Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 406 - Nickelodeon's Dan Schneider: Witch Hunt Victim or Predator?

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

On March 17th, 2024, the first episode of a five-part docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV aired on Investigation Discovery and MAX, accusing Dan Schneider of fostering a hostile work environment and overly sexualizing young cast members while he was in charge of several hit kid's shows.  The series also insinuates that Dan may be a sexual predator. Is he? Or is the docuseries a hatchet job that unfairly has unfairly demonized someone? What IS the truth about young actors working in Hollywood? Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zb2IStRGiN4Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch-related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast.Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. And you get the download link for my secret standup album, Feel the Heat.

Few people are as beloved as children's entertainers. I bet you can think of a couple off the top of your head. People that are so wholesome that their wholesomeness seems to last far beyond their lifetimes. One great example is Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. He was an integral part of many a childhood, and his work still inspires heartwarming nostalgic feelings for millions today. As adults, we remember how these people were sources of stability and entertainment. Maybe in circumstances where our home lives were less than ideal.

They offered that little bit of escapism into a world of kind neighbors and fuzzy little puppets. This extends to people who weren't perhaps media figures in and of themselves, but nonetheless created worlds that kids could live in. Like Jim Henson of The Muppets and Walt Disney. And a few people are more beloved than children's entertainers. Few people are more reviled than people who abuse children. And for good reason. It's one of the most deviant, horrific, and cowardly acts that you can do. To abuse a child, especially a child that's under your care somehow, or who you're a trusted

adult to, whether it's sexually, physically, or verbally, child abuse instantly creates a black mark on someone's reputation. Rightly so for the rest of their lives. Beloved child entertainers and producers of beloved children's entertainment to sexual predators. It's a spectrum from wonderful and beloved to horrible and despised. But sometimes that spectrum is more like a Venn diagram than there are unfortunately people who fall in both worlds. This is true from the very beginnings of Hollywood.

As Judy Garland was making the family classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, the 16-year-old was highly pressured to take barbiturates and other drugs and live on a death-defying diet while working with the studio. While maintaining a girl-next-door image, Garland later wrote in an unpublished biography that she was constantly groped and sexually harassed behind the scenes by older men, including Louis B. Mayer, the producer and co-founder of MGM. Mayer also allegedly had people spy on Garland to ensure that she stuck to her diet of mostly cigarettes, coffee, and chicken soup. Delicious. In addition to this

regiment, her breasts were bound by tape and she wore a special corset to flatten out her curves while filming to keep her looking innocent. But when we look at old Hollywood, that was a long time ago. Things have changed, haven't they? And it's certainly not that way now, is it? On March 17th, a four-part docu-series Quiet On Set, The Dark Side of Kids TV debuted on Investigation Discovery, Discovery Plus, and Max, aka HBO. Then a fifth episode would air on April 7th.

And the series focuses on the abuse of child actors who worked on Nickelodeon shows in the 1990s and 2000s the golden era of Nickelodeon's programming in the 90s and 2000s The series came to be thanks to cast members from shows like Zoe 101 Drake and Josh and iCarly coming forward in recent years about the toxic environments They faced on set the docu series lit the internet on fire with tons of chatter, accusations, and anguish being voiced all over Reddit, social media, TikTok in particular, and elsewhere. And the docu-series focused most of its how could this happen to kids, judgment, venom, and scorn on one man, Dan Schneider, Nickelodeon's former golden boy who was portrayed as an inappropriate

pervert and shitty boss at best to a child molester who just hasn't been caught yet at worst. Born in Memphis in the late 1960s, Schneider felt early on that he was destined for greatness. He was a quick study of his favorite TV writers. Sitcoms were his language. After starring in a few movies, the young actor was cast on a sitcom called Head of the Class when he was barely 20. And on set, he became close with fellow cast member Brian Robbins.

And the two will become creative collaborators. Brian and another creator will pitch a show to Nickelodeon in the early 90s called All That. A sort of kids' SNL with sketches, live performances, and interviews. And Dan will be its head writer. Soon, the success of this show and Dan's ability to create spin-off after spin-off will lead to the New York Times calling him the Norman Lear of children's television, referring to the iconic screenwriter and producer who made All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maud, Good Times, Sanford & Son, and more.

And for two decades, Dan Schneider will reign supreme at Nickelodeon. He was their number one hitmaker by leaps and bounds. His shows had consistently great ratings and cast members who would go on to become stars in their own rights. But did Schneider abuse his position of power over children? Was he himself a predator? Something that's been alleged by Internet sleuths and insinuated strongly by the producers of the Quiet Onset docuseries?

Or is he the victim of a good old Hollywood witch hunt of journalists who allowed some incredibly strong confirmation bias to see him as the enemy some face of evil, regardless of what the actual evidence demonstrates? Did a few documentarians and some network execs erroneously decide based almost entirely on the accusations of a number of child actors who failed to find success as adults that Schneider is a monster. Someone whose reputation needs to be smeared. Someone whose character needs to be assassinated. Did they decide to take down a ratings monster so they themselves could use his name to get higher ratings? On May 1st this year, Schneider filed a defamation suit against Warner Brothers Discovery and other companies behind the docu-series in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Is he about to clean house and make a lot more millions on top of all the millions he already made while working for Nickelodeon? Was child abuse actually rampant on Nickelodeon's hit shows in the 90s and in the first decade of this century and was Dan Schneider somehow behind most of it? Or did a few ethically reckless documentarians get it wrong? Did they exploit a very serious subject, the abuse of children, in a pathetic and wildly irresponsible attempt to build up their own names in Hollywood? Did they overzealously attack an incredibly successful show creator based on very little evidence? And leave a stain on the favorite childhood shows of millions just to boost their own showbiz careers with some sensationalist bullshit. A dissection of the explosive accusations recently leveled against Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon right now on today's pop culture Do you really have to feel bad about the show as you watched as a kid in the 90s and early 2000s?

Fact versus fiction, smoke versus fire edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. Well happy Monday and welcome to the Cult of the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, the master sucker, peaky fucking blind, professional dialect coach. Don't let anyone tell you that my accents aren't perfect. And you are listening to Time Suck. Uh, hail Nimrod, hail Lucifina, praise be to good boy Bojangles and glory to be to triple M, recent author.

Again, I think, uh, stay tuned for this week's Time Sucker updates. Uh, the human monsters, uh, Byrd saga continues. But right now, let's get to a topic that brings us very much to today's news. If you're in the demographic of roughly 18 to 35 year olds and had access to cable, you can probably remember watching at least one of Dan Schneider's shows. Or maybe have kids or younger siblings who watch them. Did you think they were funny? Silly? If you were a kid, did they inspire you?

Make you think that you too could become a big star? Did you think that maybe that dream could actually be a nightmare? Few did at the time, but many do now. The internet in general seems to have taken what the quiet on set documentary producers sold to them at face value. The Dan Schneider is a monster. But is he? Or did the producers do a great job of presenting former associates with clear access to Grind leaving out very important context and presenting information in an incredibly biased fashion to make you think Schneider is a monster? I first heard about this episode from someone who loved Schneider's shows as a kid, watched the docu-series, you know, felt I had to do an episode about it all,

and I'm glad I did. And when I went into it, I'll admit, based on the hype, I fully expected to be convinced that Dan Schneider is some kind of twisted pedophile. I expected to be outraged that he allowed children to be abused on his sets, like created an atmosphere for that, or that he did that himself, and for a long time. and then when I dug into the information I was outraged but not

for the reasons I expected to be. So how are we covering today's episode? I first learned a little bit about the history of kids TV and where Nickelodeon was when Schneider entered the picture along with asking the ethical questions we're dealing with today. We'll dive into a timeline, follow the rise and fall of Schneider from his first gigs and writing to the smash hit variety show All That to his many shows and spin-offs involving characters and actors from previous shows. He really created quite the legacy, a legacy that however would begin to be questioned

around the time of the Me Too movement in 2017 as more and more people started looking at what constituted appropriate behavior in the workplace. And those questions about the appropriateness of Schneider's behavior would lead to questions about the appropriateness of Schneider's content. Content that features young actors, sometimes as young as 12, performing things that, to some members of an older audience, at least in retrospect today, seem pretty rife with sexual content. But is it?

Or is it just that kids' content is goofy and goofiness can sometimes read as sexual and vice versa? Does Dan Schneider have a history of sexual involvement with any of his underage cast members as some online sleuths have claimed? Or has a lot of witch hunting gone on with Schneider, perpetuated by sensationalist gossips online and based on nothing. So let's start with a peek into the history of children's television. May not surprise you to learn that children's TV is nearly as old as TV itself.

The BBC's Children's Hour, first broadcast in the UK in 1946, is generally credited with being the first TV program specifically made for children based on the radio show of the same name which originated over decades earlier in 1922. The radio program took its name from a verse by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Between the dark and the daylight, when the night is beginning to lower, comes a pause in the day's occupations that is known as the children's hour. Already you can see that this was, you know, maybe not the most exciting entertainment. It was originally broadcast from BBC's Birmingham station.

Birmingham, crown jewel of the British Commonwealth, one of the world's safest, most luxurious cities, home of the picky fucking blinders. A popular series on the radio show version were things like Jennings at school Readings of a series of humorous novels about a kid's misadventures and boarding school Mary Plain stories about a cute bear who doesn't love a cute bear and Wurzel gummage stories about a scarecrow And the US in the early 1930s adventure serials such as Little Orphan Annie began to emerge becoming a staple of children's afternoon radio listening and Through these shows shows, or though these shows, excuse me, were technically for kids of all ages,

they had the vibe of nursery school stories and fables. Easily understandable, moralizing tales that allowed the value of ethical behavior friendship or showed the value, excuse me, of ethical behavior friendship and so on. In the United States, early children's shows included Kukla, Fran and Ollie, which launched in 1947. The Howdy Doody Show, which also originated in 1947. And Captain Kangaroo, which originated in 1955. I don't think I'd ever heard of Kukla, Fran and Ollie before. If I have, I've forgotten.

It was broadcast out of Chicago for a decade. It was a puppet show, entirely ad-libbed like zero script and Burr Tilstrom the creator was the only puppeteer and the only non puppet character was Fran Allison Kukulat Ali were Burr's puppets. So two people ad-libbing for 30 minutes and this show has not It has not held up well against the test of time. It's pretty brutal as in if this was the only program I could ever watch on TV again, I would immediately smash my TV to pieces. Here's a little excerpt from a video called The Best of Kukla, Fran and Ollie. This is The Best that includes their opening title sequence song that honestly also feels ad-libbed. Here we are back with you again. Yes, by golly. Yes, by golly. How cool can that be?

And dear old Ollie, here we are again. Here we are again. Here we are again. Here we are again. Here we are again. Here we are again. Here we are again. All right, you're here.

Here we are again. All right. Oh, boy. No, no. Okay. What? All right! Oh boy. Okay. What fun with Kukla is this segment. What's Kukla up to? Isn't that a pretty one? Oh it's just... Hey, wait till you see my false face. Stay right there. All right. Okay. Kukla goes behind the little wall to change costumes to puppet. There's a pumpkin, a little table behind Fran.

Get over my nose. And then put on some kind of mask. And it's a creepy clown mask! Oh, that's a beautiful one. I'm sure it hits harder if you're five. Probably way more entertaining. Competition for viewers. A lot less aggressive back then than it is now. The Howdy Doody Show starred a cowboy, Buffalo Bob Smith, and his puppet partner, Howdy Doody.

Kind of like Woody. Like many of the popular variety shows at the time, the Howdy Doody Show featured jokes, songs, and skits. Well, skits and sketches. The episodes were filmed in front of a live studio audience filled with enthusiastic children and their parents. Here's another clip from the best, the best of Howdy Doody. Howdy Doody, Howdy Doody, Howdy, Howdy, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how,

how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how. Smith. Well, hi there little howdy doody. Holy shit. Hi, Claire Bell And look at all the boys and girls there. Hi kids. They're both a fucking night in the gallery. What time is it? Oh God listen the last song Why Smith and Howdy-doo, And Howdy-doo-doo,

Let's give a round sidekick. They loved clowns back then. Clown sidekick of Buffalo Bob Smith. And Claribel looks like he was built in a fucking nightmare factory. Like I would not be surprised at all if finally some like news came out that Claribel had you know killed like 35 people. Really like about the creepiest clown you can imagine looking at. I think if I watched either one of these shows for more than 10 minutes on acid or shrooms I'd have a full psychotic break. While the Howdy Doody show provided young viewers with entertainment critics complained that it had no educational value Apparently no one really complained about the creepy mime clown Claire about which I find shocking

It said mind clown, but I meant mime I don't know what a mine clown sounds even more terrifying like some kind of psychic clown they could get in your head Conflicting opinions on the show's value began the long-standing debate about children's television. Some people claimed the broadcast networks had an obligation to educate and inform viewers but network executives preferred to concentrate on attracting large audiences which brought the network more money from commercial sponsors. This debate has continued until the present day. What is kids TV supposed to do? Is it supposed to be educational?

Do network execs have obligations to their audiences? Or can it just be about entertainment and money? Ding Dong School, which aired from 1952 to 1965, excuse me, yes, it really was called Ding Dong School, was one of the first attempts to produce educational programming for young children. Its creator and host, Francis Horvich, would sit in front of the camera and simulate small talk with a viewing audience at home,

demonstrating some basic life skills for the camera. You have to hear how this first episode starts. TV programming has evolved so much since these early shows. shows. A little thing on the screen. General Mills kicks, brings you Ding Dong School. OK, giving everybody plenty of time to read that. All right. Frances ringing the bell.

