Dark side of hit kids’ shows
It was the US channel that gave the world cult series like Spongebob Squarepants, The Ren & Stimpy Show, iCarly and Drake & Josh.
Providing a genuine, edgier alternative to Disney, it turned young actors like Miranda Cosgrove, Nick Cannon, Emma Roberts and Ariana Grande into stars.
But as it helped shape children’s entertainment and culture in the 90s and noughties, troubling things were taking place on set – and behind the scenes – as a new four-part docu-series reveals.
Debuting on ThreeNow today, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV lifts the lid on what many of those interviewed described as a “toxic” and “dangerous” culture that permeated programmes like sketch comedy All That (billed as Saturday Night Live for kids), The Amanda Show and Zoey 101.
At the centre of the allegations was uber-producer and writer Dan Schneider.
Previously best known for playing the bumbling Dennis Blunden on 1980s sitcom Head of the Class, he reinvented himself as the network’s “golden child” as he helped it expand beyond its staple of cartoons.
However, while many of the young performers saw the 30-something “big kid” as both a mentor and a self-depricating, funny boss, Quiet on Set details troubling behaviour and reminds us of scenes that look like they would be more at home on the Playboy Channel.
Initially the complaints from the tween and young teen thespians – and their parents – were about the long days, but then came the inappropriate costumes, attention and body shaming.
“You’d spend all your time hoping somebody didn’t poke the soft spots on your body – or in your brain,” All That’s Katrina Johnson says. Originally close to the uber-producer, she now found herself replaced by Amanda Bynes, for whom Schneider quickly developed a solo project.
And it was for The Amanda Show that Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton were hired to write. While delighted at the opportunity, the pair say they quickly learned their place – forced to split a single salary and told by Schneider that he believed “women weren’t funny”.
Then came the massage requests, degrading messages and humiliating bets that he then welched on paying.
Eventually forced out, their allegations of gender discrimination, a hostile working environment and harassment led to an internal investigation, but it appeared to have no effect on Schneider’s career at Nickelodeon.
As one Quiet interviewee observes, “how safe are the kids if that’s how adult women are treated?”
While there’s definitely a touch of the VH1 Behind the Musics in Mary Robertson (whose previous documentary subjects have included Nixon, Trump and 9/11) and Emma Schwartz’s series, with its ominous soundtrack and placement of jawdropping disclosures just before “breaks”, there’s no doubting its compellingness as a narrative.
For a certain generation (and their elders, who thought their charges were partaking in wholesome viewing), this may taint their memories of certain shows, but Quiet on Set will hopefully ensure vulnerable, nascent artists are never again exposed to such a toxic environment.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV debuts on ThreeNow today.