How did it get to this point?
Dan Schneider, born in Tennessee in 1966, began working for Nickelodeon in 1993. From then into the early 00’s, he became responsible for some of the biggest kids’ TV shows at the time, including The Amanda Show, Drake and Josh, Victorious and iCarly, propelling young actors and actresses such as Ariana Grande, Amanda Bynes and Jamie Lynn Spears into stardom. But this came at a price for the stars and crew from his shows, having previously been sued for accusations of gender discrimination, harassment and hostile work environments.
Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of kids’ TV
Those previous allegations were not the last claims that Schneider would have made against him.
On March 17th, ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids’ TV would air originally as a four-part docuseries investigating and revealing the events that took place on various Nickelodeon shows at the time Schneider was in charge.
Allegations and statements were made to suggest that he created a toxic work environment for the child actors, with a number of them coming forward saying they did not feel protected or comfortable on set under the boss, with a number of them mentioning ‘massages’ he would give them being a vivid memory of feeling uneasy around the producer. Amanda Bynes’ time working for Schneider was highlighted numerous times, with scenes included from old videos of the two in a hot tub, with Bynes in a swimming costume, and Schneider fully clothed.
The episodes also delved into alleged abuse on the set of various shows at the time, the most notable involving Drake and Josh star, Drake Bell. Bell spoke for the first time regarding the alleged abuse he claims to have suffered at the hands of actor, employee of Schneider at the time, and since-convicted sex offender, Brian Peck. Rumours had long been circling regarding who the victim of Peck’s abuse was, with a number of fellow Nickelodeon stars showing their shock at learning it was Bell.
Brian Peck, now 63, was found guilty on a number of charges including sodomy, lewd acts upon a child by a person 10 years old, and oral copulation by anaesthesia or a controlled substance. Peck ended up serving 16 months in prison for the crimes between 2004 and 2005. As well as this, Schneider’s production assistant, Jason Michael Handy, was found guilty of 3 offences against young girls and the possession of over 10,000 images of child pornography, spending 6 years in prison.
The series recorded 1.2 billion minutes of viewing within its first week of release, with over 20 billion viewing the first four episodes. This then encouraged the producers of the docu-series to release a fifth episode discussing the topics in the series in further detail.
All of this put together strongly implies that Schneider was either involved, or at the very least, was in the know of, various forms of abuse occurring on the sets of his shows, by either him, or his close colleagues.
Since the show aired, Schneider sat down in a tell-all style interview with Bobbie K.Bowman (nicknamed BooG!e), who worked on the TV show iCarly under the producer, to discuss his past behaviours and reactions to watching the docu-series. Schneider admitted that his behaviour “was wrong” and that he was “really sorry” for the stress caused under his productions. He said he owed “some people a pretty strong apology”, but did not elaborate who or for what exactly. Schneider went on to say he could “see the hurt in some people’s eyes”, and how it made him feel “awful and regretful”.
You can watch Schneider’s interview in full here.
Where are we now?
Fast forward to May 1st, the producer’s lawyers filed a slander and libel lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of Investigation Discovery, producers Maxine Productions and Sony Pictures television, and the docu-series’ directors, Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson.
The defamation filings stated that the show was a “smear campaign”, and that Schneider had “no knowledge of the above, wasn’t involved in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it came to light and, crucially, was not a child sexual abuser himself." It continued to say that the defendants have “ruined Schneider's reputation and legacy through the false statements.” The claim continued to state that the show “falsely implied he was involved in or facilitates horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted.”
The filing goes on to mention the trailer for the series, stating that the images and audio have been used and cut together in a way that was “intentionally defamatory in that they falsely and repeatedly state or imply that Schneider is a child sexual abuser and committed crimes in this regard – and have been interpreted as such by countless average, ordinary or reasonable viewers”.
Under the claims, the producer is seeking unspecified damages, but which include compensatory and punitive damages, as well as the legal costs incurred for injunctive relief taken to edit, take down and/or remove all or a portion of the trailer of the series.
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