Nickelodeon exposé Quiet On Set stirs responses from fans, former employees, and Drake Bell
Drake Bell called out Boy Meets World stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle for their support of his abuser, Brian Peck
Aux News Drake Bell
Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV aired its first episodes on Investigation Discovery on Sunday, prompting its audience to reexamine the Dan Schneider era of Nickelodeon. The allegations in the docuseries range from Schneider creating a toxic work environment for children and adults alike (particularly for women) to one of the adult actors from All That sexually abusing the young star Drake Bell. The four-part docuseries continues on Monday night (and can be streamed afterwards on Max), but the first two episodes are prompting responses from the doc’s subjects and from others who were connected to Nickelodeon at the time.
Amy Berg, a co-executive producer and former writer on Kenan & Kel and All That, wrote that she “wasn’t aware of any physically inappropriate behavior” on Schneider’s part, but asserted that “he was a fucking asshole” and a “psychological tormenter.” In a statement posted to Twitter/X, she wrote that while serving as his assistant for a year, “He introduced me to panic attacks and the stress of working for him caused me to develop a significant heart arrhythmia. I eventually had surgery to [mostly] correct the issue, but by that point I’d lost all of my 20s. He stole those years from me.” Berg shared that she had not and would not be watching the docuseries (“I’ve no interest in reliving anything, nor do I want to be in a situation where I’d feel inclined to defend Dan in any way”), but wrote that “to this day I carry with me an anxiety disorder that fiercely rears its head when faced with other manipulators.”
Elsewhere, former Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas, who has long been outspoken about Schneider and Nick’s treatment of child stars, condemned Rider Strong and Will Friedle, two of the actors who were exposed as writing statements of support for Brian Peck, the man who was convicted for sexually abusing Drake Bell. Strong and Friedle spoke about their relationship with Peck on their show Pod Meets World, and said that while Peck had admitted to having inappropriate contact with a minor, he lied and downplayed the situation in order to secure their support. Nikolas’ post highlighted the fact that neither Strong nor Friedle have apologized to Bell for supporting Peck.
Some fans who listened to the episode defended them saying they were also minors who were manipulated by Peck. But Bell himself responded to such a comment (per Page Six), writing, “Will was 27 years old and Brian told him what he did. Many people turned away and said no I won’t write a letter but they did. Will was not manipulated. Brian admitted it to him and he wrote the letter anyway. Then he worked with me on many episodes of [Ultimate Spider-Man animated series] years later and never said a word to me about it. This is because they were told [their] letters are going to be made public. Everyone thought the letters would be sealed forever and no one would ever see them. This is their publicist telling them how to get ahead of the story.” Referencing Strong, Bell added, “RIDER WAS 24 years old when he wrote the letter and was told by Brian what he did. He wrote the letter anyway.”
Of those who were revealed as writing statements of support for Peck—which also includes James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Taran Killam, and more—only Joanna Kerns gave a statement to the documentarians saying she was misinformed about the case: “Knowing what I know now, I never would have written” the letter, she stated. Most of the other figures involved in writing letters of support for Peck have yet to address their letters. Quiet On Set co-director Emma Schwartz told Us Weekly, “We reached out to everyone who wrote a letter of support [for Brian Peck] that we mentioned in the film — including Will and Rider. We didn’t hear back from them. So it was interesting to hear that they put out a podcast after our trailer was announced.” Co-director Mary Robertson added that there were still questions about the extent to which Peck’s supporters knew about the charges against him: “I think one wonders about the conditions under which they were written, if any pressure was exerted, who asked whom to write which letters and what rationale was offered. So we hope that we learn more in the coming weeks and months.”
Schneider—whom Bell said supported him in the wake of Peck’s abuse—denied many of the claims in Quiet On Set, and asserted that any material being deemed “inappropriate” was witnessed and reviewed by many adults and executives before airing. In a statement to The A.V. Club about the docuseries at large, Nickelodeon said, “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.” Of Bell’s case specifically, the network added, “Now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”
105 Comments
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU HIRE HIM AGAIN ON A KIDS SHOW AFTER HE GETS OUT OF PRISON?!?!
The most insane part about all of this.
Yeah, like…I’m all for felons being hireable once they serve terms (that’s kind of how serving a jail term is supposed to work), but FFS the crime and the context have to be considered. In the case of a sexual predator who victimized kids, YOU DON’T LET THEM WORK AROUND KIDS.
hear hear
News flash: our prison “rehabilitation” system doesn’t exactly rehabilitate, but more like molds prisoners to send them back to prison after they’re out. However, in this case, as long as you’re well connected and/or have money, this happens.