I'm your school bell, ding dong ding. Boys and girls all hear me ring. Oh, boy. And girls. Oh, every time I come with me to play and sing. Did you have to not be good at singing to get these jobs? Okay. And then there's this grandmotherly looking host. Right. Right. A. Yeah. Okay, and then there's this grandmotherly looking host. What day is it? It's Monday.

You're right. Friday. Yes. What are you going to do? Are you? Good. Tomorrow too? This is how you make the Cable Guy.

This is how you create the Cable Guy from that Jim Carrey movie. I'm going to add that to a list of shows not to watch while tripping. I don't want Francis in my fucking head while it's fragile. Ding Dong School was a prelude to later shows for very young kids like Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. But still for most kids, the Howdy Doody Show was it until the popularity of the Howdy Doody Show began to fade during the late 1950s. The show would wrap up in 1960 thanks to many kids discovering Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club. Back when Disney was still a corporation

without so much blood on their hands. Right back when Roy Disney still hadn't murdered his mother. Old joke referencing Roy if you're curious. A little love for longtime suckers. The original version of the variety series ran on ABC weekday afternoons from 1955 to 1959. Start a group of talented young performers, the Mouseketeers, who would sing, dance, and perform skits. It was revolutionary, the idea that kids could perform for other kids instead of for adults. In addition to feeling a natural affinity for people their own age, kids also got the impression that if they wanted, they could become famous too, right? Increasing the

show's allure. Very aspirational. The 1960s however would push children's programming back towards focusing on the educational value of children's television. With many progressives believing that new technological advancements could be used to offer lower income communities educational programming they might not otherwise get at school. And this was not a new idea. The first laws affecting the TV industry tried to make sure that TV lived up to its potential. The Communication Act of 1934, for example, said that the airwaves which carry TV signals belong to the American people. Since television broadcasters use

the public airwaves to distribute their programs, they have a duty to create programs that serve the public interest. But when commercial broadcasting began in the late 1940s, through a combination of factors that allowed three powerful networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, to take control of the limited number of very high-frequency VHF channels available for TV broadcasting, things changed. The big three networks generally serve their own interests, rather than the public interest.

That is, they broadcast whatever type of programs would attract mass audiences and generate the most advertising revenue. Only a few channels on the less desirable ultra-high frequency UHF band were set aside for public service programming. In 1967, Congress tried to address the lack of educational and informational programs on TV by passing the Public Broadcasting Act. This act created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB, that does not flow well, to raise money to support public television and radio services. In 1969, the CPB established the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, much better.

A national nonprofit organized to create and distribute TV programs that serve the public interest. While not a formal network, PBS eventually grew to include more than 350 member stations across the US. PBS started broadcasting in October of 1970 and would go on to produce educational and highly regarded children's shows like Sesame Street, Zoom, Barney and Friends, Reading Rainbow, Arthur, and Magic School Bus.

But perhaps most iconic of all, it created Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. The show was created by Fred Rogers, who believed that TV programming could and should do more to educate, entertain, and support young children. He once said during an interview on CNN, I got out of television because I hated it so, and I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen. That show had an iconic opening little ditty. Or maybe I just think so because I grew up on it. Maybe if you've never heard this it sucks as much as the other shit I play, but I don't think so.

For me hearing this I am immediately transported back to watching this show at Papa Ward and Grandma Betty's house, right? I'm laying on the living room carpet. Maybe got some cheese and crackers for a snack. Laying as close to the TV as I am allowed to before my grandma will tell me to back up so I don't ruin my eyeballs. And here you go, a little Mr. Rogers intro. Ah, so good. So heartwarming. A little model of a town, you know, zooms out and zooms into Mr. Rogers' house.

Now he's coming in the front door. I forget how long it just is instrumental. There he is. It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood. A beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Take off the jacket.

It's a neighborly day in this beautiful neighborhood. A neighborly day for a beauty. Would you be mine? Could you be mine? I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you i've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you so let's make the most of this a beautiful day since we're together, let us well say, would you be mine? Would you be mine?

Would you be my neighbor? I love that they actually like just redo that each time. Like you can hear him dropping the shoe. It's not like they just recorded it once, I don't think, and showed it every episode. I think it's different for, like he sings that every episode. And I never thought about this before,

but in the opening, he walks into his house, takes his jacket and shoes off, but then puts on another set of shoes and then puts a sweater on over his shirt and tie. Like dude, it's your fucking house. Why are you putting sweater on after walking inside? Why are you putting shoes on immediately inside? What's going on with your floor? Just turn the heat on buddy. Why are you living in an icebox? Why can't you just wear socks? Maybe go barefoot, you germaphobe. What kind of psychopath immediately puts on a house sweater and house shoes when they step in their front door?

How many bodies do you have in the basement of your set, Fred? Were you fucking the puppets? Were you putting on special puppet fucking shoes and special puppet fucking sweater to fuck the puppets, Mr. Ross? Answer me! Anyway, nobody's weird. As a kid, I never thought anything of that. I'm like, oh, okay.

I guess that's how this guy lives. I'm like, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And special puppet fucking sweater to fuck the puppets, Mr. R- answer me! Anyway Nobody's weird. As a kid, I never thought anything of that. Like, okay. Guess that's how this guy lives his life He has a house sweater, house shoes These shows will lead directly to the Nickelodeon Network. The first Nickelodeon show was created by Dr. Vivian Horner, an Educator and the director of research on the PBS series The Electric Company. That was a big hit The channel's first series would be called Pinwheel and it premiered on Cube December 1st 1977. Before this episode I thought Nickelodeon was newer than that. Cube was experimental, was an experimental two-way multi-program cable

television system that played a significant role in the history of American interactive TV even though it didn't last long. It was launched in Columbus, Ohio. Hello, Buckeyes. And only lasted until 1984. But in those seven years, it introduced audiences to pay-per-view programs, special interest cable television networks, and interactive services. Pinwheel was originally essentially the same

as the programming on PBS, a preschool show. But that would change in 1979 when Nickelodeon officially launched on April 1st as the first ever children's network on Warner Cable franchises, excuse me, across the country. Pinwheel would change production locations from Columbus to New York City. Vivian Horner had asked her co-workers to help come up with a list of possible names for the network. Sandy Cavanaugh, the producer of Pinwheel, proposed Nickelodeon even though she wasn't fully satisfied with it. In 2013 she'd recall, I wasn't thrilled with Nickelodeon. though she wasn't fully satisfied with it. In 2013 she'd recall,

I wasn't thrilled with Nickelodeon. It was whimsical sounding though. It had a fun lilt. I agree Sandy, it does have a fun little lilt to it. Nickelodeon quickly expanded its audience reach our first two other Warner Cable systems across the country and eventually to other cable providers. As Nickelodeon originally operated as a commercial free service, the network ran interstitials between programs consisting of a male mime portrayed by Jonathan Schwartz doing tricks in front of a black background. And I watched some old clips of this mime on YouTube. And to me, creepier than any footage I've seen from any of Dan Schneider shows. I don't know what the fuck was going on with clowns and mimes for so

long. New shows were added to the Nickelode going on with clowns and mimes for so long. New shows were added to the Nickelodeon lineup in 1980, including Dusty's Treehouse, First Row Adventures, What Will They Think of Next? and Live Wire. Sy Schneider, no relation to Dan Schneider, became Nickelodeon's president that same year and his tenure will become referred to years later

as the Green Vegetable Era, as it focused mainly on programs that parents thought were good and appropriate for kids but not necessarily what the kids themselves wanted to see. It's pretty funny. That would change with the introduction of the Disney Channel. Launched on April 18th 1983 as a premium on top of basic cable television systems, the Disney Channel wouldn't set its sights on preschool programming as so many had before, but on kids aged 7 to 17. Why those ages? Because as it would be revealed many years later, Mickey Mouse is a pedophile, but he doesn't fuck with kids under 6. No. That evil mouse very attracted to kids between the ages 7 and 17. And also maybe

mostly attracted to goofy. No one talks and 17. And also, maybe mostly attracted to Goofy. No one talks about that. Mickey Mouse has been fucking the shit out of Goofy since 1932. Actually, did you know that originally Goofy's name was Sirius? But Mickey fucked him Goofy, giving him his current name. And I know that's a stupid joke, but I'm an idiot. Disney really did focus on kids between the ages of 7 and 17, though. Why?

This matched up with some cultural shifts. While the only people who had been home during the day in the previous decades were more likely to be very young adults, excuse me, very young kids, and stay-at-home parents, the rise of working mothers and the so-called latchkey kid, a kid who walks themselves home from school, lets themselves into their house alone while their parents are at work, meant that there was a hugely untapped audience ready to sit in front of the TV from the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 or 8 p.m. The Disney Channel was an immediate success. It reached profitability in less than two years.

By January of 1985, its programming reached 1.75 million subscribers. Currently Disney Plus has over 153 million subscribers. So they're doing pretty good. Within this channel, there would also be different programming blocks themed for different ages. There was Disney Night Time, featured classic Hollywood movies for older kids and parents. The American Legacy featured documentaries about the history of the U.S.

Tune in Tuesday was devoted to cartoons. Bonus Thursday had programming aimed for teenagers. Triple Feature Friday showed three related movies in succession. devoted to cartoons. Bonus Thursday had programming aimed for teenagers. Triple Feature Friday showed three related movies in succession. And The Midnight Dark Side of Disney featured mainly cartoons of Mickey Mouse brutally banging the shit out of Goofy's back door. Surprised they didn't get in trouble for that, but I guess most parents figure that if their kids watch something inappropriate after midnight, you know, that was on them. Of course, the Midnight Dark Side stuff is

nonsense. All of this, all of the real stuff I mentioned at least spelled big trouble for the young Nickelodeon network. Suddenly they had some major competition and this competition would push Nickelodeon into its most iconic era. The 90s and the first decade of the 2000s an era defined by shows that were really just fun. These shows wouldn't be aimed at educating kids at all they'd be aimed at making them laugh at being entertaining. These shows wouldn't be aimed at educating kids at all. They'd be aimed at making them laugh, at being entertaining. These shows would be marked by young, talented performers who portrayed sassy, witty characters, characters whose parents weren't around much, and if they were,

could always be persuaded to let the kids do what they wanted. Or simply avoid it. For Nickelodeon sitcoms, they would feature attractive girls, handsome guys, romantic plot lines, and wacky shenanigans. Sketch shows would feature kids doing crazy dares like drinking a gallon of purported sweat and doing celebrity interviews with the likes of Usher, Tony Hawk and as these shows became more enshrined in the culture the kids in them became bigger and bigger stars making Nickelodeon the epitome of kids

cool. Its own mini Hollywood with its own stars and drama, this little entertainment ecosystem. For child actors, Nickelodeon became a kingmaker. But this may have come with the dark side. Indeed, child acting is as old as Hollywood itself. Jackie Coogan was considered the first major Hollywood child star who rose to fame in the silent film era. Shirley Temple uplifted the spirits of the nation during the Great Depression. But what happens when you have a network whose success relies on a handful of children? A handful of children working days that are often 10, 12, 14 hours long, around a bunch

of adults they don't necessarily know, around people that control their careers, people that are constantly trying to please. These would be some of the main problems brought up by the quiet onset, the dark side of kids TV docu-series, which details the experience of many 90s and 2000s kids stars on Dan Schneider's shows like All That, The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, and iCarly. Obviously, even as creator of several of the above-mentioned shows, Schneider didn't control everything about who was hired and what happened on set. But the documentary does allege that he created circumstances in which children were charged with working long hours, being subject to his favoritism,

and perhaps being overly sexualized. And, and this is the reason Dan is suing the show, the producers associate him with some pedophiles who happen to be employed on some of the shows. Pedophiles who actually did not happen to have criminal records for being pedophiles when Dan worked with him. But mostly the series focuses on the sexualization of Dan's young stars. For evidence of this they present a few different scenes and show these same scenes over and over ad nauseam for five episodes. In a few of the scenes girls are shown getting viscous goo shot across her faces getting doused with water, and in one or two instances making

some noises that sure do seem pretty sexual. And in more scenes, there's a focus on bare feet. There are clips of underage actors performing weird and unnecessary tasks with their feet, like trying to put their toes in their mouths, eating food with their feet, sucking on their own toes, and so on. A lot of foot shit. In September of 2013, the Twitter page for Schneider's show, Sam and Cat, posted, Sam and Cat tomorrow right on the bottom of your foot. Take a pic and use

Sam and Cat Saturday. We'll retweet and follow until our fingers get sore. The question here is, is this all just a bunch of silliness, absurdity, or does looking at little kid feet make Dan's dick heart? Not me, Dan Schneider. I mean that is the basic accusation Is it legit or are people saying this now? No one seemed to be saying this back when it happened because now Feet have become super sexualized. I don't remember anyone talking about foot fetishes ten years ago or even five years ago Now I actually know somebody who makes four figures a month sending dudes pictures of just her feet. Suddenly to me it seems in the last few years feet have strongly become associated with porn when they weren't before. Foot fetishism is one of the most common types of sexual fetishes today. According

to a Psychology Today article it's actually the single most common sexual fetish. Dr. Justin Leemiler or Leemiler, research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, wrote a book called Tell Me What You Want. It was published in 2018. He surveyed more than 4,000 Americans about their sexual fantasies. And 5% of heterosexual women, 18% of heterosexual men, 11% of lesbian and bisexual women, and 21% of gay and bisexual men said they sexually fantasized about feet. So is Dan Schneider one of these people? Maybe. And if he only wants to fuck or get turned on by adult feet, well who gives a shit?

