets World stars Will Friedle and Ryder Strong
11:39 claimed their letters were based on misinformation.
11:42 "You know, he had us, had Ryder and I write letters of support to the judge,
11:46 and these are things we did.
11:48 And again, we did them because we were then lied to,
11:51 we weren't told the whole story, but it doesn't change the fact that we did it."
11:55 Peck pled no contest, was sentenced to 16 months in prison,
11:59 and was required to register as a sex offender.
12:02 Still, he went on to work in Hollywood,
12:04 even briefly on Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
12:07 "There are not enough protections in place to keep
12:10 even convicted sexual predators off of kids' TV shows."
12:15 Did you watch Quiet on set?
12:17 Let us know in the comments below.
12:19 "It's a house of horrors.
12:20 No kidding.
12:22 House of horrors."
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