The question of a way forward always comes to mind when new allegations emerge against Hollywood and/or its foot soldiers, as is the case with “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.” The new Investigation Discovery docuseries reflects on allegations of toxicity at Nickelodeon throughout the late ’90s and 2000s.
It’s probably what you expect it to be, especially since on March 6, the ID network released an extended clip from the series featuring Drake Bell, a star of “The Amanda Show” and “Drake & Josh.” Bell, now 37, alleges that Nickelodeon’s dialogue coach, Brian Peck, sexually abused him when he was a minor. It’s the most damning of the many allegations made throughout the four-episode series. (Peck, 63, did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.)
ID made a point to tell journalists not to reveal any spoilers about the series until March 13 ― which makes the timing of the clip’s release quite strange. Aside from the network breaking its own embargo, the move seemed to imply that “Quiet on Set” contained even more explosive news, with Bell’s allegation just the tip of the iceberg.
That’s not exactly the case. And directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz ― two of the people behind Hulu’s “New York Times Presents” series, which reframes the media narratives around boldface names like Britney Spears and Janet Jackson ― seem cognizant of that, judging by the way they organized the story.
The pair dedicate much of the third episode to Bell’s story, with the actor alleging for the first time publicly that he is the unidentified minor in Peck’s 2003 arrest for “lewd acts with a child.” (“Quiet on Set” details that in 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old, and to oral copulation with a minor under 16. Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender in October 2004.)
Rather than having to rehash the most painful and disturbing details of Peck’s alleged abuse, Bell describes elements of his relationship with the dialogue coach, which began early in his Nickelodeon career, that he feels most comfortable sharing on camera.
“The whole thing was mental manipulation,” Bell alleges in the series, adding that Peck had the connections to claim that Bell wouldn’t be able to get certain work if he told anyone what he was doing.
The actor also alleges that Peck drove a wedge between him and his father, Joe ― who is also interviewed in “Quiet on Set” ― that culminated in Joe’s dismissal as his son’s manager.
Robertson and Schwartz wisely use images of police and court documents to detail the most explicit parts of the allegations, instead of having the actor recount them.
So, there’s a lot of time and space given to Bell’s account in “Quiet on Set.” But what lingers throughout the series, especially with Bell’s allegation having been reported before it even aired, are all the other stories that surround it.
They allege a deep-seated culture and cycle of toxicity concerning child actors, inspiring little confidence that the same events won’t continue to happen — and that some of those alleged victims, like Bell, won’t go on to perpetuate it themselves.
In 2021, the actor, who says in the docuseries that he’s now in therapy, pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment after sending “inappropriate social media messages” in 2017 to a girl who was 15 at the time.
Despite how much space “Quiet on Set” gives Bell, very little time is spent challenging him on the allegations against him, beyond Bell saying that there was a lot of “misinformation” reported about him concerning that case, and that he accounted for his actions. (The actor was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.)
That could leave viewers with some questions — and discomfort. And that’s a recurring feeling throughout “Quiet on Set,” despite how much access the filmmakers had.
The series includes interviews with former Nickelodeon actors like Raquel Lee Bolleau from “The Amanda Show”; Bryan Hearne, Katrina Johnson, Giovonnie Samuels and Kyle Sullivan from the ensemble sketch show “All That”; and Alexis Nikolas from “Zoey 101.”
Noticeably missing from “Quiet on Set” is Amanda Bynes, star of “The Amanda Show,” whose troubles have been well-documented. Also absent is Jennette McCurdy, one of the stars of “iCarly.” Both names are discussed multiple times throughout the docuseries, with special attention paid to McCurdy’s revelations in her 2022 memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died.”
The actors who are interviewed in the series, many of whom now identify as former stars who have left the industry, allege their own discomfort about being a part of certain storylines.
Those included Hearne, who is Black, costumed as a character named “Lil Fetus,” with a skin tone that, as he recalls someone describing on set, “should be charcoal.” Kid actors played characters that involved having to guzzle a bunch of sugar or coffee to entertain audiences. (To put things into further context that the docuseries sometimes lacks, Nickelodeon viewers were huge fans of gross-outs, which was part of why the game show “Double Dare,” with its buckets of slime and simulated mucus, was so successful for as long as it was.)
Female actors were put in scenes that, as contextualized by journalists Scaachi Koul and Kate Taylor in “Quiet on Set,” appear sexually suggestive in hindsight. Nikolas recalls an episode when her character squeezes a tube of the snack “Goo Pop” so hard, it squirts in co-star Jamie Lynn Spears’ face.
“It’s a cum shot,” Nikolas alleges a male castmate said on set.
The pervasiveness of some of these images is indicative of a casually racist and sexist era in Hollywood ― one that preceded the callout culture and social media environments that helped bring these issues into focus. Without that context, they appear even more egregious.
But what makes them all particularly awful is listening to the actors express their aversion to them, both in retrospect and at the time.
Koul asks a crucial question in the docuseries: “Who is the sexual innuendo for on a kids’ show?”