Lucifina certainly doesn't. Lucifina is all about sucking on those toes and fucking some feets. If that's what you enjoy. But if Dan was writing scenes showcasing kids feet because it secretly turned him on, well that's obviously problematic. I hope that being problematic is obvious. Not only did Schneider supposedly perpetuate his foot fetish to massive audiences of children he's accused of consistently sexualizing his child actresses in docu-series as well. Daniella Monette known for her role as Trina Vega on Victorious recently spoke out about his wardrobe choices

for female actors. Monette claimed that the outfits appeared far from age-appropriate and that he would always advocate for skimpier outfits. In fact, she said he allegedly went to the extent of arguing with Nickelodeon execs about the length of a young actress's skirt wanted to remain shorter. Nickelodeon supposedly told the producer that the skirt looked too short for it to air on live TV, but Schneider demanded no changes to the outfit. Dan has denied doing this, and others he has worked with said that the costume designer on his show would have done this if anyone.

Also, any and all scenes of every show Dan worked on were approved in the end by network execs before being broadcast. So if Dan dressed someone truly inappropriately, why didn't any execs flag it and demand the outfit be edited out? And I'm not some Dan Schneider apologist, by the way. Before this documentary, I didn't even know his name. I'd heard of some of his shows, but didn't watch any of them. And looking into his shows now, you know, not my thing because, you know, I missed the boat. I didn't watch him as a kid, so watch them now, you know, they're not for me. I don't need to watch them. So I've no horse in this race. Back to allegations of his inappropriateness, there's a certain viewpoint that things like feed and goo are just intrinsically funny to an audience of kids. And Dan Schneider, more than anyone, was able to tap into these gags to make audiences come back for more.

And that might be the true motivation. Also, you can make a business argument as opposed to a sexual one for skimpy clothing. After all, part of the appeal of teen audiences was that they, you know, 14 audiences, was that they might be attracted to or want to be one of these hot girls. That they dreamed of wearing cool outfits, hanging out with cute friends. That they wanted to date the cute guys on the show, you know. And kids do dress the way they're portrayed in these shows, you know. Or at least they wanted to. That's part of growing up, wanting to prove to the adults around you hey I'm

not a kid anymore I'm fully formed I can I can I can dress provocatively. I did that. Sagged my jeans halfway off my ass. Constantly found a reason to take my shirt off and show off what I thought at the time who were big biceps they weren't. Or my ripped abs that were ripped only because I was so skinny. Lindsay she did the same shit when she was a kid. I've seen the pictures I've heard her mom talk about the kind of stuff She tried to wear at school and I've seen this with my own kids Kyler when he first got some muscles You know around the age of 16. He suddenly seemed to always be looking for a reason to have a shirt off

Home public just everywhere acted like he was always on the verge of being called in for a muscle and fitness cover shoot He had to be ready in two minutes. Monroe, same thing the past year or so. Started rocking some bikinis that led to me asking Lindsay privately, are you sure we're okay with this? Apparently I'm a lot more conservative when it comes to Monroe than I am with Kyler. Sorry, this is Fina. Try not to give anyone a complex. Also, teenagers are not strangers to sexual material. Pediatricians actually recommend talking to kids about their sexual health beginning around the age of five, when kids start to ask where babies come from.

So having some sexual themes and programming for teens is not grooming them necessarily at all. It's providing realistic programming that they can relate to, programming where they aren't being talked down to and over-infantilized. For the number of your mom jokes anyone can hear in a middle school hallway, you know it's true that the kids find a lot of comedy and sexual material and perhaps that comedy helps them deal with processing their own changing bodies and relationships. However, what kind of sexual material is

it okay for a 40 year old man to write for kids? And what if he's writing that, you know, what if he's writing like what possibly he's sexually attracted to and forcing kids to unwittingly act out his sexual attractions in front of him? At what point does one cross the line from being edgy but authentic as a kid's TV writer into just being a fucking creep? Someone who could be seen as grooming kids. Or at least becoming the Hollywood version of that uncle who hugs his teen relatives a bit too long at family get-togethers and sure seems to keep trying to peek down blouses and look up some skirts. This is the dilemma with Dan Schneider.

At least it is the dilemma for the quiet on set producers and those who agree with its conclusions. Adding to this dilemma are the numerous allegations that Schneider did foster an obviously toxic work environment, that he harassed female writers who worked underneath him, requested massages from female employees, and demeaned and yelled at basically everyone on set regularly. Was the dream for children working for Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider really more like a nightmare? Or is this all a case of looking back on entertainment from 20 years ago through the heightened lens of the peak of the MeToo movement and seeing things that maybe weren't there?

Connecting dots that were possibly never actually connected. Let's look at all of this in a lot more detail in today's Time Suck Timeline. Right after today's first of two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for hearing out our sponsors. If you don't want to hear those ads, get the entire catalog ad free and more by signing up to be a space lizard Thank you spaces on patreon for five bucks a month and now let's get into that timeline Shrap on those boots soldier. We're marching down a time suck timeline Daniel James Schneider. Born January 14th 1966 in Memphis Tennessee. His parents were Harry and Carol Schneider. He later described his upbringing as warm and funny, a family of jokesters and smart. His dad went to Harvard. His parents funny

side would come in pretty handy. By the age of seven, Dan was the most overweight student in his class, teased mercilessly in the early 1970s when today's level of body acceptance was a long ways off. When being fat meant you got teased often, mercilessly, probably literally every day of your life. The anti-comedy is a road to not getting picked on. Instead of just being the fattest kid in class, he was going to be the funniest. And I can relate. I wasn't overweight as a kid, but I was very skinny growing up. Like real skinny. When I was a junior in high school, I was close to 6 feet tall, weighed 135 pounds. Just bones and skin. And when I was in grade school and junior high, I was often the shortest kid in class.

Boy or girl, I was a runt. A runt with a big head, a borderline speech impediment, and ribs you could see a mile away. So just a perfect target for bullies. So I too learned how to make my classmates laugh partially as a survival mechanism. Right? It was that or get pushed around by all the boys and rejected by all the girls. Dan wasn't very academic but he loved TV. He studied legendary TV writers like Susan Harris and Carl Reiner. Also became involved in his high school theater department and according to some sources was senior class president. After returning home from a brief stint in Boston after high school and taking a job

repairing Apple computers, he managed to land a part in a movie, Making the Grade, that did its casting in Memphis and came out in 1984 starring Judd Nelson, Andrew Dice Clay. Yeah, only 18 years old, man, how fun. It was a small part as a kid ordering a pizza, but he killed it. You know, it had fun with people on on set it led to a couple more roles he was in better off dead which came out in 1985 starring John Cusack as well as 1985 hot resort starring Bronson Pinchot known mostly as Balky from perfect strangers though these roles were small they would lead to Dan getting apart in a hit ABC

sitcom called head of the class a part in a hit ABC sitcom called Head of the Class, a show following a group of gifted honor students at the fictional Millard Fillmore High School in Manhattan starring Howard Hesman from WKRP Since Snatty, which was a hit sitcom, as their history teacher. Schneider played an overweight, wisecracking cynic and computer whiz named Dennis Blunden. This was a huge break for Schneider. It was one of the biggest comedies on TV at the time and it ran for five seasons. Schneider said this role bought him a house in LA. But personally, it may not

have been the best thing for Dan Schneider's well-being. You know, as he'd been stereotyped in elementary school, so too was he here. Cast as the fat kid, often the butt of the joke. In one scene his castmate jokes that he could sing We Are the World all by himself. You get it? Because he's so big. He's like as big as more than one person. How clever! Oh what rapier wit! That kind of 80s humor I do not miss. Some close to him would think that this was what motivated his later success. To not be seen as the punchline but as the creator of punchlines. To not be seen as the fat kid or the fat guy but instead as a brilliant writer. He also made an important

connection ahead of the class. One of his fellow student playing castmates, Brian Robbins, would later become the president of kids and family entertainment for ViacomCBS. Another real smart guy. Becoming close friends, the two performers both shared a mutual interest in writing. Eventually coming together to write and then pitch an episode to the show's producers just to see if they could. And to their amazement, the producers loved their idea and more importantly, they bought it. Their head of the class episode, Will the Real Arvid Engen Please Stand Up, aired during the show's second season, January 6, 1988. So now Schneider is 21 years old, he's an actor on a hit sitcom.

He's been an actor in several movies. And he's also a successful writer, like a professional writer. He has a writing credit to his name. He's a Hollywood whiz kid. Then based on the success of Head of the Class, Schneider is recruited to co-host the second ever Kids' Choice Awards

with Brian Robbins in 1988, alongside Tony Danza and Debbie Gibson. The Kids' Choice Awards was one of the attempts of the fledgling Nickelodeon Channel to make its mark in the world of kids entertainment, a sort of kids version of the Oscars, in which viewers worldwide voted for their favorite film music and sports. By 1991, the head of the class ended its run and Brian Robbins, who was also still acting but wanted to move into directing and writing, he started a production company with producer friend Mike Tallin, aptly named

Tallin Robbins Productions. And one of their first small-budget sports documentaries caught the eye of Albie Hecht, the head of development for Nickelodeon. Hecht later met with Robbins to discuss developing something else, asking Robbins if there was any type of show that he'd be interested in making. And this is standard showbiz practice, right? While I never sold anything, I wasn't that good at pitches apparently, I was in dozens of pitch meetings. And while one project may get you in the door, they almost always ask you know what other ideas you have. Always looking for you know what they think is

gonna be the next big hit so they can put their name on it as the person who discovered it. Well Robbins pitched an idea of creating a kid-friendly version of SNL. When Hecht proved enthusiastic about this, he brought on Tollen as a producer, and then Robbins brought in his old sitcom buddy and writing partner Schneider to be the head writer. And now the trajectory of Schneider's career has changed drastically as he's about to abandon the life of being in front of the camera for a one behind it. In 1993, Dan Schneider officially joins all that. Robbins and Tolland's new yet-to-be-filmed sketch show after a stint as a cast member

on the one-season sitcom Home Free, which starred Matthew Perry. Perry would score a main role a few months after Home Free ended in another sitcom you may have heard of, Friends. He'd of course play Chandler Bing. He didn't need Home Free to become wildly successful and neither did Schneider. All that would air from April of 1994 to October of 2005, lasted 10 seasons. Schneider created the pilot, was the brains for the show for its first four seasons. Like SNL, the show would feature original short comedic sketches, weekly musical guests, but aimed specifically towards a young audience.

The basic concept for the series was a half-hour show that featured a cold open, which featured the cast participating in varying juvenile acts in a green room or around the studio before the show starts. Several different sketches including runners, little short sketches, and then a musical performance to close out the episode. The show's main staple was the vital information sketch, which wanted to be featured in every show to the end of the sixth season. Basically the equivalent of SNL's weekend update. to be featured in every show through the end of the sixth season. Basically the equivalent of SNL's weekend update. It's a special thing Schneider would say in one video of the show.

Not many kids get to go on national television and play a thousand different characters. Eat rotten cheese, Brian Robbins suggests. And Schneider replies sarcastically, yeah, we're doing real high brow stuff. And that was the real secret of the show's success. It wasn't trying to be clever or high brow. It embraced being goofy, stupid, slapstick, totally non-educational, which was exactly what kids wanted to watch. It was fucking fun. Early episodes were taped at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Orlando Resorts,

and then they moved to Hollywood, California, to the Nickelodeon on Sunset studio, where future Snyder shows like The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh would also be filmed. Since the cast was the main attraction when conceptualizing the show, Snyder decided against writing the pilot episode and instead chose to compile the cast first, then create the pilot. Usually in television, the pilot is written first, then the cast is assembled to fit the pilot later. However, Snyder believed it was crucial to find the right actors first,

then tailor the show to their strengths. Which is very smart. Makes a lot more sense for a new sketch comedy show than trying to shoehorn actors into theoretical roles that they're not especially suited for. Nationwide talent search for child and teen actors was launched. It would last for several months. Eventually, Angelique Bates, Lori Beth Denberg, Katrina Johnson, Kel Mitchell, Alisa Reyes,yes Josh server and Kenan Thompson were hired

Yes that Kenan Thompson longest tenured cast member in Saturday Night Live's history now been there since 2003 Kenan by the way never said a bad word about Dan at least publicly You know didn't never really spoke about it much publicly until the docu-series came out Asked for his opinion about the doc. He recently said it's tough for me because I can't really speak on things that I never witnessed you know you know what I'm saying previous to the docuseries Keenan did talk about Dan in his 2000 or excuse me 2023 memoir when I was your age life lessons funny stories and questionable parenting advice from a professional clown regarding a following out with his

Keenan and Kel co-star, Kel Mitchell, Keenan said, Dan Snyder was the one person who was finally able to bring us back together. One day he called me and said, listen, I don't know if this is a touchy subject or not. I know you haven't spoken to Kel in a while, but do you have a problem with him? And do you have a problem with me putting him on a new show?

Of course I didn't. Later Thompson wrote, finally in 2015, Dan called me again. It's time to talk about doing a good burger reunion. Have you talked to Kellan a while? I had not. I feel like he's changed. He told me he's in church now. Oh really? Yeah he's done a full 180 as far as humility is concerned and cleaning up any kind of bad blood with people he rubbed the wrong way in the past. He's really trying to repair those relationships. You guys should talk. And then they did talk. And went on to work together in a few more projects. I just want to note that while Dan is in the doghouse, Keenan is still killing it.

