{"id":78486,"date":"2024-03-18T18:44:20","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T18:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/18\/quiet-on-the-set-the-dark-side-of-tv-is-difficult-to-watch-making-it-imperative-to-watch\/"},"modified":"2024-03-18T18:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T18:44:20","slug":"quiet-on-the-set-the-dark-side-of-tv-is-difficult-to-watch-making-it-imperative-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/18\/quiet-on-the-set-the-dark-side-of-tv-is-difficult-to-watch-making-it-imperative-to-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of TV is Difficult to Watch, Making it Imperative TO Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tQuiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV kicked off with a bang, taking everything you knew about the beloved children\u2019s network and crushing it to bits.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe Discovery premiere, which can now be seen in its entirety on Max, is a shocking and scurrilous look at arguably the most beloved children\u2019s network for decades: Nickelodeon.<\/p>\n


\n\tNickelodeon began the careers of many actors, including Ariana Grande, Josh Peck, Keenan Thompson, Keke Palmer, Melissa Joan Hart, Zendaya, Nick Cannon, and Ryan Reynolds, among many others.<\/p>\n

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\"Quiet<\/div>\n

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\n\tQuite on the Set doesn\u2019t suggest that all Nickelodeon shows are at issue, as it ties the corruption to a writer and producer named Dan Schneider, who created The Amanda Show with Amanda Bynes, elevating her to a household name.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen you look at Amanda Bynes now, it\u2019s hard not to imagine that had someone saved her from Schneider\u2019s mechanizations, she\u2019d be a less troubled young woman today.<\/p>\n

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\"Amanda<\/div>\n

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\n\tSchneider, a heavy-set man whose career began with roles as the fat kid, became the producer de jour, first with a late-night show called All Set, and catapulted he and Bynes to superstardom with The Amanda Show.<\/p>\n


\n\tHowever, producers and shows do not live in a vacuum, and to suggest that nobody at Nickelodeon knew what was happening on Schneider\u2019s productions seems disingenuous, at best.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe story doesn\u2019t start with the kids. It begins with Schneider, his writers\u2019 room, and the content that made it to air.<\/p>\n


\n\tNickelodeon and misogyny don\u2019t seem synonymous. Yet at Nickelodeon, during the late nineties and early aughts, they certainly were.<\/p>\n


\n\tQuiet on the Set pulls back the cover on seemingly harmless things to reveal how children were being sexualized and traumatized by what became staple segments across the Nickelodeon universe.<\/p>\n

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\"Jenny<\/div>\n

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\n\tWhen you pull back the cover on the frequent goo shots to the face that occurred pretty much daily on some of those shows, what you have is a traditional cum shot. For kids.<\/p>\n


\n\tYou won\u2019t be able to unsee that.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn one disturbing scene, a young Ariana Granda rolled around on a bed, pouring water on herself while screaming and moaning.<\/p>\n


\n\tA foot fetish is a very particular type of sexual play that revolves around the foot. All That leaned heavily on foot shots in multiple segments, from kids licking feet to adults rubbing children\u2019s feet and vice versa.<\/p>\n


\n\tScenes like these were played for laughs, and kids at the time didn\u2019t know enough to question what was happening. It\u2019s hard to imagine whether having the internet to look up such things would have made things better or worse. Alas, access to the internet at that time was nothing like it is now.<\/p>\n

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\"Scaachi<\/div>\n

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\n\tIt wasn\u2019t only happening with or to the kids, either. When The Amanda Show premiered, you might think they\u2019d work hard to ensure women behind the scenes were supporting Amanda and writing stories that advocated for the young comedic actress to sour.<\/p>\n


\n\tBut the female writers on The Amanda Show, Jenny Killeen and Christy Stratton, were known as \u201cthe girls\u201d and actually shared one writer\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n


\n\tYet when things moved beyond the more subtle goo and foot shots, which, let\u2019s face it, the network would have gone to great lengths to explain was nothing more than kid-suitable fun, they had little to no effect in toning things down.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen the character Penelope Taint was created, Schneider wanted the writers to \u201ckeep it a secret\u201d that the definition of \u201ctaint\u201d was not referencing someone who has been tainted but a very specific and well-known sexual part of a male\u2019s body.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIt was clear that there was a permissibility around these sexualized jokes with children,\u201d said culture writer Scaachi Koul, after noting how abnormal it was to see Amanda as Penelope Taint in a twin bed praying angrily.<\/p>\n

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\"Kyle<\/div>\n

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\n\t\u201cIt was par for the course,\u201d said Stratton.<\/p>\n


\n\tWriter Jenny Kilgen recalls Schneider sending messages around the office making little demands like \u201cScream \u2018hammers\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAnd they\u2019d do it, and then it would come around to Scream Slut!, and when it wasn\u2019t done with as much excitement as screaming hammers, he\u2019d send more demanding messages until they did it.<\/p>\n


\n\tSchneider\u2019s oddities weren\u2019t just for the kids.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen asked, Stratton ate two pints of ice cream for $30 because, with half a salary, she needed the money, and she thought it was a goofy, fun thing to do. When he never paid the bet, and she called him out on it later, she recalls being scared that the fun had become a darker endeavor.<\/p>\n

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\"Dan<\/div>\n

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\n\tKilgen also recalled how often Schneider asked for a massage, sometimes with a quid pro quo request like If you give me a massage, I\u2019ll put one of your sketches in the show.<\/p>\n