Several former Nickelodeon staffers interviewed in “Quiet on Set” ― including writers Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton, director Virgil Fabian, and an unidentified costumer ― allege a culture of fear that they could lose their jobs if they raised any concern.
Many of their allegations point to Dan Schneider, a once-ubiquitous Nickelodeon figure who wrote, produced and/or created many hit series for the network.
Among Kilgen’s allegations in “Quiet on Set” against Schneider, 58, are claims that he asked female staff to give him a massage; that he had Stratton and Kilgen, the only two female writers on his staff at the time, share one salary; and that he wrote sexually suggestive jokes for his teen series. At about this point, “Quiet on Set” displays a statement from Schneider denying these claims and expressing that he had no control over salaries.
In fact, after many of the allegations against Schneider throughout “Quiet on Set,” of which several are echoed from Taylor’s 2022 full report in Business Insider, a statement of denial from Schneider flashes on the screen.
Regardless of whom and what “Quiet on Set” viewers choose to believe, it’s hard not to consider the situations in which many child actors are placed ― in part by the networks and studios that make millions of dollars off them.
And that’s a well-established historical pattern that dates back to older former child actors like Corey Feldman (whom the docuseries rightly name-checks), the Menudo singers and even earlier.
This seems to go beyond Schneider, with whom Nickelodeon parted ways in 2018, and even Peck, who’s still registered as a sex offender.
Nickelodeon has its own recurring flashcard throughout the docuseries that states that the network “investigates all formal complaints,” and that they “have adopted numerous safeguards over the years” to help ensure that they live up to their own high standards.
And yet, you have to wonder how, when parents or studio teachers are legally required to be within earshot or eyesight of a minor at all times on set, someone like Peck might be able to get so close to Bell, as the actor alleges in the docuseries. (Even Sullivan says in the docuseries: “The loopholes in that law should be closed.”)
Or why Hearne’s mother, Tracey, might feel like she jeopardized her son’s success on “All That” because she raised a concern on set about the show’s “adult jokes,” as she alleges in the docuseries. She and Bryan allege that they were informed he would not be returning to “All That” ahead of Season 3.
Or how after Peck’s conviction, as “Quiet on Set” points out, he was able to find work on another teen series, Disney’s “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” from 2006 to 2007. (“Quiet on Set” displays a statement from stage manager Beth Correll and director Richard Correll, who both worked with Peck at Nickelodeon, in which they claim they “had no input” in casting him on “Zack & Cody.” The pair also alleges that when they asked Peck about the case, he replied that “the problem had been resolved.”)
Or how it wasn’t until our #MeToo era that Schneider and Nickelodeon parted ways, even though 2017 was by no means when the first allegation against him emerged.
Koul puts it perfectly on “Quiet on Set”: “Powerful people in the entertainment space will make allowances for anybody who is successful.”
And the culture of celebrity further exacerbates the issue. Bell alleges in “Quiet on Set” that at Peck’s trial, many well-known people were sitting on the defendant’s side of the court. (He doesn’t specify anyone by name.) The series also unveils letters of support, petitioned from the court, that include ones from actors James Marsden, Taran Killam and Rider Strong. (Last month, 11 days after the “Quiet on Set” trailer was released, Strong said on his podcast, “Pod Meets World,” that he now regrets supporting Peck: “We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything ... The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid.’”)
We all in some ways contribute to a culture that’s quick to move on from bad conduct, or slide it under the rug as though it never happened. And sometimes we just redo those works, like when Paramount+ rebooted “iCarly,” a Nickelodeon series created by Schneider, or when Nickelodeon announced interest in a new version of “All That.”
That’s human. These things are complicated. The desire to move forward is understandable. And these are beloved franchises. But does it also take into consideration the steps necessary to ensure that what happened then doesn’t happen again, as we’ve seen time and time before?
Getting rid of a few people is a solution, but not the only one that might be necessary. The entire system that surrounds child actors in Hollywood could use a change.
The Schneider-led sets might have been governed by fear. But it says something that Kilgen accepted the career risk of filing a gender discrimination lawsuit in 2000 after her departure. She cited a hostile work environment in the suit. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount. Kilgen has not had another Hollywood credit since.
Meanwhile, Mike Denton, a former cameraman, alleges in “Quiet on Set” that he noticed the sexual innuendos in certain scenes of his shows, but that no one was able to say anything because “this is Dan’s baby.” Some attest to recognizing a few of the most egregious storylines and moments on a Schneider-led show, but few allege to have spoken up about them.
It’s part of what helps create an ecosystem of toxicity, which “Quiet on Set” could spend some time examining more broadly. In Schneider’s final flashcard statement, he alleges: “Everything that happened on the shows I ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults. All stories, dialogue, costumes and makeup were fully approved by network executives on two coasts. A standards and practices group read and ultimately approved every script, and program executives approved all episodes.”
If that’s true, how many of them still work at, or with, Nickelodeon? This is the kind of thing we should also be asking. Or we’ll be right back here again, with a whole new docuseries that raises a few more unanswered questions.
“Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” premieres on ID across two nights on March 17 and 18.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.