Dan Schneider, a former actor, producer and creator behind some of Nickelodeon’s most popular TV shows, is responding to some of the allegations revealed during the Investigation Discovery documentary “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
In the interview, the Memphis native sits down with actor Bobby Newman, who starred as BooG!e on “iCarly” — one of Schneider’s shows. During the 20-minute interview, Schneider goes into his side of the story on some of the topics discussed in the four part docuseries about the toxic environment behind children’s television on Nickelodeon.
Here’s what he talked about.
Dan Schneider apologizes for his behavior
The questioning starts off with BooG!e asking Schneider about his conduct in the workplace. In the documentary, many of the writers and workers talked about how Schneider would always have someone massaging him.
“It was wrong,” Schneider says about massages. “It was wrong that I ever put anybody in that position. It was a wrong thing to do. I’d never do it today, and I’m embarrassed that I did it then.”
Schneider goes on to talk about his behavior in the writer’s room saying some jokes went a little too far and he takes full responsibility for that. He says no writer should ever feel uncomfortable in the writer’s room, and he regrets not giving everyone the same joy and excitement to come to work like he got when he first started.
Schneider says he would snap at people, give sarcastic replies and hurry people unreasonably. He cites his immaturity and inexperience in his position as reasons for not being a better boss to some of the people he worked with.
“Watching that show, there were so many times I wanted to pick up the phone and call some of those people to say, ‘I’m so sorry and let’s talk about it, and I wish you’d had a better time, and I wish I could’ve shown you a better experience,” Schneider says.
At the end of the interview, Schneider says there are two things that he would do differently. The first is that he would have a licensed therapist to oversee the process to make sure the kids really wanted to be there doing that job. The second thing he would change is how he treats everyone. Schneider says he regrets not giving people the best of him.
Dan Schneider on whether some of his shows had inappropriate content for children’s television
While the documentary made it seem like Schneider was able to put whatever he wanted on air, he says all jokes were approved by numerous higher ranking people at Nickelodeon.
“The notion that I had the power to just produce whatever I want and have it air is false,” Schneider says. “There were many, many levels of scrutiny. We had executives in LA, and we had executives in New York to get approval from.”
‘Quiet on Set’ documentary:Dan Schneider allegations and what we learned about Nickelodeon’s dark side
During the interview, Schneider says several times that if jokes from those shows are inappropriate now to cut them from air. He would rather have those segments cut from the shows than to have people not be able to enjoy his work.
He did admit that some of the “On Air Dares” pushed the envelope too far, but again he says that everything was approved by people above his position. Schneider says that he had no idea any of the kids were uncomfortable with the dares at the time.
What Dan Schneider says about Amanda Bynes and Drake Bell
Schneider says that Amanda Bynes came to him and her entire team when she tried to get emancipated. He also emphasized that she wanted the emancipation for herself.
“We supported her,” Schneider says. “She tried to get emancipated. It ended up not working, and she didn’t.”
About Drake Bell, Schneider said what happened there was the darkest part in his career, even though he didn’t hire Brian Peck. He would go on to talk about his surprise and disgust when he found out Peck had been rehired at Disney after registering as a sex offender.
“When Drake and I talked and he told me what happened, I was more devastated by that than anything that had ever happened in my career thus far,” Schneider says.
He tells the story of how Bell’s mother came and asked him to help write her speech for the judge with tears in his eyes. According to the story, she told Schneider he was better with words than she was which is why she asked for his help.
Dan Schneider dispels rumors from his time at Nickelodeon
There were two rumors that Schneider wanted to dispel during the interview. The first rumor was that he was banned from the set from “What I Like About You,” a WB sitcom starring Amanda Bynes, for having issues with another writer on the show. Schneider says instead of being as involved as he usually is, he took the back seat. He says he spent most of the time in the writer’s room working on scripts instead of helping direct everything.
The second rumor was that he controlled the pay for the writers Christy Stratton and Jenny Hilgen. The two appeared on “Quiet on Set” and described workplace harassment as well as having to split a salary while being the only female writers on staff. Schneider said he never controlled the amount of money someone makes and never knew what most of the writers he worked with made. He says that it is a common practice in Hollywood to split two writers for the price of one when the two writers are on their first job and that he has been on multiple sets that did that.
‘Quiet on Set’ stirs responses from former Nickelodeon stars
Since the show aired on March 17, there has been a large presence on social media of people showing support for those affected. Many of the stars of Schneider’s shows have been active on social platforms.
Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor, both from the hit show “iCarly,” unfollowed both the Nickelodeon and iCarly Instagram accounts after the documentary.
Bryan Christopher Hearne and Giovonnie Samuels from “All That” both posted on X to say thank you for the support from so many people on social media. Hearne also posted a picture with his mother captioned, “God’s rejection is protection. Love you ma.”
Alexa Nikolas has probably been the most active of all the former childhood stars that appeared in the documentary. She posted a picture of her and “All That” star Leon Frierson captioned, “Little us is so proud of us.” Nikolas has also been busy on X sharing news articles, making reaction videos and asking Nickelodeon to remove some scenes of her from “Zoey 101.”
First appeared on www.commercialappeal.com