He has no reason to hold back on Schneider currently, but he hasn't said anything. Back to the formation of all that now, cast and crew flew out to the Nickelodeon studios at Universal Orlando to shoot the pilot in front of a studio audience January 17th 1994. According to those who worked with him, Dan created a really fun set. He was self-deprecating, always joking around, falling over and getting messy. He inspired actors to do whatever they needed to do to get it done, to push themselves towards greatness even with kids as young as eight. After taping was completed, the pilot was unfortunately shelved. The initial screenings did not test well with focus

groups consisting of children, both boys and girls in different age groups that Nickelodeon used. Score showed that kids probably wouldn't like this new sketch comedy show for kids. However, despite this negative response, after mulling it over Geraldine Layborn, then president of Nickelodeon, decided to pick the series up and it was a hit those fucking focus idiot kids were wrong They picked the dumbest kids down in Orlando It was quickly approved for a second season After production on the second season wrapped up in 1996 the show moved out of the old Nickelodeon studios at Universal Orlando Orlando Resort in Florida to California after the the third season wrapped up, Angelique Bates left.

And she will later claim much, much later in an interview, gosh dang it, with the Blast.com in March of 2024, Bates said that all that creator Dan Schneider regularly subjected her to verbal, physical, and emotional abuse. Serious claims. But then she proceeds to provide literally zero examples of this. Like it's weird. She makes these bold claims and then doesn't talk about anything specific that makes me think, oh okay, yeah that's fucked up. She also said that she was bullied by another cast member, that

producers took that cast member's side when her mom complained, and that an unnamed producer, not Schneider, hit on her mom. She also said she chose to leave the show because she wasn't happy with the amount of lines she was getting from the writers. She felt she should have, you know, more screen time. In my gut read on Angelique Bates, she wasn't good enough of a performer to justify putting up with what sounds like bratty behavior. She seems pretty extra in interviews to me. Melodramatic. Was she bullied or was she dramatic and confrontational? Complaining about your lines on a show? That's a fucking great way to get axed. And even though it seems like she's been trying to hang on to her showbiz career ever since,

she describes herself as an entertainer on her Instagram profile. The now 43 year old's career in showbiz basically ended when she left the show in 1996. Reads is pretty sad. Her interview with blast.com was also published on Yahoo! Entertainment's website in the grossest, most clickbaity way. The headline is, Angelique Bates Exposes Nickelodeon for Allegedly Making Sexual Advances. So you can assume that they're talking about somebody making sexual advances on a kid, right? That's what I get from that, you know, from that headline.

She was a kid on that show talking about Nickelodeon kids network beneath this headline carousel of photos of Dan Schneider so I go into this article there's so many articles like this online right now I go into this article reading you know thinking that okay here we go here's a smoking gun she's claiming that Dan Schneider made sexual advances towards her when she would have been 14 or 15. Yikes. Nope. She doesn't claim he ever hit on her or even hit on her mom. Again, some other unnamed producers suppose he did. So shame on you blast journalist Kelly Coffee Barons, you fucking talentless hack for putting your name on that trash article. Trying to make someone look like

child predator. Such a devious thing to do when they're not so you can get more clicks or at least when you have no evidence. It's fucked up Anyway, Angelique replaced by a young woman whose name you may recognize Amanda Bynes Katrina Johnson who had been on the show since its inception Thought it would now be her time to shine since Schneider had been something of a mentor figure to her after she was cast She said Schneider so this ruffled her feathers when Amanda shows up. After she was cast before Amanda, years earlier, she said Schneider came up to her,

told her that she was his personal choice for the show. When she had ideas for characters, she said he would always listen. And at one point, producers approached her parents about creating the Katrina Johnson show. But around the time Bates left, right, some other producers allegedly called Katrina's house, told her parents that she was getting too fat, that they quote already had a fat one, which is shitty language, and producers weren't pleased with how she had matured as she entered puberty.

And you know what? It's fucked up the way they said it. But also, that is showbiz. You don't have to like it, but it's not a meritocracy. It's a very subjective business, and it always will be. You know who gets cast in Marilyn Monroe type roles? Very attractive women. You know who gets cast as leading men in action blockbuster films? Handsome as fuck dudes. Not dudes with dad-balls like mine. Dudes with abs get cast. Dudes with gigachat chins.

Dudes fucking wrist-moggin'. Lowly Melvins like me. Likewise, if you're playing the part of a cute kid on a show and suddenly producers don't think you're cute anymore, gigachat chins, dudes fucking wrist-moggin, lowly melvins like me. Likewise, if you're playing the part of a cute kid on a show and suddenly producers don't think you're cute anymore, well that's it. If they find a kid who they think is cuter and more charismatic, you're out and someone else is in. Is it painful? Fuck yeah, that would be painful. Is it unfair? Yeah, but entertainment is not a fair business. Life is not fair. I auditioned for roles that were given to some better looking dudes. I lost in some comedy competitions to people who the producers clearly thought were better looking,

more suited for their goals, or fit like a character look better. I used to want to audition actually for leading man parts, or at least play the buddy of a leading man. But you know what parts my manager down in LA would submit me for, and she straight up told me this. We had a good relationship. She would submit me for and she straight up told me this we had a good relationship uh she would submit me for these roles once I lost my acting agent because I was not getting enough callbacks because I was not good at acting I would get sent out for roles for convicts creeps and pedophiles like some law and order SVU we need a fucking guy in the park run from the police who probably molested some kid that's that's the roles I was submitted for shit you're not

did I dream of playing a creep beating off in the bushes outside a playground? No, of course not. But also I thought it was pretty fucking funny. I mean, what do you do? You know, no use getting mad at the producers. That's just the way they see it. It's just business, a heavily subjective business.

Katrina spoke out against Schneider in the docu-series Quiet On Set, the dark side of kids' TV many times. But again, she didn't really have anything specifically bad to say. She just seems mad that she never got a show. Didn't see, didn't say that Dan ever abused her. Not in any way. Just said, you know, he promised she'd be a star of her own show. And then she wasn't. Then, you know, and it hurt her feelings. Okay. But then why are you talking on a docu-series about him, you know, that's trying to frame him as some sort of predator?

And guess who, just like Angelique B Bates never went on to do anything in Hollywood after her time on all that. Katrina Johnson. Do you notice a theme developing about people accusing Dan Schneider of being a monster? It's going to continue. Instead of Katrina taking the lead in the show, well, Amanda Byneswood. Amanda was born in Thousand Oaks, California, youngest of three children.

She began professionally acting at the age of seven, appearing in television advertisements for a bunch of crunch candy,tin, Style Barbie and Taco Bell. And while attending a comedy camp at the Laugh Factory on LA's Sunset Strip, she would be discovered by the producers for all that. The other day I got a pimple, Amanda said in her kid comedy routine. I mean, what's the deal? Is God sitting up there in heaven looking down on me and saying, I think I'll give her a challenge. The producers felt her timing was impeccable, that her comedy was always on point, especially Dan Schneider. He'd already been thinking about a spinoff series, right? He had Katrina in mind for it originally, but you know, they're always looking for other possibilities, very normal in this business.

And now he has Amanda in mind. As her career, or excuse me, as his career progresses, it'll become one of his signature legacy making moves. Taking a character or actor from one show and giving them another show. You know, then taking a character from that show and giving them another show. And so on and so forth. Creating a string of Dan Schneider produced hits. It's a very smart business move. And this process will begin with Amanda.

Dan would make no attempts to hide his favoritism once Amanda had been cast in all that. When she's just 10. He quickly dropped Katrina Johnson and she almost never saw him anymore. And again that showbiz not fair you know. That's how that's how I do it in Hollywood. Your product. And if audiences and or producers are loving you because the show or you know shows you are on or hits or because they feel you're about to be the star of a new hit show then you're loved and everyone's your best friend. But then if producers lose faith in you or the audience loses

interest, well you're done. Your dream is thrown down on the ground and fucking stomped on. It's not fair but it happens all the time. And I do feel bad for these former child stars. Tough breaks in this business are hard to handle as an adult. Can't imagine how hard they are to handle as a child. Has to be psychologically brutal for a child actor to transition to adulthood for 99% of child actors. You know, either your career peaks as a kid and now you're viewed as a has-been by the time you're barely an adult or you have been abused, sometimes sexually by predators taking advantage of your parents not being around or preying on your ambitions or

both or you are abused and your career still goes away. The successful child actor who becomes a successful adult actor who is not abused as a child actor and is mentally healthy. Well, that seems to be the exception to the rule. Back to the beginning of the rise of Amanda Bynes now. According to all that alum Leon Frierson, Dan and Amanda were working together more like peers. We had to go to school on set, he would recall later. There would be times that Amanda would just be missing. A lot of times we would hear she would be with Dan,

pitching ideas and writing. We saw them grow closer to each other on set. And the way this is portrayed, it sounds like he's accusing Dan of doing something shady. Like he's insinuated that, you know, maybe Dan is like grooming her, or, you know, maybe even molesting her or something. No, Liam will remember how a lot of parents

stayed away from set set not wanting to get in the way but how Amanda's dad was always there. How he and Schneider always seemed to be close and it looked like they were carefully crafting Amanda's career. Leon says this in an accusatory way too. Like Dan and Amanda's dad are doing something nefarious but I strongly feel that Leon is just jealous. This guy's 37 years old now. He still clearly wants to be a big actor. But he hasn't had a recurring role on a TV series since the fourth season of All That in 1998 when he was 11. His Instagram today mostly picks and clips of him from All That from over 25 years ago.

It's fucking cringy. He reached to me as someone with an axe to grind because he's met his career didn't continue. There are a lot of people like that in LA. I met more than I ever cared to when I was down there. Dance First spin-off, The Amanda Show starring Amanda Bynes, begins airing October 16, 1999. It included cast members Drake Bell, Nancy Sullivan, John Cassar, Raquel Lee, and Josh Peck. Another sketch comedy show.

And also a show within a show. Series is set in a fictional universe in which it is broadcast as a popular television comedy as evidenced through staged mishaps involving members of the studio audience, as well as comedic subplots involving Amanda's unhealthily obsessed, nerdy, self-proclaimed number one fan who constantly devises schemes to achieve her lifelong goal of meeting Amanda. Recurring sketches included Judge Trudy, a spoof of the courtroom reality show Judge Judy, So You Wanna Win Five Dollars,

a spoof of the ABC game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Moody's Point, a spoof of the teen drama Dawson's Creek and Blockblister, a spoof of the now-defunct video rental store Blockbuster, and also I'm a Sexy Kid and I Wanna to Fuck Daddies, a parody of the Golden Girls. Ugh. That is. That's troubling.

And of course I'm just being shocking and nonsensical there. Amanda was 13 when the series premiered. It was her big break. And it was Dan's big break as well in many ways. This was the first time in which Schneider is given the title of creator, which is a big deal in the industry. You make a lot of money if you're the creator. And this may have empowered him to overstep some boundaries.

Seems to have. Kristi Stratton and Jenny Kilgin, two writers who primarily worked during the series first season, they were new writers then, would describe how working with Dan was like being in an abusive relationship. At the time, there weren't a lot of positions for women in sketch comedy.

It was hard to navigate. The opportunities for women were fewer, so you knew you were going in for, you know, like one spot that you probably wouldn't get it. But Christy and Jenny both, you know, really wanted to make it. Neither of them knew each other. Christy got the spot by applying while Jenny actually joined a Hollywood writers group where she met Dan who, to her surprise, ended up liking her work and recruiting her. Both women were excited to work in a real writers room. You know, huge opportunity. Except on their first day they were informed by a line producer that they, Christy and Jenny, would have to share a salary. Two women sharing one salary. None of the

men, they found out, shared their salaries. But both of them knew that this could be a big break, so they didn't want to, you know, fuck it up and ruffle some feathers. And this sounds blatantly fucked up, right? Sex this as hell. Same old tired patriarchal shit that's been happening to women for centuries. Well, maybe not. What is not shown in this doc is some very important context. That this has been common practice for new writers, male and female, for years. The network, not the showrunner, they allocate a certain budget for writers and producers. And sometimes a position salary can be split for a new writer or producer.

And while Dan did this for two women on the Amanda show, he also the same thing on other shows with two men or with one man and one woman and many, many, many, many show creators, you know, and show, you know, show runners, EPs were doing this on their shows, had done it before, have done it since. Again, it's pretty common practice. This was not about being a woman.

It was about being a new writer, you know. It's a lot to go into here, but I have, you know, long respected TV writers in part because they've had to pay a lot of dues to get those gigs, men and women. Leaving that context out in this documentary series, in my mind, equates to blatant slander and defamation. You're framing things in a very dishonest way. You know, removing the context makes Dan look like he's, you know, treating two women unfairly because he is sexist. and he might be Actually, I think he is or at least was but this is not evidence of that

And by the way, I've worked as both a TV writer and a TV producer in the past I not a lot but I wrote two episodes of a Molly Ringwald Jason Priestley sitcom called raising expectations back in 2016 Directly before Time Suck took off and I worked as a consulting producer Directly before Time Suck took off and I worked as a consulting producer Which is code for writer in reality TV on a number of different shows most notably Duck Dynasty 2013 and 14 and I have and I have had a lot of writer and producer friends friends who are now network execs and showrunners And what Dan did here again is standard practice. It would just be unfair for me not to mention. I'm not just talking on my ass However early on Dan Schneider allegedly did do something that was sexist and inappropriate. Allegedly said that he didn't think women could be funny.