He helped make the network alot of money, which is what I think the reason is.
How do you not realize that he’s literally the only person in the industry that can perform that job?
Because in Hollywood what he did is acceptable and has been for almost the entirety of its existence.
I explained this in another article, but even though they may spread out across several networks and streaming services, the world of these kiddie sitcoms are really small. Richard and Beth Correll who directed over 100 episodes of Zack & Cody were friends with Peck. They had worked with him in the past at Nickelodeon (they even directed some episodes of Drake & Josh) and wrote letters to the judge in his trial. So, presumably, they’re the ones who hired Peck for Zack & Cody. His role in that series was offscreen voice-over work so, thankfully, he was never around any of the children and, to Disney’s credit, when they were made aware of his criminal record, they stepped in and not only fired him, but they had the new voice-actor go back and rerecord the lines in the three episodes he worked on that aired.
Hollywood runs on 1099s, so if he didn’t disclose it they probably didn’t run a background check on him. I was an IATSE stagehand at one point, they never background checked me. In fact they sort of made it a point to onboard people who were living in halfway houses or had been working at Goodwill and had problems. Which, on the convention center side: fine. On a show with kids around they should be doing background checks though.
Wasn’t Peck one of those douchebags who ran with Bryan Singer’s band of pedos?
Bingo!
Yes. He has cameos in X-Men (as the guy buying a hotdog off Stan Lee on the beach) and X2 (as a reporter) and provided commentary for the first film’s DVD with Singer.
Also, this isn’t really related to his relationship with Singer, but I found out he played one of the punks in Return of the Living Dead. Which is just really random.
Holy shit….he played Scuz! Weird.
It is such a dark development that we now condemn good people for writing letters of support for friends, even those who have done horrific crimes. It is a routine part of a trial. Shall we condemn lawyers for defending the accused as well? Tell me you love the police without telling me you love the police, AVClub
“It is such a dark development that we now condemn good people for writing letters of support for friends, even those who have done horrific crimes”That’s quality satire there, and it hits harder tha there are people in the world who SERIOUSLY think that people who write letters supporting child abusers should be defended.I mean, can you imagine the horrifying, inhuman piece of shit who might write what you wrote and actually BELIEVES it???
“even those who have done horrific crimes.”
um, no, that’s a very meaningful difference..
Personally, if I had a friend who was known to have, or accused to have diddled kids, I would not remain friends with that person, nor would I write a letter defending them. But I’m weird like that.
lol, so basically if your friend is accused of something, you disown them as a friend immediately without getting their side? Gee, your friends are really lucky to have you. Lmao.
Ready to drop lifelong relationships at the drop of a hat lol
Keeps defending convicted child rapists because ‘friendship’ lol
Same odes go to the kiddies in your neighbourhood you dickhead!
As I understand it, this guy’s side of the story was “yes, I diddled kids.”
Sure, at which point you go “okay, bye.” And never talk to them again. My point was the philosophy of “if my friend is accused of something I will immediately cut all ties with them” makes you a pretty shit friend. I would want to at least hear what they have to say.
We aren’t talking about accusations, we are talking about people who were convicted. Of sexually abusing a minor.
Accused? Learn to read, pedo.
Wow “accused to” very sad to imagine a friend of yours being abandoned if they are accused of a crime they haven’t done. Unless you don’t have a lot of strong friendships?
If they were a good friend (as opposed to a friendly acquaintance or part of an extended friend group) prior to that becoming known, that would be weird.
One of my closest friends had an affair, while married and with kids. His affair was with another woman who had kids. When I learned this, I ceased to be his friend. Because it was vile, and I realized I didn’t know this person at all. It wasn’t a hard choice. If a friend of mine was charged with a crime like Peck’s, hell no I wouldn’t support them. That decision would take about two seconds.
What would you expect your friends to do if you were unfairly charged with a major crime(I haven’t followed the scandal so this question isn’t directly related to it)?
lol letters of support are not protected or included in any sort of laws or rules about our courts. they are emotional appeals, that’s all. A lawyer is just doing their job. A person writing letters on behalf of a diddler is a choice they made.
A person writing letters on behalf of a diddler is a choice they made. Yep. And anyone pretending otherwise is either a legit fucking moron, or they’re pretending to be one. Same result either way.
“If you think it’s wrong to be friends with a pedophile, you must be a blue-line loving cop worshipper”—TFG
Well diddle me this Batman, would you describe them as “routine parts of a trial”?
No, because most court cases don’t have them. They’re used in very specific examples lol remember, the exception to a rule doesn’t change the rule.
