The child actors were sexually exploited and abused by the adults they worked with on several hit Nickelodeon shows throughout the '90s and 2000s. When one of those adults, Brian Peck, was arrested on 11 counts of sexual abuse child and later pleaded no contest in 2004, dozens of notable actors and television industry figures openly supported him during the sentencing portion of his case. And after serving his sentence for raping a child, Disney Channel hired him to work on one of its hit series, “The Suite Life with Zack & Cody.”
Layer upon layer of depravity is revealed and alleged in “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” a four-part docuseries from Investigation Discovery about the abuse suffered by multiple child actors while working on hit Nickelodeon comedies like “All That, “The Amanda Show” and “iCarly”.
The shows are decades behind us, but the silencing effect of power and silent acceptance of predatory behavior remains an enduring element in Hollywood, as evidenced by all the people who have unleashed weak-sauce defenses or maintained total radio silence from the documentary. aired this week.
Directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz's documentary is packed with bombshells, but much of the disruption now revolves around the content of court documents revealed for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Documents show that 41 letters were written in support of Peck, who was a speech coach and Nickelodeon actor before his arrest in 2003. During the sentencing portion of the case came candid testimonies about Peck from actors such as James Marsden, Ron Melendez , Alan Thicke, Rider Strong, Will Friedle and former “The Amanda Show” co-star Taran Killam.
Public pressure is mounting for Peck's defenders to explain why they supported Peck, whose charges included sodomy of a person under 16, sexual penetration with a foreign object, four counts of oral copulation of a person under 16, oral copulation with anesthesia or controlled substances and using a minor for sexual acts. Some of the letter writers even suggested to the judge that Peck be placed on probation rather than sent to prison. He was sentenced to 16 months.
While Marsden and company are the most publicly recognizable names in the clamor for accountability, Disney and Nickelodeon also haven't offered much in terms of apology or accountability for their turning-a-blind-eye policies that created safe havens (and jobs ) for predators like Peck. Jason Michael Handy, a former Nickelodeon production assistant, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 after pleading no contest to two felony charges, including lewd acts on a child and distribution of sexually explicit material.
Maybe things have changed since then for child actors, but Nickelodeon's nebulous responses at the end of the “Quiet on Set” episodes and in statements sent to the media last week do little to assure the public that there have been a notable transformation within their fiefdoms.
The media, film and television industries should be seasoned professionals in dealing with this kind of ugliness. There is a long history of powerful men victimizing those who hope to succeed (or simply make a living). And it wasn't long ago that networks and Hollywood were forced to deal with their coddling of powerful serial predators like Roger Ailes, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby and Kevin Spacey thanks to dogged reporting on the problem and brave people standing up. They dared to do it. speak out against their abusers.
Drake Bell in 2017. The actor says in “Quiet on Set” that he was the unnamed boy at the center of the case against Brian Peck.
(Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press)
Former child star Drake Bell, co-star of “Drake & Josh,” is one of those brave souls. He says he was the unnamed boy at the center of the case against Peck, and speaks publicly for the first time in the documentary ID. “His whole side of the room was packed,” Bell said. “There were definitely some recognizable faces on that side of the room. And on my side were me, my mother and my brother.” Peck was convicted at the time and Bell says he was shocked by all the support Peck received from people in the industry.
And Bell had more reason to lose faith in an industry he once called home. After Peck served his prison sentence, he was hired to work on “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.” Rich and Beth Correll, who worked as director and first assistant director on the show, knew about Peck's background because they were among those who had written a letter defending him. (The Corrells, in a statement to the documentary's producers, say they were “not involved or involved in the casting” of Peck for the show and that when they asked him about it, he said “the issue had been resolved.”)
Nickelodeon rose to fame at the turn of the century by spawning a series of aggressively energetic sketch comedy series for children. The loud and risqué content was aimed at the older siblings of the Disney Channel audience. It featured relatively edgier content than Mickey and Minnie and plenty of gross-out moments, including its signature throwing of green slime on Nickelodeon stars, reality TV contestants, and Kid's Choice award winners.
Central to the network's success was producer Dan Schneider, and he is also a central figure in accusations of a toxic work environment on set and behind the scenes at Nickelodeon. Several former actors on his show, now adults, speak in the documentary about how Schneider bullied his cast and crew, created sexualized scenarios similar to the adults on his show and pushed them to perform extreme stunts, if not raw
Behind the scenes, one of two writers who worked for Schneider in the 1990s recalled a heartbreaking event in the writers' room, when Schneider pressured one of them to recount an event from her high school years while pretending there was received anal sex. all in the name of laughter.
She sued the network, they settled and her career was ruined. Schneider became the network's golden boy. And now those former employees, along with a host of former child actors, have horror stories to tell thanks to a network that failed to protect the children behind the ratings.