\n\tSchneider got away with this in part because this was Kilgen\u2019s first job, and she didn\u2019t know if this was just the way writers\u2019 rooms worked. She did feel that if she stood up for herself, she would get fired.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe first episode of Quiet on the Set is filled with these stories, and as they lived them, they were one-off, if still happening regularly. Seeing it all laid out in under 60 minutes is nauseating enough, but it\u2019s worse when you realize they were writing television for kids.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe pattern of abuse is frightening, and it says a lot about the state of our entertainment and our corporate world in general.<\/p>\n


\n\tWorking with Dan Schneider looks like an emotional roller coaster. There were bursts of fun and friendliness one moment and desperation and fear the next.<\/p>\n

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\"Nickelodeon<\/div>\n

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\n\tThe premiere episode focuses almost entirely on women on screen and behind the scenes. Schneider\u2019s treatment of women was abysmal (a claim he denies, of course), but what he managed to get on screen proves that what happened behind the scenes is more than likely true.<\/p>\n


\n\tKeep in mind that this was Dan Schneider\u2019s first show. He went on to create Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, and iCarly, among others.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe second episode dives even deeper into the miserable mayhem that Schneider wrought on unsuspecting people hoping to live their dreams in entertainment.<\/p>\n


\n\tDan got a kick out of walking a line with kids on set, and that included skirting child labor laws, pushing them to do grueling physical work, and carrying on like adults in skits that emulate Schneider\u2019s own backstage antics and programming him on screen as a god.<\/p>\n


\n\tKoul brings up a good point. \u201cThe person at the top sets up the tone for the entire production. If you run a show dealing overwhelmingly with children, then you are responsible for creating an environment where those kids feel beyond comfortable to tell you that they\u2019re not comfortable.<\/p>\n

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\"Sexual<\/div>\n

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\n\t“It needs to be so safe that your most vulnerable person on set needs to be able to say you, the most powerful person there, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThat was not the case with Schneider\u2019s productions.<\/p>\n


\n\tActor Bryan Hearne recalls being traumatized by the On Air Dare segments. They\u2019re a children\u2019s version of Fear Factor.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn one segment, Hearne was covered in peanut butter before dogs were let loose to lick it off of him. \u201cThat sounds like some kind of awkward fantasy from some freaky dude,\u201d Hearne said. \u201cI was uncomfortable. I didn\u2019t like that.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHearne\u2019s mother recalls how the production worked to make parents feel as if these activities were normal and nothing to be alarmed about.<\/p>\n

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\"Pickle<\/div>\n

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\n\tTransmogrifying adult entertainment to kids subjects kids to things they shouldn\u2019t be subjected to. However, Schneider\u2019s success gave him even more confidence to create an unhealthy environment for the shows he produced.<\/p>\n


\n\tA woman in the editor\u2019s bay worked 16-hour days to the point that she was hospitalized and eventually left when a job promised to her went to a young male with no experience.<\/p>\n


\n\tNickelodeon\u2019s comments, when asked, are rote, touting their policies and claiming ignorance about much of this, pointing to safeguards they have in place to blah blah blah.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn this world of streaming, we have often wondered when traditional cable networks might slip away, and if any of what this docuseries portrays continues, this could be devastating for the network, but it is worth noting Schneider no longer works at the network. After claims of abuse by his staff, ties were severed.<\/p>\n


\n\tParents are careful with what their kids watch, and knowing what happened to these kids behind the scenes and the adult-inspired sketches that made it on screen could be a death knell.<\/p>\n

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\"Nickelodeon<\/div>\n

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\n\tCould is the operative word. We\u2019ve seen much worse revealed about entities and individuals, but they\u2019re never forced to pay the piper.<\/p>\n


\n\tChild predator Jason Michael Handy worked on The Amanda Show, sharing a nude photo of himself masturbating with a young girl named Brandi. He was one of the adults in charge who were left with the kids when their parents weren\u2019t present.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhat they found in Handy\u2019s house in April 2003 was devastating for any children who were unlucky enough to be in his presence, from plastic bags with trophies to a journal detailing his activities.<\/p>\n


\n\tIf you\u2019ve been watching the news lately, you know that isn\u2019t the only professed pedophile working amongst Nickelodeon kids.<\/p>\n


\n\tBrian Peck played Pickle Guy in another attempt to \u201cpull a fast one and get away with it,\u201d Kyle Sullivan said of the overtly sexual nature of some of the skits.<\/p>\n

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\"Giovonnnie<\/div>\n

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\n\tGiovonnnie Samuels said, \u201cWe were there for so many hours, we get comfortable with people. Until you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen he hosted a party for the show at his home, Peck revealed a self-portrait of John Wayne Gary with a personal inscription. The man had forged a relationship with the serial killer, even keeping letters from Gary in his bedside table. Sullivan wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it wasn\u2019t that easy.<\/p>\n


\n\tPeck had just been arrested for charges of child sexual abuse when some \u201cfriends\u201d came to the show to talk about it after ushering the parents out of the room.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe first two episodes go to great lengths to set the stage for abnormal and concerning behavior and a not-so-child-friendly atmosphere to lead up to the main event, which will air tonight.<\/p>\n


\n\tPeck\u2019s charges were quite lewd, and when filming the docuseries, nobody involved knew the child actor involved with them was Drake Bell.<\/p>\n


\n\t