Don’t remember a letter being read on behalf of the defendant in a traffic violation, or robbery cases, or murders, as being the norm hahahaha nice try though. You’re struggling to find way to defend a diddler. Prob should decide on a better path lmao
I believe you are wrong. Vox describes them as “commonplace in criminal cases.”
I think because the AVClub has not instructed you to be outraged about them until recently, you believed they didn’t exist. But in fact it is the media you are consuming that makes you believe they are a new phenomena.
From VOX:
Theoretically, these letters — which are commonplace in criminal cases — aren’t about a person’s innocence or last-ditch defense, but a plea for mercy and for the judge to see a fuller portrait of a person and their potential for rehabilitation. For those marginalized by society and facing a crushing criminal justice system, a character letter can act as a small and necessary check on the justice system.
I would totally watch a Batman movie where the bad guy was The Diddler.
What is the relevance of that question?
You shouldn’t be friends with a pedophile. Sorry that you need to be told this by a stranger on the internet. Comparing willing friendship and support to a constitutionally required defense attorney is willfully obtuse and proves you have no argument.
It’s sickening thinking of all these lawyers defending pedophiles. Best case scenario, your client gets off and has an opportunity to reoffend. And for what, to make some money?? profiting off of abuse, it’s disgusting
.
The lawyers who defend obviously guilty clients aren’t doing so because they sympathize with those defendants. They’re doing it because they believe that integrity needs to be continuously reinforced in our criminal justice system by making the prosecutors do their jobs.
and what if part of “continuously reinforcing” the integrity of our justice system involves gathering letters of support from the friends and family of the defendants?
Well I didn’t comment on support letters one way or the other as it pertains to the system, but expect that it’s people who know the defendants trying to humanize them a bit (even if they later regret it).
Yeah I agree with you. My lawyer comment was in jest, showing how easy it is to villainize anybody involved in the justice system who “defends” the convicted. The letters are part of the process and it’s frightening that those who participate are being publicly shamed.
All good. I doubt these letters do much good, honestly, but it’s worth remembering that people are more than their worst actions (provided they pay for said actions).
Totally agree. The goal should be rehabilitation
It’s not frightening. You shouldn’t write a letter in praise of a pedophile and if you do, you should be publicly shamed. This really isn’t difficult.
Is it more or less frightening that someone thinks a child rapist should get a lesser punishment because “he is my friend”?
The part that keeps the system human.Justice can be cruel. It can be merciless and unforgiving.It can also have mercy and understanding and focus on rehabilitation.A healthy justice system is one that includes mercy and allows for humanity to soften the hard edges of the necessary work of punishing people for their crimes.
This is called a Straw Man argument. It is a logical fallacy.
From VOX, the last time the public’s commentary on a celeb’s letter of support favored eroding all of our civil rights:The common refrain that we’re seeing is that Kutcher and Kunis shouldn’t have written those letters. And to me, that reaction is a little frightening.I mean, we should never be making broad-based policy or generalizations based on the cases of famous celebrities. They’re absolutely the outliers. Letters of support are actually really, really important.We have this incredibly draconian criminal punishment system that tears families apart, destroys people’s lives. Prison is a really terrible place where people can be literally tortured. People are raped in prison, people are beaten in prison, people are deprived from seeing their loved ones in prison.It’s really important, when a judge is making a decision about how much prison time somebody is going to do, that they don’t just hear from the prosecutor, and that they don’t just hear from the people who accused them, it’s really important that they hear from the person’s loved ones so that they’re not just making a decision based on the conviction itself.
You don’t have a Civil right to have people write letters to the judge on your behalf. Many trials don’t even have them. It is not like having a lawyer. If people choose to write letters on behalf of someone who rapes children, then they choose to live with consequences of that.
It is true that not everybody receives the same level of defense in our legal system, as money buys better lawyers. One of the few assets anybody, rich or poor, has access to in a defense are these letters of support.But thanks to the Internet’s unquenchable thirst for shaming the unpopular, they might become a thing of the past
“The unpopular” is a weird way to say “pedophile”. I think you need to quit when you are already way, way behind.
Next time a woman trapped in a red state is on trial for her abortion, I wonder if her friends and family will have read how celebrities have come under fire for their letters of support, even decades later. I wonder how it will affect her sentencing
Oh, I see. You’re trolling. Well done, sir. Now fuck off.
Harming due process affects every defendant, not just the ones you hate. But if believing I’m a troll helps you sleep in your cocoon of moral certainty, go for it
You just compared getting an abortion to being a pedophile. If you’re not a troll, then you’re a vile human being who almost certainly has harmed children. You also don’t know what “due process” is and are just blindly using buzzwords like a child.
