For years strange rumblings about popular children's show producer Dan Schneider have been widely disseminated and dissected online. However, after Investigation Discovery's damning docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" detailed horrific experiences from sets of some of Nickelodeon's most popular shows, the series creator has broken his silence to address and apologize for the allegations of creating a toxic atmosphere on set and hostile workplace.
The former producer of shows like "All That," "iCarly," "Drake & Josh" and "Victorious" has kept a low profile since his relationship with Nickelodeon was severed in 2018. An investigation by parent company ViacomCBS found that numerous employees under Schneider viewed him as verbally abusive.
Schneider and a former actor on "iCarly," BooG!e also known as Bobby Bowman, sat down for an interview posted to YouTube on March 19. The producer spent 19 minutes addressing each of the concerns brought up during the docuseries. Schneider said, “Watching over the past two nights was very difficult — me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
He continued to share that he wished he could return to his career's early days and make amends. "I could see the hurt in some people’s eyes, and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry," he said.
"Quiet on Set" also detailed the experiences of female writers, female costume designers and other women and girls on set highlighting that Schneider would ask for female staffers to give him massages in exchange for putting their sketches in the show. He also allegedly made lewd and inappropriate jokes toward the few, isolated women in the writers' room.
Right out of the gate, Bowman directly asked the producer about the massages he asked for during filming. Schneider said, "It was wrong that I ever put anybody in that position. It was the wrong thing to do. I'd never do it today. I'm embarrassed that I did it then."
He continued, "I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation and additionally I apologize to the people walking around Video Village and wherever they happened because there were lots of people there who witnessed it who might've felt uncomfortable."
Another major concern posed in the docuseries was that adult male writers would write inappropriate sexually tinged jokes for children to act out on Schneider's shows. He addressed the claims of the sexualized content by saying, “Every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny."
He even suggested, “Now we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens. I have no problem with that. Let's cut those jokes out of the show.” Also, he reiterated that network executives approved the jokes and skits on his shows at every step of the way, and countless adults were on set and never raised concerns.
Drake Bell attends Opening Night Of Rock Of Ages Hollywood at The Bourbon Room on January 15, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Rock of Ages Hollywood)Schneider also became emotional discussing Drake Bell, the "Drake & Josh" and "The Amanda Show" alum who came forward in the docuseries and named himself as a victim of pervasive child sexual assault in the Brian Peck case. Peck was an on-set dialogue coach who was eventually convicted of sexually assaulting a child actor in 2004, who now has been revealed to be Bell.
“That was probably the darkest part of my career,” Schneider recalled. “And here’s the kicker that I really don’t get. After [Peck] got out of prison and was a registered sex offender, he was hired on a Disney Channel show. I don’t understand that.”
He also defended his relationship with another child star Amanda Bynes who was illustrated as Schneider's muse in the docuseries. Bynes was the breakout star in "All That" and eventually received her own series, "The Amanda Show." However, her childhood fame resulted in numerous issues like a battle of emancipation from her parents.
“Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents. . ." Schneider said. “She wanted that for herself, so she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me — because she included me as part of her team, thought of me that way. We supported her, she tried to get emancipated and it ended up not working out, and she didn’t.”
In response to the apology video, Alexa Nikolas, an outspoken child actor from Schneider's show "Zoey 101," also alleged she was mistreated by Schneider on set and said on her YouTube channel that Schneider is "a bully" and "impacted her life."
"Where’s a phone call of an apology? How come you can do all of this, how can everyone do all of this but not reach out to the person that they hurt?” she said.
She continued, “When someone doesn’t personally come to you and apologize, it’s not an apology. If you hear about it through other people, it’s not really an apology, right? An apology is to the person that you hurt. That’s what an apology is for.”
"Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" is now streaming on Max.
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