‘‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” is a brand new documentary series that explores the dark history behind the scenes of classic Nickelodeon shows. The series consists of five episodes which are now fully available to stream both on Discovery+ and MAX. Nickelodeon was the first real pillar for kids’ television in terms of being outside the world of cartoons.
The majority of the docuseries focuses on the main person behind Nickelodeon’s success Dan Schneider. Schneider is the mind behind shows like “All That,” “The Amanda Show,” “Drake and Josh” and “iCarly.” During the show’s five episodes, we hear from a variety of former Nickelodeon cast members.
The cast members interviewed include Giovonni Samuels, Katrina Johnson, Leon Frierson, Raquel Lee, Bryan Hearne, Drake Bell and many more. Each told a more horrifying story than the last.
Through these episodes the viewer really starts to get a grasp of Nickelodeon’s negligence, allowing one man to have unlimited amounts of power, power that he would use as an iron fist over his child stars.
There were countless reports of sexual harassment, racism and pedophilia on almost all of Schneider’s sets. Schneider was said to have often requested shoulder massages from the female members of both his cast and crew. Since these shows were originally released, everyone has finally started to catch on to the countless amount of predatory jokes littered all over the shows. Including an endless number of disgusting feet jokes.
On top of all this, there have been a recorded number of three child predators on different Nickelodeon sets. All leading up to Bell’s official statement on being sexually abused by acting coach and co-star Brian Peck.
The docuseries also interviews a lot of the kids’ parents as well, each of them kind of saying the same thing. The parents would essentially chalk it up to being very new to show business. They would always talk about how they would feel powerless against the director and producers of the shows, that this is the way this scene needs to be done or we need you to stay out of the way.
Sadly the parents that did try to do something about the treatment of their kids on set were merely pushed away, Bell being a primary case of this. During Bell’s startling disclosure, the musician and actor would reveal that Peck was actually able to groom him into turning against his father, who was his acting manager at the time. Other revelations would arise with many actors actually being in support of these child predators. However, some have come out saying that they were “misinformed” about the situation.
Overall “Quiet on Set” is a very important documentary for people to watch. While there were so many bad things, the actors also kept informing the audience that not all of it was that way. This documentary series stands as a horrific retelling of the trauma that these child stars have gone through. It highlights that while TV productions nowadays have better rules in place to stop these kinds of things from happening, it just doesn’t feel like enough.
That’s why it’s so important for audiences and TV corporations to stop these things from ever happening again and to actually allow these children to have healthy childhoods. ‘‘Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” gets four and a half potatoes.