I did, and I’m sorry if that makes you feel like your anger is a little less righteous. Take comfort in imagining yourself surrounded by friends cheering on your local lynching back when those were popular as well
I’m not righteous. It’s extremely easy to know what side to be on here, and it’s not the side that writes letters to judges praising child rapists. Or thinking that condemning such letters is equivalent to lynch mobs. I’m hardly a saint for recognizing that’s bad. It’s sort of baseline humanity. I’m sorry you’re unable to reach even the most baseline level of a decent human being. I hope you get the help you need, and I really really hope you haven’t harmed any children.
Awww, I bet it is really easy for you. Don’t worry, I haven’t harmed any of you lil fellas
Harming due process affects every defendant How in the fuck does a bunch of nerds arguing on a c-list blog comments section = “harming due process?”Any trolling aside, you’re aware that that’s a fucking dumb concept, yeah?
No. Everybody who has read the stories (or the Tweets or even any little comment) about Kunis & Kutcher are now aware that writing a letter of support can lead to a massive personal backlash. That will affect their willingness to write a letter of support towards any defendant – both the unsympathetic ones and the sympathetic ones.
Everybody who has read the stories (or the Tweets or even any little comment) about Kunis & Kutcher are now aware that writing a letter of support can lead to a massive personal backlash. So take that further: are the vast majority of people writing such letters celebrities, and thus will a standard letter writer face the same level of scrutiny?You’re fighting this battle entirely because you want to fight it, nothing more. Anyone with even a dram of actual perspective isn’t wringing their hands over this, because there’s absolutely no way this leads to a moratorium on people writing ineffectual letters on behalf of their accused friends.It happened somewhere today, it’ll happen somewhere tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. No one does or will give a shit unless the writer is a celebrity, and only if a media outlet, celebrity, or journalist decides to draw attention to it.
You don’t need national scrutiny to face massive personal punishments. Again with the abortion example, now that receiving an abortion is a punishable offense: Anybody who would have considered writing a letter of support must consider now that their boss or friends or local paper might make hay of it. And they’ll consider the examples they’re aware of: celebrities facing massive backlash. That won’t help the defendants.I’m fighting this battle because it’s good to support people who do good things. Telling your truth is never wrong.
This is one of the wildest comparisons I’ve ever seen someone make on the internet which is a super high bar to clear. The mental gymnastics you had to go through here are astonishing.
So you wrote a letter for a Pedo, and don’t want to be told you are a piece of shit for it.
This guy is backdoor defending diddlers ……not a good look for you….
Shall we condemn lawyers for defending the accused as well?Are you new here? Defense attorneys routinely get raked over the coals, despite their only job being to defend the accused. Remember the Gabby Petito case? The same people that were saying “ACAB!” were saying “if you want to help just talk to the police!” It depends what the crime is, who the victim is, and who the accused is.
Yeah true and it’s always baffling. We really love the prison industrial complex huh?
And you and I will always be considered wrong, by both sides of the political spectrum, for thinking that people are still human no matter what crime they committed.
If there’s anywhere to take the moral high ground, it’s in the internet comments on a recap of responses to a documentary about child abuse. We’re only five layers away from reality!
What a martyr, what a saint you are. Truly we are blessed to be in your presence. I had no idea that refusing to write a letter praising a pedophile means you have stripped the pedophile of humanity. But you have corrected me, sir. I sit in awe of your greatness.
Why do you feel the need to defend -AND WRITE A LETTER ASKING FOR A LESSER PUNISHMENT- somone who was CONVICTED of abusing CHILDREN?
“Even those who commit horrific crimes”…tell me you’re a pedo without telling me you’re a pedo.
More like, tell me you have pedo friends that you support, without telling me that
I don’t think anyone is saying those people should be arrested. What do the police have to do with this?? Besides, most police officers would say the shit you’re saying.
Most police officers are in fact not on the side of the arrested lol
“even those who have done horrific crimes.”Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
I must in all charity assume this is parody.
Yep. Dude either actually believes that people jawing about a court case – online, in a comment section – is “harming due process,” or he’s pretending to. Same level of fucking dumb either way.It’s occasionally funny to me that we have the most potent communicative tool at our shared disposal, and yet so many use it to do…whatever this shit is.
My bad, dude is definitely trolling. I’m fighting this battle because it’s good to support people who do good things. No one – absolutely no one – is dipshitted enough to believe that it is unilaterally good to write letters of support for absolutely every accused citizen, regardless of crime or evidence. So it’s dipshit cosplay.
