The explosive new documentary, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” by directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, premiered on March 17 and 18. It’s about the culture behind the scenes in the children’s programming world, specifically around various shows produced by Nickelodeon between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. It dropped on the Investigation Network, and is streamable through the Discovery Channel, Max, FuboTV, Philo, and most of the major premium subscription channels.
It turns out to have a local angle. Rick Ellis, who lives in Inver Grove Heights and runs All Your Screens, is interviewed in the four-part series. Ellis started writing about Nickelodeon on his site after Dan Schneider split with the company in 2018.
Ellis started out in TV and radio, and made the switch to freelance work about 12 years ago. At that time, his website, All Your Screens, shifted from a side project to his main gig. He currently has 80,000 free subscribers, plus additional paid subscribers to his newsletter, which he publishes five days a week. He’s also a member of the national TV Critics Association. “In true Minnesota fashion, my site and work are pretty well known everywhere but locally,” he tells me.
“Quiet on Set” tells the story of people who were convicted of crimes during the years they worked at Nickelodeon. One was Jason Handy, a production assistant who was convicted of lewd acts on a child and distributing sexually explicit material by email. Another was actor and dialogue coach Brian Peck, who the documentary reveals was convicted of a lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation of a person under 16. The documentary features an interview with Drake Bell, an actor who worked closely with Peck and testified against him.
The series also focuses on Dan Schneider, a writer and producer for “All That” and “Kenan & Kel.” He created The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, iCarly, and Sam & Cat. As an executive producer, he worked with stars like Amanda Bynes, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Ariana Grande. In the series, former female writers Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen speak about sexual harassment and pay disparities they experienced while working for “All That,” where Schneider was one of the executive producers. (Kilgen sued the studio, in a lawsuit that reached a settlement).
After the documentary aired, Schneider posted an apology on Youtube over his behavior. In the interview, he’s asked questions by former Nickelodeon actor Bobbie K Bowman. In response to questions about his behavior, including soliciting back-rubs from female staff, Schneider responded:
“It was wrong that I ever put anyone in that position. It was wrong to do. I’d never do it today. I’m embarrassed that I did it then. I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation.”
Schneider however has denied numerous points in the film, including that Stratton and Kilgen’s salaries were in his purview or that he was ever banned from a set at Nickelodeon. I messaged Schneider at the email he lists on his Youtube account but didn’t get a response.
Here’s my interview with Ellis about being interviewed for the series.
Sheila Regan: How did you get interested in covering film and TV?
Rick Ellis: You know, the weird thing is, I spent my entire 20s doing stand up, but I always loved writing. So I was always writing on the side doing freelance pieces for people. And I stopped doing stand up because my mom had gotten sick, so I wanted to take care of her.
After three years off the road, I started doing talk radio, still always writing on the side. And while I was doing talk radio, I started hanging out on CompuServe, which used to be the internet for most people, and got some freelance work doing that. And then when the talk show company went under, I moved to the Bay Area and started working for online news organizations and startups. And I’ve been doing that pretty much ever since.
SR: Are you doing much freelance now or is it mostly just your own site?
RE: No, it’s just just my own stuff. I have been doing that for quite a few years now. The way I got into the Dan Schneider thing was, I’m in a niche where there’s a lot of big companies and a lot of money, so I have to find things that other people aren’t covering. And when Dan Schneider was separated from Nickelodeon, there had always been stories about him, but nothing had really ever been published. And when he split with Nickelodeon, I just thought, I think there’s an interesting story here. And I just started plugging away because really, no one else had been writing about it other than just the fact that he had left Nickelodeon. That was the reason the producers reached out to me. They could only find two people who’ve written anything about him in the ensuing years. So, that was why they contacted me.
SR: How did you go about reporting on this?
RE: I knew a few people who knew someone, I do have some sources I’ve developed over the years talking about other stories. So I reached out to everybody I could think of and just sort of built from there. I’d look at IMDb and was contacting every person I could find saying, “Hey, I’m writing this stuff. You want to talk about your experience?”
The reason, honestly, more people didn’t write about it is just, it was hard to get people to talk on the record. Even for the documentary, it was hard to get people to talk for a variety of reasons. So it was just a matter of just slogging away. I would sometimes find someone who would talk to me, and then that would be enough for a story. It’s tough. There’s a lot of people who still don’t want to talk about their experiences.
The interesting thing is, now that the documentary is out, you’re starting to see a few people who didn’t want to talk previously deciding, well, maybe I’ll make a statement. Maybe I’ll say something. And I think you’re gonna see a lot more of that, particularly since this documentary has been everywhere this week.
SR: What was your experience, participating in the documentary?
RE: I had done a little TV in the past when I was doing stand up, but obviously nothing like this. I write about documentaries all the time, so I’m familiar with the format, but it was a very strange experience from the other side. I did the interview last May, so it’s been quite a while. I just couldn’t tell anyone about it until they announced the documentary. They flew me out to LA. I got there, like, five o’clock on a Tuesday, got up the next morning, did an entire morning’s worth of interviews— basically a four hour long interview— and went back to the airport. It was very strange to be in that situation.
It was interesting to see how they put the thing together and what they used and what they didn’t use. There were things that I talked about that they weren’t able to nail the story down the way they wanted to. I kept in touch with [director Emma Schwartz] every month or so. In November, she called and said, This is what I think is going to be in it. These are the quotes— are these accurate? I probably saw it a week or 10 days before it was released.
SR: Was Emma the person that interviewed you?
RE: Yes, she was the one who reached out to me initially. She’s working on Frontline, she’s got quite a lot of experience, and I felt she was somebody I could trust. This is the type of subject that could go horribly wrong with the wrong person dealing with it.
SR: What’s next for you? Are you considering doing your own project around this? Or are you just gonna keep on doing what you do?
RE: It’s a little of both. I’m writing about other stuff, because I do hard news about this kind of stuff, but I also do reviews and interviews. It’s really sort of mixed. My hunch is I will end up continuing to report on this. The documentary had been really successful. As people come forward, I think it would not surprise me to see there’s a follow up to this documentary.
Nickelodeon sent me these statements in response to my requests for comment:
Nickelodeon Statement Regarding Alleged Behaviors on Past Production Sets
“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.”
Nickelodeon Statement Regarding Drake Bell
“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.”
Also, this is taken directly from the Paramount ESG statement that is publicly available on the company’s corporate web site, page 58. I am sending it to you for reference, but you can see it on the site as well.
Paramount’s Policies Regarding Employing Minors:
We employ minors as on-screen talent, such as on our Nickelodeon programs and other content from our brand portfolio. We comply with the applicable child labor laws and follow strict regulations and protocols to protect child talent in each location where we operate. This may include, but is not limited to, hiring studio teachers and welfare workers, verifying Coogan trust accounts (savings accounts for child performers), ensuring the presence of parents and guardians on set, and limiting the number of hours that minors can work on set.
We utilize a robust background-check program for all crew members who work around minors, and we conduct periodic training with all client groups who work with minors. We also require a parent or guardian to be present on set and to always remain within sight or sound of their child. Our production risk team, which is a cable-brands group, is always available to provide guidance if a minor will be working on a project.
Sheila Regan
Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at sregan@minnpost.com.
