Nickelodeon has played a huge staple in our lives ever since the 1990’s. For those that don’t know, Nickelodeon is the number one entertainment television program for kids. It has built a diverse global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The television program has been a fan favorite to most growing up and older generations and continues to keep us entertained and distracted but from what?
Dan Schneider, a former television producer and screenwriter, dabbled into acting early in his career, landing a few small roles and a recurring spot on the 1980’s sitcom Head of the Class as Dennis Blunden. In 1993, Schneider was hired to work on a new sketch comedy show for children called All That. After writing the pilot episode the show took off and Schneider quickly became prominent in the company.
He continued working with the network and produced a string of other children’s shows on Nickelodeon such as The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, Victorious, and Sam & Cat. In the wake of the MeToo movement, details of his alleged sexual misconduct and gender discrimination allegations towards Nickelodeon employees, many of them underage, were made public beginning in 2018, the year Nickelodeon parted ways with Schneider.
March 17 2024, a four part Investigation Discovery documentary called Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV revolving around behind the scenes at Nickelodeon and the dark side of the environment under the former producer Schneider started streaming on Max and other platforms. Schneider does not appear in the documentary, however former writers, few child stars and journalists form a clear picture of the network starting in the 1990s and early 2000s.
This documentary brought the allegations of abuse and toxic behavior behind the scenes on shows like Drake & Josh, The Amanda Show and iCarly. Behind these shows that were created for the Nickelodeon viewers was Schneider. Drake Bell of Drake & Josh, and The Amanda Show talks about the sexual abuse that he faced and went through by former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck. “Brian and I became very close because he had a lot of shared interests which, looking back, seems calculated.” Bell noted.
Alexa Nikolas of Zoey 101 has previously been vocal about her experiences on Nickelodeon. Nikolas has repeatedly spoken up about the toxic environment and extensive bullying she faced on the set of Zoey 101.
“Towards the end of season 2 of Zoey 101, I wasn’t happy, I actually could not not show up to set anymore without crying. A lot of my self worth was deeply damaged. It altered my life.” she added.
Innocent children that are also spoken about in the docuseries faced the hostile environment on the majority of Schneider’s toxic sets.
Sullivan who appeared on All That says, “They were taking something that exists in an adult context and transmogrifying it for children, when you do that, it’s an inappropriate thing to do.”
Two staff writers of All That, Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen also came forward about the abuse they endured under Schineider’s leadership.
“Many Times it was blatant sexism and harassment,” confessed Kilgen.
Kilgen later quit her staff writer job and filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the Nickelodeon production company.
“For us as the child cast members, though most of the inappropriate Nickelodeon jokes went over our heads at the table read throughs, we were completely aware that we were being put in uncomfortable situations, but had the constant fear of being fired on the spot or heavily disliked by Schneider. Everyone knew that he was just the type of guy that would do exactly that.” said Bryan Hearne, an actor that appeared on All That.