If you defend people who do horrible things than you condone those horrible things.The only good reaction to horrible actions is to cut the person out of everything. Modern exile with public facing humiliation.
Red flags ignored time after time after time. As a kids network that employs child actors, Nickelodeon had and has a special responsibility to look after these performers, even if it’s some other company like Schneider’s Bakery or Tollin/Robbins handling the day-to-day. And you have these people like the PA, like Brian Peck who shouldn’t even be living near a school, much less working with kids.
Of those who were revealed as writing statements of support for Peck—which also includes James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Taran Killam, and more—only Joanna Kerns gave a statement to the documentarians saying she was misinformed about the caseGee. I wonder what all the Marsden defenders on the last article have to say about this.
Or the Alan Thicke fans, the Thickaholics.
What would be there to say that wasn’t already said? Strong and Friedle gave their part of the story and still got called out by Bell and Nikolas.
Seems irresponsible for this article to ignore Drake Bell’s own child predator convictions as well.
It’s really not. That subject gets an article of its own.
That’s what I was thinking this entire time
I listened to the episode of Pod Meets World where Strong and Friedle talk about Peck. Some impressions…
They don’t let themselves off the hook for writing letters of support. Friedle in particular refers to supporting Peck in court as his, “ever-loving shame.”
They talk a lot about experiences on set, with Peck, and bigger cultural context in the late nineties/early 2000’s. But end of the day, they publicly supported a sex offender and they don’t excuse it.
They felt manipulated by Peck, and I believe them without excusing them.
yah I sort of feel all child actors, even when they become adults, are vulnerable people. And they can fall victim to the same manipulation that they experienced as children very easily again. I understand Bell’s and Alexa’s anger though, and that feeling of not being believed when it’s so obvious must make you feel absolutely insane.
I’m glad that people are starting to realize that Schneider was not the sole perpetrator of all of this alleged abuse and misconduct (and that he, perhaps, didn’t engage in any of that at all), but was rather a crucial part of enabling and normalizing this sort of behavior at Nick. From what I have read, it seems like this was an endemic, systemic, cultural problem throughout Viacom and CBS themselves, not just exclusive to Nick, and it seems to have started from the top down. When Sumner Redstone stepped down and appointed Les Moonves as chairman of CBS, the abuse allegations against Moonves came out pretty swiftly and led to a major house cleaning—including Moonves’ resignation and the firing of Schneider, among other moves—and a subsequent “woke-washing” of the company’s networks, wherein they started openly and publicly championing social justice causes to try to cover up what happened under Redstone’s watch. While I’m on the subject, though I’ve never read anything explicitly stating this was the case, I feel like this series of events directly inspired the 3rd season of Succession.
Sumner RedstoneI know one fact about this man, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it:“A male nurse was in the room with Sumner and me, directing me and telling me what sex acts I should perform. At the conclusion of my time with Sumner, the male nurse would sometimes tell Sumner that he had ejaculated, when in fact Sumner had not. Nevertheless, Sumner appeared to believe him, not aware of the truth.”https://sophistry.medium.com/the-downfall-of-sumner-redstone-6c781c5e9f61
Oh I did not need to know this.
Drinking helps.
Meanwhile, Josh Peck is just out there, showing up in Oppenheimer, desperately hoping no one confuses him for the other Peck.
I was blown away (pun intended) when I clocked him in that movie! HE WAS THE ONE TO PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON!
We shouldn’t condemn Josh tho.
“Of those who were revealed as writing statements of support for Peck—which also includes James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Taran Killam, and more”I really, really want to hear followups from these three dunces
Well we ain’t gettin’ one from Thicke, that’s fer certain.
I think he probably told them about his case in a way that seemed sympathetic (“he was 17 and 11 months! I had no idea!”) and also I think people think they’re asking the judge to be lenient, like give the guy 5 years not 10. In some cases they may not believe their friend did the thing.There’s also just being in denial that someone you know personally might be a bad guy. I’m in Al Anon and there are people who really believe their precious son never did [crime]. It’s like once it’s someone they know personally and more or less like, their judgment gets horribly clouded. It’s easy for you, who don’t know any of these people, to see it clearly. But when it’s people you’ve known for a whole series or a number of years and you like them…that can cloud the potential letter writers’ judgment.
Kimmy Robertson from Twin Peaks wrote a letter where she essentially accused Drake Bell of “tempting” Peck.
Forget just Nickelodeon and their systemic child abuse, ALL of Hollywood has been doing this for decades with impunity. I’m glad the curtain is finally being pulled back on the orchestrated abuse and rape of children. And everyone involved in the coverups, enabling, and turning a blind eye should also be punished.