Supposedly asked the writers room to think of one woman who was funny in front of these writers and nobody said anything which is super fucked up. That's a shitty, wildly unprofessional thing to do. An asshole move for sure. And Dan has not to my knowledge denied doing this. Soon after he allegedly asked Christy and Jenny if he could refer to them as the girls. When they said yes he said good because I can't stand girls who are uptight about things like that. And that if true you know it's cringy and unnecessary. Christy and Jenny said that they were uneasy

but pushed it aside. They were both there to do one thing, to write and they do whatever they needed to be in that room. And the early days were somewhat fun, they say. The group was goofy, energetic, and sometimes maybe dirty. Schneider created a children's character portrayed by Amanda Bynes named Penelope Taint. As in the stretch of skin between the balls and the butthole. Dan Schneider told producers that it didn't mean anything dirty, but then he guess he turned around and told Christy and Jenny that yeah, it did refer to the perineum and to keep that a secret. To Christy and Jenny this

signified Dan's power that he could create a joke that was obviously sexual and tell network execs that it wasn't and they believe him, you know, had grown too far. However, someone who loves inappropriate jokes, is this really that fucking big of a deal? A taint joke and a show with teenagers? My god. I would bet my life that all of those teenagers were making more inappropriate jokes about that every day on set. Shit, I watched Eddie Murphy's Delirious and was listening to Two Live Crew when I was 11 and 12 years old. I listened to EZE and NWA. I was hearing jokes about shit like rusty trombones

and donkey punches at fucking recess. A taint reference would have been tame. Soon Dan started to really push things further though. The women would sometimes get messages from him directing them to scream things out loud in the writers room like hammers. They would do so. Then it became more degrading over time like I'm an idiot or slut. And yeah that's fucking weird. But I wish we knew more about the context was everyone making inappropriate jokes do you have the male writers do that too that's never explained it's very important you know men and women are they both doing this or is it just the women who have to yell shit like that

and I will say writers rooms right yeah writer rooms notoriously get weird I was told by the showrunner for a Discovery Channel show called Porter Ridd's I worked on to stop drawing cartoons On the writers room whiteboard of various cast members getting fucked by bears I would draw a picture of a bear fucking various all all of the little fake cartoon plots would end with one of the cast members Getting fucked by bear. It's a long story, but everyone was doing shit like that to make each other laugh on this show I was only asked to stop because the showrunner was worried that the production company owners might see it and he would get in trouble. But what but what if someone was offended by this and then went on a documentary

complaining about how pornographic cartoons prominently featuring bestiality scenes made them extremely uncomfortable. They didn't want to work there but they but they were afraid to say anything because they didn't want to lose their job so they just suffered in silence with these bare fucking pictures. Am I a monster now or are they a thin-skinned their job. So they just suffered in silence with these bare fucking pictures. Am I a monster now? Or are they a thin-skinned crybaby? Or do they have a right to be sad about it? But I also have a right to enjoy what I think is funny. If they didn't say the words, Dan would allegedly keep messaging them until they did, this yelling out in the writer's room.

Once Dan supposedly offered Christy $300 to eat two pints of ice cream in 30 minutes. Knowing full well she had half a salary. She did it, but then I guess he never paid her. A couple weeks later there was a fly buzzing in the writers room and he said he'd pay whoever killed it $30. And jokingly Christie said, should I add that to your tab? And instead of laughing at a joke anyone would have laughed at if Dan had made it this joke. Snyder brought her into his office and lambasted her. How dare you accuse me of not making good on my bets?

He apparently screamed. Christy had no idea what was going on. He'd created this fun, silly atmosphere, but he could also turn it off as quickly as he wanted. And yes, he seems like a young, power-hungry asshole here, and he essentially has admitted to being a young, power-hungry asshole as an early showrunner in some rebuttals, some apologies he's made.

Yeah, it's fucked up. But again, it's not predatory behavior worthy of a focus, worthy of the focus, excuse me, of a five-part docu-series on Max, is it? As the season went on, things apparently got worse and worse. In the writers' room, Jenny would later allege Dan would show them porn or ask for shoulder massages, saying he would put one of their sketches in the show if they agreed. It was always presented as a joke but was it?

Did he also show male writers porn? No, that's never addressed. I've been shown porn on shows that I've worked on. The VP of a production company I worked for, him and I used to send each other pictures of naked dudes with huge dicks. Each of us hoping that the other person would open their email in front of the wrong person and get embarrassed or in some trouble. Again, it's like there is a culture in these writer rooms of just being inappropriate to

shock jaded comedy writers. Another time Chrissy was in the writers room thinking about something that had happened to her in high school when Snyder proposed something. Oh, and before I actually say this, the massage part, I'll talk about it more later. That part's super fucking weird to me. But anyway, Snyder proposed something. What if she leaned over the table and recounted the story as she pretended that she was being sodomized? And that really does seem fucked up. This is actually the most messed up thing I saw on the dock regarding Snyder for me. But again, who else was doing this shit? Other writers? Also Dan, was this a case of him being a prick? Very misogynistic, very sexist, trying to make the women always sexualized

of not reading the room correctly? We don't know. Every room I was in had people pitching jokes that were insanely inappropriate to get a laugh out of the room. Just like all of the shock jokes I have told here, I've told you to laugh out of you. It's just hard to gauge intention here.

Christy said she was embarrassed, but did it anyway. Didn't want to seem like she couldn't hang. For Jenny, she said it was upsetting to watch her friend do this knowing there wasn't anything she could do about it. Like Christie, you know, she didn't want to be labeled the person that couldn't take a joke. Soon after this, Jenny hears from the Writers Guild that it was actually illegal to have two people share a salary. Then Schneider called Jenny and asked if she was conspiring against the company. He'd heard from the Writers Guild. They had to pay them each their own salaries. But still, against union directors or not, this was common practice and people bend, you know, union

rules constantly on shoots to this day. This is not a Dan Schneider thing. This was an industry thing. I'm not gonna say what I did, but I was paid non-union wages to do work that the Writers Guild definitely consider writers guild union work the production company I worked for myself we would have gotten in trouble you know had we been caught but you know what I did it anyway I didn't feel exploited even though I was paid less I felt lucky to have a job and I knew that if I wanted to move on to union gigs I needed a better resume and to get that resume I would probably have to do more non-union shit the union would not approve approve of and again

incredibly common Not the exception to the rule the rule Jenny said that if Dan found out she told on him He said that she would never work for Nickelodeon or Viacom again. Yeah, I could see him saying that I could see almost every show We're saying something like that After this Schneider apparently got more volatile He'd be charming and charismatic sometimes and flip multiple times a day a day, making everyone on set, along with the writers, feel like the other shoe was about to drop. And in the last week, filming the first season of Amanda Show, the Amanda Show, the other shoe does drop.

After work, Schneider unceremoniously calls Christy Stratton on her phone as she's driving home. By the time she was home, she had been fired. Citing the fact that she had done two personal things on her weekends during the entire course of filming when she was expected to be working. What we don't know here though, how good was Christy's work on this show? You know this this could have been for sure. Dan being retro you know like a vindictive, being a power hungry asshole, you know some kind of retribution. But also maybe Christy just didn't write very good jokes. Meanwhile, producers brought Jenny Kilgin back for The Amanda Show season 2.

They offered her a 16-week contract, but expected her to work for free for 11 of the show's 27 weeks. They claimed it was all the money they had. After just four days filming the second season, Kilgin reached her limit. She said she was called into Dan's office. He told her to pitch her an idea, and as she spoke, he interrupted her and asked, didn't you used to do phone sex? That is super fucked up if he did this. No, she replied. But he insisted that the last season she had said something like that, kept pressing her until she finally gave up and admitted it. And then that day she quit. And again, if he did this, you know, that's fucked up. This is why I

said earlier that Dan probably is sexist or at least was sexist. Sounds like somebody I would have hated to work for. But again, the big damning accusations against him springing from Quiet Iron Set aren't that he was a dick, but a child predator. Where's the evidence of that? Not this. Jenny called up Kristi Stratton with an idea. They should sue Nickelodeon and Schneider for gender discrimination and harassment, which they did. Nickelodeon did an

internal investigation, ended up settling with Stratton and Klingon for an undisclosed amount, and I hope it was a lot. Jenny's career would never really recover, but Kristi, she's ended up writing for a ton of shows. She's a showrunner today, like modern family. She's been on some great shows, and yeah, she's had a great career that I'm sure she has worked her ass off for. Christian and Jenny would both later wonder if this was how the adults were being treated by Dan Howard, the children being treated and if this was how Schneider behaved on his first big project what kind of boss would he become in the future?

Meanwhile Nickelodeon is thriving. The success of all that in the Amanda show, two shows that employed many of the same child actors, meant that Nickelodeon was becoming the basis for a kind of mini Hollywood, with its own stars who all knew each other, and everyone competing for similar roles and accolades. Like the Kids' Choice Awards, again, the kids version of the Oscars. Amanda Bynes would win the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite TV Actress, April 15, 2000, when she's 14. In her acceptance speech, she excitedly thanks Brian Robbins and Dan Schneider as she clutches the orange blimp award, the symbol of Nickelodeon. And this solidified Dan's status as Nickelodeon's kingmaker, the guy you would need on your

side if you wanted to become a star in many Hollywood. However, it seems as if it was bizarrely easy to get on his bad side. Or was it? Here's something that has been offered up as proof of him being an erratic monster. Raquel Lee, who had joined the Amanda show at 12, turned 13 and the cast and crew got her an enormous cake. Like a sheet cake. And apparently she claims that this made Dan angry. Because Dan allegedly told the caterers that she didn't need a great big cake. Small cake was fine and he was I guess furious. And after

this Raquel couldn't help but notice that Dan seemed to favor Amanda over her. Okay is that that really why you didn't become a big star Raquel? Because you got a birthday cake bigger than what Dan wanted you to get? I don't buy that. Again Raquel hasn't done much of anything since she was a kid working on the Amanda show and similar shows. In the last decade, she's only had one tiny role in an indie movie that went nowhere and did a bit of voiceover work for a minor character on the animated Disney show The Proud Family Louder and Prouder. That's it. Raquel said that following the cake debacle, she would see Dan and Amanda on set often. Sometimes she'd see her giving him a

shoulder rub. And if there is one thing that Dan is definitely guilty of, it's getting way too many fucking shoulder rubs from women and girls, right, to work for you. I'll be honest, if I worked for him, I would think that was super fucking weird. Why are you having the girls rub your shoulders, dude? Get a fucking masseuse, you weirdo. But I wouldn't think he was a predator just based on that. I would just think like, man, that guy doesn't understand how this is odd. What is he thinking? He's the boss.

Another bit of supposed evidence that Dan is a creep is when Amanda and Schneider filmed a hot tub scene together for a behind the scenes type sketch. In the scene, Amanda appears in a swimsuit in the hot tub. A modest swimsuit, in my opinion I should add, besides Schneider who is fully clothed. Amanda starts talking about how Dan's the executive producer, asks him for a raise, to which he replies, no, and that's it. How is this evidence that Dan is like some insane creep? I think the sketch is fucking lame. That's not funny to me.

But also, again, I've never really liked Nickelodeon and Disney kids show humor. I think it would be way creepier if Dan was also in a swimsuit, especially like a thong. Especially a thong with a little dick bird hairbrush kind of scooting out the side, you know sticking out of his ass. That would be cause for alarm. The Amanda show was abruptly canceled after the third season in 2002. Why was it canceled? Well regarding her departure from Nickelodeon that year, Bynes stated, I knew I didn't want to be a Nickelodeon kid when I was 30. I was having fun but at 15 you don't want to be doing what you're doing when you were 12. Yeah, makes sense to me. Final episode

of the Amanda Show aired September 21st 2002 when Amanda was 16. Bynes would go on to star in Schneider's What I Like About You, a show on the WB now for a slightly older audience about two teenage sisters living in New York. Amanda was heading into mainstream success and Dan was following. But then soon things started to go wrong. Schneider immediately clashed with the co-creator Will Calhoun, famous for working on Friends, and soon the network didn't seem to trust Schneider. And again, this is not uncommon. Co-showrunners clash often on shows. He was pushed out of the writer's room, but he could still remain on set with Amanda

in his role as a producer. Sounds like a juvenile writing style. That kind of humor may not have translated to a more adult series. Then soon while clashing with her parents, Amanda tries to run away from home and she does go to Dan for help. Details are murky, but reports show

that the police were involved and that Amanda's parents were upset about something with Schneider. Taking Amanda's side perhaps? In response to this Amanda comes up with a plan to emancipate herself. Something Schneider does help her with. And there is a lengthy history of teen stars getting emancipated from their parents. The lesson being control of their own finances also keeps them from working the reduced hours that children are required to work, meaning it makes everyone much more money.

If Amanda were emancipated, she would suddenly have a little supervision and can be worked harder. Is that why Snyder was offering to help? Is he genuinely trying to help Amanda? Maybe. Trying to get more cash out of his cash cow. Maybe, we don't know.

She has never alleged anything inappropriate about Dan though. The matter goes to court and the court does not emancipate Amanda, but it does create a huge rift between Schneider, Amanda, and Amanda's parents. Pretty soon after this, Dan parts ways with what I like about you, staying on in name only and returns to Nickelodeon. He throws himself behind a revival of all that, which had taken a break after its sixth season.

In this revival, Dan would be more present than ever, both on set and in the final product. In one scene, Dan calls the cast. Big red telephone starts ringing and someone shouts, It's the Dan phone! Hello, cast! Dan says, parodying himself as a big-shot producer. When the call drops, the camera switches to showing Dan in the back seat of a convertible, with a blonde woman feeding him a shrimp cocktail. It's not our place to question Dan, another character says later in the sketch. The group agrees. Dan is like a god. Does this really reflect what's happening behind the scenes, like Quiet On Set alleges? Or is this just a silly parody, meaningless? For some, it would strike them as very much the former. Several new cast members were hired for the reboot. Giovanni Samuels,

Kyle Sullivan, Brian Hearn, and Leon Frierson. For some of them like Giovanni and Kyle it was the fulfillment of their dreams they'd always wanted to be actors. For others you know it was more of just a job. Every time I booked a role I felt like I was one step closer to getting my family out of the hood. Brian Hearn would recall later. These actors would allege that the set could be dysfunctional. That they would have to work overtime. You know kids work in long pass when they were legally required to stop. They'd ask the kids if they could stay longer than producers would.

