Pedophilia on set: serious accusations against the children’s channel Nickelodeon

Recently released, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” revealed some disturbing facts about the workplace culture at Nickelodeon between the 1990s and 2010s. It’s a time when mega-producer Dan Schneider was in power and produced hit shows like ‘iCarly ‘, ‘Zoey 101’, ‘The Amanda Show’ and ‘Drake & Josh’.

It is not the first time Schneider has been accused of abusing others. In 2018, Nickelodeon parted ways with Schneider after an investigation revealed that he had been verbally abusive on set. No indications of sexual misconduct were found at the time. Schneider denied all allegations at the time.

However, the allegations revealed in the new documentation are difficult to dismiss. Several former Nickelodeon child stars, including Drake Bell, talk on camera about all the trauma they experienced as children while filming.

But employees, especially the only two women who worked as writers on “The Amanda Show,” are also talking about the inappropriate and suggestive comments Dan Schneider made to them.

At first everything was relatively harmless. Schneider is described as the type of man who made a lot of jokes and created a good atmosphere on set. But that soon changed. His jokes and statements were inappropriate – for adults and children – and he often sought proximity to one of his favorite stars: Amanda Bynes. At the time, she was the star of “The Amanda Show.”

The close bond between Schneider and Bynes was a thorn in everyone’s side. The documentary shows footage of them sitting in the hot tub together, hugging each other and spending a lot of time together – he made her a star.

At the age of 16, Bynes wanted to be more independent, but had a falling out with her parents. The person she turned to was Schneider. It is not clear what happened here. What is clear is that the police were involved at some point.

After the feud with Bynes, Schneider returned to Nickelodeon. They welcomed him with a kiss on the hand because he was responsible for several of their hit shows. Schneider re-released “All That”. Many of the stars speak in the documentary and talk about Schneider’s inappropriate behavior and the racism that Schneider displayed.

Schneider shamelessly exploited his power. Anyone who didn’t do what he said was fired.

Many of the child stars suffered from alcohol/drug problems and reported mental health issues.

Actor Drake Bell then speaks in the third episode. His story is less about Dan Schneider and more about Brian Peck, his interview coach he worked with during his time on “The Amanda Show.”

Peck manipulated Bell into cutting off contact with his father (who was also his manager at the time) and interfered in various aspects of Bell’s life. Bell says Peck convinced his mother to let him stay at home between castings.

“I was sleeping on the couch where I normally sleep and I woke up. I opened my eyes, woke up and he was sexually assaulting me,” said Bell, describing the first abuse.

He was 15 at the time.

His mother realized something was wrong when Peck started calling their house more and more often. Finally, Bell told her everything and she called the police.

“The investigation was quite brutal,” Bell says. “I had to tell strangers everything down to the smallest detail. The worst part was I had to call Brian and get him to admit what he had done.”

Peck was convicted of child abuse in 2004 and had to register as a sex offender.

The latest episode of “Quiet on Set” also discusses the fact that Bell himself was later accused of inappropriate messages he sent to a minor. In 2021, he was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.

But the documentary goes even further. Another man who worked for Nickelodeon was Jason Handy. He was a production assistant on “All That” and “The Amanda Show,” the latter of which also starred 11-year-old Brandi.

“We parents weren’t allowed on set,” Brandi’s mother MJ says in the documentary. But that didn’t bother her at first, because Handy was also very accommodating to her parents and a person with whom everyone got along well.

But MJ’s perspective suddenly changed when her daughter told her that Handy had sent her an email with a naked photo of herself:

Brandi wasn’t his only victim. Handy was arrested in April 2003 after police received a tip. The documentary states that when police searched his apartment, they found more than 10,000 images of children and more than 1,700 images of young girls in erotic poses, as well as seven videos of children performing sex acts.

In 2004, Handy was sentenced to six years in prison.

Ezel Channel, another Nickelodeon employee, was convicted of abusing a minor. Channel brought an underage boy into the company premises and abused him there. He was already a registered sex offender, but was still allowed to work at Nickelodeon. Channel isn’t discussed much in the documentary, but it is mentioned that Nickelodeon employed three child molesters at the same time.

“These past few days it was very difficult to see how I used to behave,” Schneider said in a video interview. “I definitely have to apologize to a few people.” And further: “What I did was wrong and I wouldn’t do it again today. I am ashamed and apologize to anyone I have put in an uncomfortable situation.”

But he defends the humor in his programs, which some consider inappropriate for children: “The jokes were written specifically for a child audience because only children found them funny.” If these people were to look back through an adult lens now, 20 years later, it would be clear that they would no longer find the jokes appropriate, Schneider said. But it has no problems cutting things or even entire programs:

“I want everyone to like my series. So if there’s something in a show that needs to be removed because it upsets someone, we’ll remove it.”

The documentary is currently not available on any streaming service in Switzerland. But you can find all four episodes on Dailymotion.