On March 27th, 2024 former cast members pulled the curtain on Nickelodeon sets. These secrets were revealed in a documentary called “Quiet on Set”. Child stars like Drake Bell and Alexa Nikolas. from the program Nickelodeon opened up about what they faced while on set, like over-sexualizing in shows and incidents with other members.
Some of the most popular shows like “Victorious” and “iCarly” came from Nickelodeon, but that’s not the only thing they have in common. Both shows and many others were produced by Dan Schneider. People started to notice weird things within the shows he produced but never thought anything of it. This was until August 2022 when Jennette McCurdy who plays Sam in popular shows “iCarly” and “Sam and Cat” released her book titled “I’m Glad My Mom Died”.
In “Quiet on Set-The Dark Side of Kids TV”, child stars from Nickelodeon shows came forward and spoke about their time on a Nick show. Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Alexa Nikolas, and Kenan Thompson either spoke out about or appeared in the film.
In the third episode, Drake Bell appeared and spoke out about what he went through while on set. He had never spoken about what happened to him before this. Bell opened up about the abuse he faced from the dialogue coach Brian Peck, Peck was convicted of sexually assaulting a Nickelodeon child star in 2004 but the name was never said publicly. And no, Brian Peck is in no way related to Josh Peck.
Alexa Nikolas who was in the show Zoey 101 appeared in the documentary as well. She reacted to Dan Schneider’s YouTube video response to the allegations. “You don’t feel anything, Dan,” she stated. She also opened up about an incident that happened with Schneider while on set. Nikolas claimed that while she was in the dressing room, Schneider would take Polaroid pictures of her in the outfits. She also said she was purposefully given skirts that were too short and then told “You got to cover your butt”. These incidents led to Nikolas leaving the show after two seasons.
The first thing that got people questioning what was happening behind the scenes was in the show Victorious. In multiple episodes, the female actresses Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice, and Elizabeth Gillies were portrayed in an interesting way, like soaking wet in almost see through clothes, their feet shown in numerous episodes, and moving in sexual ways. Clips of Grande started circling the web where she was pouring water over herself while lying upside down, and shoving her feet in her face. “I think because it was on a public network little me tried to think it was okay, but I was always put off by things,” former Nickelodeon watcher Summer Tolbert expressed.
In a podcast, Nikolas was asked about her time on the channel. She told a story about one time she was sent a screenshot of her and her co-stars on Zoey 101 when they were 13-14 being on multiple adult websites. “If I were to watch any Nickelodeon shows now, I would 100% feel guilty because of what I know,” Tolbert stated. “If I was a parent, the Nickelodeon shows they watch would be very monitored and restricted.”
Some people wonder how the new information could affect Nickelodeon. So far, Schneider released a video about what has come out and addressed the allegations. In the video, Schneider said watching his past actions was embarrassing and he regretted it. He did not talk about any allegations against him or address anything people said he had done. “If parents learn about this information they might not let their kids watch the channel, which will give Nickelodeon less business,” a fellow student who watched Nickelodeon, Ellie Anderson said.
Many people who watched the channel as kids have started to rewatch some shows to see if they noticed anything now that they could’ve missed as kids. “Shows always put in small adult jokes for the parents to get but the kids do not, but sometimes they just went too far,” Tolbert said.
Some parents did not allow their kids to watch Nickelodeon shows due to the inappropriate things they caught on to. “We were just kids so we didn’t understand things, but our parents did,” Anderson said.
People started to ask, why was Disney any better? Disney made some jokes that were meant for parents too, why are they not getting any backlash? “Disney shows were a lot more cheesy and filtered.” Tolbert described. The jokes in Nickelodeon shows seemed to be a lot more noticeable and inappropriate. “The jokes just weren’t appropriate and were making my kids repeat harmful things,” Tabatha Wenzel stated when asked why she didn’t allow her kids to watch Nickelodeon shows.