None of them would refuse. One sketch, sugar and coffee, had pounds and pounds of sugar and coffee dumped on the kids which then had to run around constantly for hours. It was gross and uncomfortable like many of the sketches would be, especially in the Snick On Air Dare segments involving fear factor like challenges featuring the cast of all that. SNCC was short for Saturday Night Nickelodeon, a two-hour block on Saturday nights geared towards older preteen and teen audiences. The three cast members from the all that segment, the three cast members from all that in

each segment, excuse me, we placed in a glass cylinder and one would be randomly chosen to participate in a dare. If chosen, two security guards enter, grab the cast member as if he or she was about getting arrested so they don't escape. Some of these dares included singing the national anthem in a diaper, apple bobbing in a toilet, taking a bath in a tub of raw eggs, eating a couple gallons of blue cheese, being painted with peanut butter and licked by dogs, hanging upside down and being dipped in dog food, having buckets of worms dumped on the cast members head, drinking a gallon of sweat, sitting in a giant boil of chili, eating a thousand toenails or what looked

like toenails, the cast member put an entire scorpion in their mouth, the cast member being pecked by hungry chickens, appearing to be or shaving their school principals legs. And when they were in these situations, especially if they were messy, the boys would appear shirtless, the girls in tight athletic clothing. Brian Hearn did the peanut butter sketch. He had to be submerged in peanut butter and after dogs came on stage to lick it off as he lay on the ground, I don't like this you can hear Brian say in one clip of the segment as he laughs nervously, I feel all gross. All of these were similar to challenges

that have been developed for the adult participants of shows like Fear Factor. Former actors now are saying that they felt demeaned in some of these were similar to challenges that have been developed for the adult participants of shows like Fear Factor. Former actors now are saying that they felt demeaned in some of these sketches. Didn't say that at the time, but are claiming it, you know, now. However, this show has been running for several years at this point and these gags are in line with the show's humor. So if you don't want to do gags like that, why the fuck did you audition for a show where they do those kind of gags? I have no sympathy for these kids with this complaint. Right? And this is common for sketch shows. They don't like only write sketches that they're a hundred percent sure the writers that everyone is comfortable with.

They write sketches that they think are funny and on brand for the show. And if a cast member doesn't want to do that show, yeah, they don't have to. But, you know, will that endanger their job? Probably, but then they shouldn't be on the sketch show. Some of these former cast members have said, you you know they didn't realize what the show was you know like what they were getting into because they were kids all right then it's your fucking parents fault for taking you to the audition not the show's fault if you hate gross gags don't go out for a job for a gross gag show there were also some sketches and all that that maybe in hindsight seemed too sexual, at least according to the Quiet On Set producers and former cast

members clearly prodded by, if not outright coached in my mind by the producers to say these things. All that cast member Leon Frierson would later recall starring as Captain Big Nose who had shoulder pads that were shaped like a penis and testicles. And I've looked this up and I don't know. I think you have to really look for it. I don't see it like as an obvious way and you know I love a dick joke. But I don't see it. Can you read into it and make it fall like yeah sure. I mean you could read into a video of a kid washing up some carrots if you want and make it seem like they're cleaning a handful of dicks. But that doesn't mean

that that's what they were pretending to do or that's what somebody wanted them to look like they were doing. In the bit when Noseboy sneezed, a clear white substance shot through his nose hits the scene partner in the face. And to some of the boys on set, this clearly read as a cumshot. This was, you know, for an intended audience as young as six. But was it supposed to read as a cumshot? That is the big question. I don't think so. It can also read as nothing more than snot getting on a kid's face Which is the exact type of gross-out humor that was Nickelodeon's bread and butter right on brand

The kind of gross-out humor kids have enjoyed since the beginning of fucking kids That's a weird way to phrase it since the beginning of kids That's since we never the kids the cast members talked about this being sexual but the adults on set there's not claims that they were saying it was sexual I remember teachers on you know in school doing shit like in high school that we would giggle about because it read sexual But they clearly weren't trying to do that or when they caught on that that's why we were laughing They're like, oh, come on get your minds out of the gutter And look, maybe it was sexual. I'm not in Dan's brain. Maybe Dan was being a creep here, but it's not obvious in my opinion. Leon said he never wanted to complain like so many others. He knew it was important to be on

Snyder's good side. Yeah, like the actor of every show ever. And according to him, for the few black kids on set, like Giovanni, Brian, and Leon, there were other things that were uncomfortable as well. Giovanni felt that he was, or excuse me, that she was required to play the role of the token black actress at a time when her identity was still developing. She claims that in Quiet On Set, claims this on Quiet On Set, but proceeds not to offer a single concrete example of what she means by this. Brian Hearn, meanwhile, soon found that some on-screen performances played off racial stereotypes. For example, during the, during one All That skit where Hearn played a kid selling Girl Scout cookies, he pulls aside another kid and asks him in a low voice

if they want to buy any. The other kid says, you're not a Girl Scout, and Hearn looks around shushing him. To his mother, Tracy Brown, it looked like Hearn was selling drugs. And then she asked, you know, why was the black kid the one that had to be cast as the drug dealer? I don't know. And then she asked, you know, why was the black kid, the one that had to be cast as the drug dealer? I don't know. Seems like a silly sketch to me. Maybe this was poor judgment, but there's also sketches where Keenan Thompson,

another young black cast member, is doing things like playing a parody of Superman. Wouldn't that be an example of Snyder giving a black actor a historically white and empowering role? Doing a little digging, it looks like he spread the roles around based on the talents of each cast member as opposed to their race. To me at least. Again, maybe he was being racist. I don't

know. That one sketch Hearn refers to certainly is not evidence of him definitely being racist in my mind. Brian Hearn? Frankly, another failed actor. Since his time on All That Ended in 2003, he was a guest star in two episodes of Everybody Hates Chris in 2009, one episode of Lie to Me that year, and one episode of The Unit also that year. Hasn't done shit since. Nothing in 15 years. But still fronts like he's an actor. Why are almost all the people jumping on the fuck Dan Schneider bandwagon on this docu-series, frankly failed actors who seem to still want to be famous? I think that's a very fair question, because they have motivation to be bitter

and desperate enough to want to get some screen time in a docu-series like this. Hearn was fired unceremoniously after two seasons. He'd been told he was brought back for a third season after the second season wrapped, but during the break his agent informed him he was not invited back and then didn't hear anything from Dan Schneider,

which is exactly how this business works. I used to hurt my feelings right when things like this happen. Two years in a row I was told I was gonna be on the last comic standing that I passed this you know important round and they're like yep here's the dates I fucking here's your ticket like all the plans and then both times days before I was supposed to go they're like the producers have changed their minds. Yeah fucking sucks but you know I wasn't like that why are they doing they're out to get me. It's just business. It's how things work in entertainment, you know? And then, you know, a lot of times when you are not

given something, they don't call and explain it to you. You just hear from your manager or your agent. You know, when you don't get a part, they don't have like a meeting like, hey, here's why we didn't hire you. Here's why we're not being back for a third season. You're not being brought back, you know? Probably because that would just be so fucking awkward and it wouldn't make the blow less painful. Right? What are they going to tell you? Hey, we wanted to bring you back, but then we found someone we liked a lot more than you. So you get it, right? I mean, you're funny, but this person, oh shit, way funnier than you. Is that going to make you feel better?

Later, Hearn would think that he was fired because his mom stuck up for him when his mom felt he was not getting, you know, equal treatment. Who knows? Now let's talk about someone who is for sure a dirtbag. Someone else featured in the Quiet Onset doc, Jason Handy. Right after today's second of two mid-show sponsor breaks. And I'm back. Let's now meet Jason Handy who certainly is someone worth tearing down. Jason was a production assistant who worked on two Dan Schneider hits including the Amanda Show or not including it just handy who certainly is someone worth tearing down. Jason was a production assistant who'd worked on two Dan Schneider hits including the Amanda show or not including it just was the Amanda show and all that. That was all he worked on. He was new to the business a production assistant position is a entry-level job.

Giovanni Samuels would remember him as a goofy white boy from Nebraska like a kindergarten teacher very hunky dory. He was a regular member of the crew who appeared on screen at the end of a number of episodes as well. He was around the kids a lot. As the PA, it was his job to walk the kids around on set, show them where their classrooms and lunch were, stuff like that. He'd even join some of the kids for Bible study on set. In Giovanni's notebook, which he had classmates sign like a yearbook, he wrote, keep your trust in God and don't forget me. You and all the kids are why I work for free half the week. I love you, Jason.

And actually that's interesting, not about the half the week. Yeah, I'm sure there was like dudes like Jason also not getting like full salaries, very common. MJ, the mother of a girl who worked as an extra on the Amanda show named Brandy, would become concerned when she saw how handy befriended her young daughter. Initially she wasn't worried. Kids were almost quasi-adults in situations with their own contacts and connections.

But later she became worried. He was very attentive to the parents as well. When they were standing outside waiting for their children to be done, he'd come out and ask the mothers about themselves, what their families were like, what they did for work. He seemed nice, which is why she wasn't alarmed initially. But then following her brief time on the show, Brandi and Jason started to send emails to one another At first it was innocent

He would tell her about the shows that you know He was working on Brandi who wanted to know as much about the business as she could and was happy to hear about it A couple months later though MJ noticed Brandi suddenly shutting her computer I shut it down storming off into her bedroom She asked Brandi what was wrong and Brandy revealed that she had been sent a picture by Jason, of Jason naked and jerking off. So fucked up. Handy told Brandy he sent her the photo

to express that he'd been thinking of her. This is behavior worth exposing. Interestingly, MJ did not go to the police with this information. She didn't even notify Dan Schneider or any of the fucking producers on a show her daughter's not even on anymore. She didn't want to risk hurting Brandy's acting career and I think that her staying quiet here is super fucked up, right? I think that she

is now more complicit in what Handy went on to do by not reporting this incident than Dan Schneider who was never made aware of incidents like this while Jason worked for him. Soon after this though, MJ pulled Brandy out of acting forever and they tried to never think about it again but then on Wednesday April 16 2003 9 45 a.m. the LAPD's fugitive warrant section arrests Handy on a no bail felony warrant from Michigan. The warrant charges Handy with accosting, soliciting, and enticing a child under the age of 16 with the intent to induce the child to commit an immoral act. They had been investigating him since January, when as a result of information received from

investigators in Michigan, the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit found that Handy was attempting to prey on kids at his church, in his neighborhood, and over the internet. The investigation identified victims in Los Angeles, Michigan, and North Carolina. Later that week, police searched Handy's home where they found over 10,000 pornographic images of children. 1768 of those were kids and young kids in erotic poses. 238 of the images, young girls in sexually explicit poses, two images of girls in bondage activity, two CDs, one containing seven video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit activity, and also one laser disc of Mickey Mouse dropping the fucking hammer on Goofy's butthole. Sorry he was getting

too serious for me. Handy, who referred to himself in personal journals as a full blown pedophile, also had ziplock bags with girls names on them along with tokens he had kept from them. A detective from the LAPD unit called MJ asked her daughter had any experiences with Jason Handy because one of the bags was marked Brandy. There were letters from her in the bag. In one of the other bags there was a pair of underwear belonging to a seven-year-old girl. For fuck's sake. But that wasn't even the most disturbing thing. Handy's notebooks said things like, I even suffer on a daily basis with the question of how I can find a victim to rape if I must. And I really have been giving into my desire for small girls for some time. This guy is fucked in the

head. The only thing this guy needs in life is, you know, fucking rope and a rickety chair. Based on these journals, detectives tracked down a girl who Handy had met on another Nickelodeon show, Cousin Skeeter, who is nine years old in 2000. One day she and Jason Handy have been playing video games in her bedroom. Why the fuck is he with her in her bedroom when he kissed her twice? On the second kiss he tried to force his tongue inside her mouth. She backed away, Handy apologized writing later that she seemed fine but a little less lovey-dovey. He told her to not tell her mom about the kisses, and if she didn't, he'd help her get on some other shows. This guy, this piece of shit, would plead not guilty to child sexual exploitation, sending sexually explicit content to minors, and performing indecent acts

on them. But the jury was like, go fuck yourself. He was found guilty because he did that shit, and he was sent to jail for six years, which is not enough. He was released in 2009 and relocated to North Carolina where as a digression here he'd be arrested again. Oh yeah because these guys always keep doing this shit. He was arrested in 2014 on two charges of violating the sex offender registry and three counts of indecent activity with a child. He's now incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, not set to be released until 2039, and hopefully between now and 2039, Jason can figure out how to twist his bedsheets into a fucking noose.

This guy needs to be removed from the planet, just another incurable predator. And he's one of two pedophiles, prominently featured in the Quiet On Set docuseries, and strongly associated with Dan Snyder for some reason. Like as if he picked these dudes because he somehow knew they were pitos. Yes, do you like little girls? Mmm, she'll do fine here. He likely didn't even hire them. Showrunners do not hire everyone on a production. They generally hire department heads and the department heads like a costume designer for example will hire the people below them going down to the PA. You know, it wasn't like Dan hired every single person who ever worked on a show he was on. He was fucking busy with creative, you know, working on scripts and shit. Linking

Jason Handy with Dan Snyder is a bit like linking a random Amazon warehouse employee with fucking Jeff Bezos. He doesn't know the fuck this PA is doing. He doesn't have time for that bullshit. He doesn't know the fuck this PA's doing. He doesn't have time for that bullshit. Anyway, Brian Peck is the other Peto who worked with Schneider. Brian was a dialogue coach who also did some acting, best known for his role, acting-wise, as Scuz in 1985's The Return of the Living Dead. In 2003, he worked in Nickelodeon on the set of All That and The Amanda Show. In one sketch, he played a character named Pickle Boy,

who, the audience is informed in a voiceover, likes to hurt and tease pickles. That's fucking weird. Okay. The character returned again and again throughout the seasons of All That, often interacting with celebrity like Ray Romano. In one clip, he places a pickle through the hole where a doorknob would be in a dressing room, invoking odd images of a glory hole. But again, did they write that sketch because it looks like a glory hole? Or is he just being fucking weird with a pickle? We don't know, it's speculation.

Then the actor in the dressing room grasps the pickle with both hands, eats it, moaning as Brian Petting greens outside the room. Everybody would moan with it, he eats his stupid fucking pickles. It is weird, it is cringy. It definitely might've intentionally been sexual. Offstage, Brian was friendly with Dan.

He played small roles in Good Burger and Keenan and Kel. Two projects featuring early All That alums Keenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Everyone on set seemed to love Brian. Parents trusted him. Kids loved playing foosball with him. And other things, Giovanni Samuels would walk on his back. Hey, Giovanni, thank you for walking on my back. Really cut down on my chiropractic bills. He wrote in her notebook that was kind of like a yearbook. But there were times that his jokes definitely felt inappropriate. For one, he'd have kids over to his house. Excuse me, he'd have kids over his house. And 14-year-old all that actor Kyle Sullivan felt that things were a little

off. He had rooms devoted to comic books and old video games. His garage was entirely constructed to look like a shrine to Planet of the Apes. He's an odd guy. There was a painting in the garage that stuck out because it had nothing to do with Planet of the Apes though.'s odd guy. There was a painting in the garage that stuck out because it had nothing to do with Planet of the Apes though. It was a birthday clown holding some balloons. Kyle asked about it, became confused, and Brian seemed very excited. Eagerly, Brian flipped the painting over and showed Kyle the inscription on the back. To Brian, I hope you enjoy the painting. Best wishes, your friend, John Wayne Gacy. Yeah, this is one of Gacy's self-portraits. Kyle didn't know the

details, but he knew Gacy was a serial killer who targeted young men and boys. To Kyle's surprise, Brian was very open with the rest of the kids and the parents at the barbecue, informing them that he and Gacy were pen pals. The fuck? That combined with Brian wanting kids to come over to his house would be a huge red flag to me as a parent. Might be nothing, but also might be something. At the very least, I'm keeping a close eye on Brian at this point. Brian happily showed Kyle the stack of letters and photos Gacy sent him that he kept in the nightstand next to his bed. Even so, Kyle was still shocked to hear in August of 2003 that Brian Peck was arrested on 11 charges, including lewd acts with a child at his home residence just two years prior. Everyone on set was confused.

It seemed impossible, and the fact that the victim's name was not revealed by court records in California due to his age lent a further air of unreality and suspicion to the affair. As all of that kids looked around the room, they wondered, was it one of them? Indeed, the victim would not come forward publicly for two decades. Their name was sealed in court records. It was one of Nickelodeon's biggest stars, Drake Bell. My name is Drake Bell and I came here today to tell my story. Bell says during Quiet On Sets third episode, before detailing his close relationship with

Peck, Drake had been acting for a long time when he met Peck, no relation to future co-star Josh Peck at the age of 14. He started acting in commercials at 5 after showing interest in old-timey comedians like Abba and Costello and the Marx Brothers. In an effort to find something creative for Bell to do following his parents' divorce, Joe his dad helped launch Drake's acting career, which would eventually land him roles in films and TV shows including Home Improvement, Seinfeld, and Jerry Maguire. On his Jerry Maguire scene as he's walking down the hall he's supposed to flip off Tom Cruise but mild-mannered young Drake

would not use his middle finger. He actually uses his index finger. You can watch that scene and notice oh yeah that's a middle finger. Drake wanted the prize so many young actors wanted to become a series regular on a TV show and then that came true when Amanda Bynes wanted him for the Amanda Show in 1999 when he was just 12. Despite being so young, he'd been waiting for that moment for years. For the first season on the show, acting felt more like playing around for Drake, especially when he portrayed totally Kyle, a surfer dude who told wacky stories.

I saw the spider and I was like, the spider. Drake jokes, outfitted in a stringy blonde wig. And the spider was like, Kyle, you. Drake jokes, outfitted in a stringy blonde wig. And Spider was like, oh, Kyle, you're living the dream. But then things started to change when the second season of The Amanda Show moved from Paramount Studios to Nickelodeon on Sunset. That's where he met Brian Peck on the first day of the second season at a table read. Drake immediately realized that Brian knew tons about the history of Hollywood, Drake's favorite thing to talk about.

And Joe was told that Brian was a great coach and his dad, you know, Brian's dad, Drake's dad, excuse me. Joe was told that Brian was a great coach who had worked with stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, which he did. He had a huge resume. He would surely be able to help, you know, Drake land more jobs. Joe didn't find it weird at first that Brian gave acting lessons out of his house and I will say Not that they did me any good, but I took acting lessons at some dude's house in LA for a while. I can picture his face I can't remember his name. He's a nice guy I went a bunch of times uh just pointing this out to illustrate that that wasn't actually abnormal Lots of acting coaches give lessons out of their houses, but if I had a kid that kid's never going alone to that house

I do have a kid. I don't know why he fucking phrases that way, you know if never going alone to that house. I do have a kid. I don't know why I fucking phrased it that way. You know, if... hypothetically, if I actually had a kid, you know, as opposed to my fake, my prop kids, caught him in a row. Drake's dad, Joe, felt something was off about Brian. Made sure to keep an eye on him around his son. He didn't like seeing how Brian put his arms around Drake's waist or how he'd run his hand on his arm. Yeah, that would not set well with me at all. Brian also popped into Drake's dressing room unexpectedly sometimes. Joe didn't like that either.

But like a lot of these parents didn't talk to producers. Brian was Drake's coworker and mentor. Joe didn't want to mess up this relationship for his kid. Still, when he saw a video of Brian Peck doing the same shit he did to Drake to Leonardo DiCaprio years earlier, running his hand down his arm, grabbing his elbow, he got the creeps. And he did tell the producer that he was uncomfortable with Peck's behavior And then this unnamed producer doesn't seem to be Dan Schneider told Joe that he was being

Homophobic that Peck was gay and just a touchy feely guy and Get the fuck out of here with that shit being gay does not give anyone the right to be more Handsy than someone who is straight. That is nonsense That response. Oh that would have not gone over with me well at all. Like I don't give a fuck straight or gay. I care if he's a fucking pedo or not. Ultimately the cast and crew began icing Joe Bell out on set. No word on whether or not Dan iced him. Joe never says a bad word about Dan Schneider for what it's worth on the dock or anywhere else I can find. Neither does Drake Bell. Meanwhile Drake's career is progressing. At one point he's doing a sketch with

co-star Josh Peck, no relation to Brian, involved in a fight over a grilled shrimp, two found on the ground. A writer noticed him remembered that Nickelodeon had been looking for a pair for a buddy comedy. There's your buddies right there, a writer said to Dan Schneider. Dan took him to lunch told him that he had an idea for him a new show. Drake was ecstatic. He and Joe drove home grinning ear to ear. Everything was finally happening. Meanwhile, Brian Peck kept plotting to get closer to Drake.

Started following Drake anywhere he could, including constant planned and surprise appearances at Bell's music concerts. Bell was also an aspiring musician. He's still a musician who would release his first album in 2005. He'd drive to like Brian Wood to locations like San Diego to surprise Drake. Even offered to host Drake's 15th birthday party, saying he could perform and everyone could come. Since Drake lived in Orange County an hour away

and everyone he wanted to come lived in LA, he agreed. Joe didn't like that. And then Drake started to resent him for it. Thought his dad was trying to keep him away from his friends and he confided about that to Brian Peck. In response, Brian tried to poison Drake's mind against his dad. Told him his dad was stealing his money, didn't want him to do a spinoff, was jealous of him, that kind of shit. Told Drake that Joe shouldn't be his manager, made him look unprofessional. And Drake bought this. He thought Peck had been in the industry

so long, must know a thing or two. Well, you know, wasn't visible to his eye, had his best interest in mind. He had no idea that Brian was fucking grooming him. Playing on the tumultuous relationship between Robin, Drake's mom, and Joe, you know, because they're divorced, also telling Robin that Joe was being a bad manager. Soon Drake was saying, you know, to say the things to Robin about, oh my god, soon Drake was staying, there we go, with Robin instead of his dad Joe. And Robin had no problems with Brian. Then Drake dropped the bomb that he did not want his dad to be his manager any longer.

Joe wanted to give his son what he wanted so he agreed. And their relationship was now effectively ended for many years. Joe tells Robin before he departs his manager, never let Peck around Belle alone. Lutch doesn't listen. In the absence of Joe, Peck starts to take Drake to his audition, sometimes making excuses for him to stay at his house. Ugh. Instead of taking him home that night, Robin, his mom didn't like to drive so she agrees. She just, you know, lets her teenage minor son have fucking sleepovers with the man his own dad thinks is a

pedophile. Gotta say, Robin, holy shit, was that a dumb decision. You obviously couldn't have known that Brian was a pedophile, but come on. That's a terrible parental choice. Then one morning Drake woke up to something horrifying. He's sleeping on the couch in Peck's home where he would usually sleep when he woke up to Peck on top of him. He was in the middle of being sexually assaulted. Had no idea what to do, so he froze. He was 15 with no license, no way to get home. Once it was over Peck was apologetic, promising, oh this will never happen again. Drake was horrified. He wanted to tell someone but was worried about what it would do to his career. Said he felt

like he couldn't just stop hanging out at Peck's house either because you know it would look suspicious. People would ask questions. They've been so close before. Felt like he had no choice but to keep spending the night at Peck's and then it happened again and again and again. Drake would say on the docu-series the abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal. Why don't you think of the worst stuff you could do to someone as a sexual assault and then that'll answer your question. The question was what did he do to you? I don't know how else to put it. It was not a one-time thing. It was not an oops. In an effort to avoid

Peck he tries to keep busy but the more distance he tries to put between himself and Peck, the more Brian Peck pursues him. Soon he finds respite at his girlfriend's house though. And then one day when Drake is at said girlfriend's house, Brian Peck calls his cell phone because he wants to take him out to Disneyland. Drake ignores him. Then Brian calls again and again and again. After non-stop calling, Peck then calls his girlfriend's home phone over and over and over. This constant calling catches the attention of his girlfriend's mom who asked Drake if something is going on. Hey Drake, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a second? She asks, guiding him into the kitchen. She shuts the door behind them and asks what is up? When Drake says oh they had kind of plans, she shook her head, a 40 something year old man does not call my daughter's boyfriend like that.

Fucking bingo lady! You get it! Too bad you weren't Drake's mom. My daughter is 16 and if some 40 year old man or woman, no friend of mine especially, wants to hang out with her, just her, just as friends, out about somewhere, that motherfucker at the very least is getting their life threatened threatened Drake denied that his relationship with Brian was inappropriate said he was in the process of distancing himself from Peck as their relationship was getting a little weird his girlfriend's mom then decided to take matters into her own hands called Robin Drake's mother I love his girlfriend's mom fucking hail Drake's girlfriend's mom I'm taking Drake to see

our therapist tomorrow the girlfriend's mom said I'm taking Drake to see our therapist tomorrow, the girlfriend's mom said, because it seems like he's in quite a bit of danger. Yes. Drake still hadn't told anyone about the abuse. Now to the therapist, he made it sound like Peck was on the verge of going after him, but hadn't done something concrete yet. But then in therapy, Drake begins to understand the true extent of how he has been manipulated, but still there's his career to think about.

And Brian Peck knew that because his next focus was Drake and Josh. By now it had been decided that the series would revolve around two teenage stepbrothers, Drake Parker and Josh Nichols, who live in San Diego, California. And Drake's younger sister Megan and their parents, they all get together in the first episode. So a classic odd couple show. Drake's character is cool, charismatic, responsible. Josh's character is intellectual, awkward, kind-hearted. In 2003, they had to reshoot the pilot for the show when the actor who originally was slated to play Josh's dad dropped out and now Brian Peck starts trying to convince Drake

to tell Dan Schneider that he, Ryan, should play the dad. And this meant that Drake would have to work in close proximity with Brian for years and now Peck would, you know, be integral of his career, and this makes Drake snap. One day on the phone with Robin, he tells her everything, his mom. He couldn't remember exactly what provoked it, but he screamed everything that had happened into the phone. Robin, to her credit, I can't imagine the guilt she must have now felt, immediately called the police, and soon Drake would sit in the dining room of his mom's house with

a couple of detectives, and the ensuing investigation would be extensive. Drake had to be explicitly detailed about everything that had happened to him with these detectives. Following his disclosure, the detectives allegedly told him the best way they would be able to charge Brian, and you know, get him convicted, was if Drake was able to get Brian on the phone and have him confess what he had done. In a room full of tape recorders and wires running everywhere, surrounded by detectives with headphones on, Drake calls. I'm really struggling with this stuff now. Drake tells him. I'm so torn up and broken and emotionally distressed. Why did this happen? He asks. And that was enough to elicit a full-on confession from Brian. Brian did keep asking over and

over again. Are we being recorded? And Drake used his acting chops to keep him talking. And in the end, they fucking had it. To Drake's credit, Peck admitted to his crimes. And then Peck was arrested August 19th, 2003, charged with 11 counts of lewd conduct with a minor, including employment of a minor for pornography, oral copulation with a minor, and sodomy. Drake Bell now tries to lay low, even as his castmates and crew at Drake and Josh call

him excitedly asking if he's heard what had happened to Brian. And then guess who called to check on his well-being? Who was the only producer or exec affiliated with Nickelodeon to reach out to Drake? The demon in human form that is Dan Schneider. Yeah, Dan called him. Asked him if he had anything, you know, if he could do anything for him, you know. Or actually, I'm sorry, first asked him if it was him, because it wasn't public, and Drake confirmed that it was. Then Dan apologized for just that happening to him. Said he would help in any way Drake wanted.

What a piece of shit. Just a few weeks after the arrest, Drake started shooting what would become the first season of Drake and Josh. When he wasn't filming, he tried to escape with alcohol abuse and substance abuse, though he knew that being a teen star meant he was supposed to be a role model. He just didn't think he could be one now. Nonetheless, Drake and Josh premiered January 11th, 2004 on Nickelodeon to critical acclaim and great viewership. It garnered 3.2 million viewers for

its premiere. That made it Nickelodeon's highest rated series premiere in a decade. Also consistently ranked as one of the most watched series on TV in its demographic during its run. Meanwhile, court proceedings would last throughout the year, culminating in Brian Peck's pleading no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse in exchange for the remaining nine being dropped. His sentencing would be in October of 2004. Drake hoped he'd be put away for a long time.

He'd never be able to work with kids in Hollywood again. That won't happen. When Drake got to the courtroom the day of the sentencing, he was shocked to see that Brian Peck's entire side of the courtroom was full of supporters. He said there was a lot of known Hollywood figures sitting there. What he didn't know was that the 41 friends and family of Peck wrote letters to the presiding judge in support of him. And the people who wrote letters included actors James Marsden, Kimmy Robertson, Taron

Killam, famous sitcom dad Alan Thicke, Joanna Kearns, writer Strong, Will Friedle from Boy Meets World, X-Men producer Tom DeSanto, the director of The Amanda Show, Rich Coral. Letters of support are meant to influence sentencing. Most of these letters pleaded for probation for Brian Peck. James Marsden wrote that he had known Brian for 14 years since he himself was a teen. Taryn Killam, cast member on SNL wrote, I have seen the effects this situation has had on Brian and I know for a fact that he regrets any mistakes made. There were over a dozen letters that blamed Drake himself saying that it wouldn't have happened unless Brian was tempted. Joanna Kearns, who met Brian when she was acting on Growing Pains, wrote, I can only believe that there must have been some extreme situation or temptation exerted upon him to influence his actions.

She would later say with the release of Quiet On Set that she had been misinformed at the time she wrote the letter regarding what he'd pled guilty to. I guess that is fairly common. Lindsay would tell me about it that, you know, the person just asked, Hey, can you write me a letter and not exactly describe what they did and just manipulate people into getting them to write letters of support and as manipulative as Brian Peck is I'm gonna guess this is what happens I'm gonna give his supporters the benefit of the doubt assume he lied his creepy grooming ass off to them and fuck yeah fuck Brian Peck he and Jason Handy can fight to the death and hopefully

both kill each other Kimmy Robertson an actress wrote that Brian must have been pressured and pushed beyond belief before he caved in. Some of these people, not disclosing exactly who, were present at the sentencing sitting in support of Brian and his side of the courtroom. Drake Bell's side, by contrast, was him, his mom, his brother. Drake addressed everyone in the room with his statement. He said, you will forever have the memory of sitting in this courtroom and defending this person and I will forever have the memory of the person you're defending Violating me and doing unspeakable acts and crimes and that's what I'll remember Ryan Peck was only sentenced to 16 months in jail the fuck Ordered to register as a sex offender

Somehow upon getting released he would then end up working on the sweet life of Zack and Cody for Disney After three episodes they were tipped off that this guy was a fucking creep. They learned of his conviction and they did terminate his employment. This also shows that Disney not doing background checks, just like Nickelodeon. He is said to still live in the L.A. area today. Brian has not worked in the business in years. The last project note he worked on was Charlie Sheen's anger management sitcom. Works as a dialogue coach for 22 episodes in 2013,

well after all this shit. Oh man, I'm hoping they didn't know what he had done, but who knows? That's back when Charlie was peak tiger blood, cracked up crazy. I'm gonna guess that background checks were not a huge part of anything Charlie Sheen was doing. Backing up a little bit to August 2004 now,

another Dan Schneider product is in the works, Zoey 101. And actually, before I say that, Dan Schneider never wrote a letter of support for Brian. That should be noted. Like the others, this Zoey 101 show, it would star an alum of another Nickelodeon show, this time Jamie Lynn Spears, sister of Britney Spears, who had been on all that. Deciding to pursue other roles in the network, Spears had departed from the main cast on the 10th and final season of all that.

At the age of 13, Spear was named as one of the celebrities on Teen People's Young Hollywood Hotlist. In August of 2003, then 12-year-old Spears signed a development deal with Nickelodeon, in which she would star as the protagonist of her own scripted TV series that would air on the network. The series went on to be titled Zoe 101, and Spears portrayed the role of Zoe Brooks with filming beginning in August of 2004. The series centered on Zoe and her friends who attended a fictional boarding school, Pacific Coast Academy, filmed at Pepperdine University just outside of LA. Man, that is a beautiful campus. Secretly, I was like, please go to Pepperdine, to both my kids. Actress Erin Sanders had auditioned for Nicole, the part of Zoe's best friend and roommate, but the role was eventually offered to Alexa

Nicholas. Keeping Sanders in mind, Schneider created the character of Quinn Penske just for her. Sean Flynn was hired to play Zoe's will-they-won't-they love interest, Chase Matthews. Rounding out the cast was Kristen Herrera as Dana Cruz, Christopher Massey as Michael Barrett, and Matthew Underwood as Logan Reese. And according to some, like Schneider's other projects, things would occasionally get racy. Actress Alexa Nicholas would later recall an episode that made her uncomfortable. The goo came from goo pops, sort of like popsicles, and her character, Nicole, couldn't get it open. She kept trying to, and the goo eventually squirted out of the packaging all over Alexa's hands.

But that wasn't what was supposed to be in the script. The actual effect was done by a prop master who came on a set, used a syringe to shoot the goo all over Jamie Lynn's face. And Alexa recalled Dan Schneider laughing, okay, and she also recalled some of the young male actors around her saying, it's a cumshot. Alexa didn't know what that meant. Later when she looked it up though, or when she saw it, she knew exactly what it was. And again, some kids saying it was a cum shot doesn't mean producers meant for it to be cum shot. Come on. Goop getting shot onto somebody's face is fucking funnier than just the hands. Alexa accuses Dan of having a type as well in the docuseries. Cute young girls.

Because he casts so many cute young girls in his shows. What? These shows were supposed to have cute girls. Girls that other girls wanted to be. That boys would want to have crushes on. He is supposed to cast cute girls. This is like slandering Martin Scorsese for only wanting to work with handsome and super talented male stars and beautiful and very talented female stars movies. Yeah! That's why we watch those fucking movies. Alexa claims in the docu-series that Dan Schneider forced her to wear short skirts, that he picked them out himself, but the costume designer for Zoey 101 came forward and

said this was objectively not true. That Dan did not pick out the outfits, not his job, never happened, Alexa straight-up lied. Alexa, who's basically the star witness for the Quiet Onset docu-series, ends up getting cut from the show for fighting with Jamie Lynn Spears and basically just being a fucking problem. She has publicly complained over the years that Jamie Lynn bullied her, and by bullying her she seems to mean didn't want to be her friend. We're just like, yeah, she bullied me. Then like to describe it she's like, yeah, she iced me out. She wasn't nice, like wasn't friendly with me. Yeah, she didn't fucking like you. Jamie Lynn would say that Alexa

was trying to take over her show. Alexa accused Jamie of turning the rest of the cast against her. She said Victoria Justice bullied her. Kristen Herrera bullied her. Jamie's sister Brittany Spears bullied her, showed up on set, yelled at her for no reason. She publicly has blasted actor Justin Long for allowing her to be at a party at his house where there was underage drinking. She was one of the underage kids. Alexa does not seem just mentally well to me. She throws damn near everyone she's ever worked with under the bus. To me this destroys her credibility. If victim mentality was a person it might be Alexa Nicholas. If you have problems with everyone, guess what? You're probably the

problem. And now her career, you know, has kind of faded. Since her Nickelodeon days it has not gone well. She hasn't had an acting role in over a decade, right? The pattern continues. Okay, December 16th, 2005. Nine news reports that yet another person affiliated with Nickelodeon has been arrested for child sexual abuse. This is also shown in the documentary series. His name was Zell Channel, a worker at the Nickelodeon lot in Burbank, and he brought a young boy to the lot and abused him. He had no prior convictions as a sex offender. Nickelodeon, oh excuse me, he did have prior convictions as a sex offender and Nickelodeon did not catch those. Around this time Nickelodeon expanded his, expanded their policy on background checks.

And I only mention this arrest because it was brought up in the Quiet On Set doc. Dan Schneider had nothing to do with this guy. After this arrest Nickelodeon's audience grows. The mid 2000s would be a golden era for Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider. Zoey 101 ended production in August 2007 after shooting its final season. But the upcoming final season will be made controversial. Sorry, that's I know I phrase that weird my notes. This Jamie Lynn's pregnancy announcement in December 2007 makes things controversial when she's just 16.

The father was her boyfriend Casey Aldrich. She was immediately vilified by the press for her perceived promiscuity and the perception that her pregnancy ended the show. She ended up disappearing from the public eye and welcoming her baby Maddie in private. Jamie Lynn later alleged in her book titled Things I Should Have Said that she was banished into isolation not by the producers but by her parents after she refused their repeated request that she get an abortion or give the baby up for adoption. While she was in hiding she was kept under extremely tight control by her parents. They took my smartphone away fearing the news would get out and

insisted that no one share any information with anyone, especially the press. My daddy and I stopped speaking and the tension was terrible, she wrote. So to be clear, Dan Schneider didn't make Jamie disappear, as some have alleged online. Her parents did. Reconnecting with Dan Schneider now, he is still plugging along for Nickelodeon. Production on Drake and Josh finishes in the summer of 2007 with the release of Really Big Shrimp an hour-length special making the premiere of the last episode August 3rd 2007 and he already has another big project in the works. September 8 2007 iCarly debuts and it will become Schneider's most iconic show

to an entire generation. Michelle Obama would even be on an episode in season 5. In an attempt to freshen the concept of the show within a show for the digital age, iCarly was a scripted live-action series about a teen girl with her own webcast. Carly was played by Miranda Cosgrove fresh off of Drake and Josh in now 14. The series would eventually feature user-generated videos submitted by and starring Nickelodeon viewers which was super inventive. Fans just might be able to find themselves as guests on iCarly if their stunts and gags were deemed interesting enough by, of course, Dan Schneider. It was a massive hit. The concept felt fresh to an audience of kids that had grown up on the internet and had

a deep familiarity with technology that they hoped might catapult them to fame. In many ways, this landmark show predicted the rise of homegrown stars on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. It would also launch Dan Schneider into a whole new level of stardom, with multiple hit shows now attached to his name. He'd become a name in his own right, not just in the world of children's entertainment, but in the world of entertainment in general. As the Disney Channel also started beefing up its competing programming, like with Hannah

Montana, Sweet Life of Zack and Cody, Snyder was increasingly seen as the answer. He also used the internet to draw interest for iCarly more directly by posting videos he had taken to himself at the editing bay or actors rehearsing his scene to his account at Dan Warp on Twitter. Some of this footage is shown in the Quiet On Set doc and presented as if it's proof of him being a monster. There's one video where Dan creeps up behind actress Jeanette McCurdy,

who plays Carly's best friend Sam Puckett and screams loudly. Jeanette falls to the ground and then she and him both laugh. This is something I've done to my kids about a thousand times. It is fun to scare kids. It's fun to scare anyone. Is this monstrous behavior? Well, if it is,

I'm the worst. This former culture writer for BuzzFeed Canada, Scotchy Cool, who is now a senior writer for Slate Magazine, who I could not fucking stand the entire series. She is so affected in my opinion. She talks about how these kids probably hated being scared like this. It was like traumatic for them, you know? It's fucking terrible. But they just didn't feel comfortable saying anything because of the power, you know, Dan holds. How dare a boss have fun with an employee? By the way, none of these kids have complained about, you know, being scared by Schneider. Scotchy then goes further speculating for Dan, playing pranks, devious pranks

like these. It's all about power and control. She seems like one of the least fun people to have ever existed. Let's talk a little bit more about Jeanette McCurdy. She would be one of the first Schneider alums to talk about Schneider publicly. She has talked about a lot of people. She's had to deal with a lot of shit, genuinely. Jeanette was born June 26, 1992, raised in Garden Grove, California, in a relatively poor LDS family.

Her mom, Deborah, homeschooled her and her three brothers. When Jeanette was very young, her mom was diagnosed with cancer, and though she recovered, seems to have had incredibly bad psychological effects on a person who was already, you know, a little less than stable. Deborah became a compulsive hoarder. Jeanette and her brothers' rooms became so filled up with shit, they eventually started sleeping on Costco trifold gym mats in the living room.

Jeanette started acting at the age of eight, pushed into it by her mom, Debra, who wanted to be an actor herself and had background parts in various shows and commercials before she landed iCarly. She'd already been well accustomed to situations she was uncomfortable with, everything from her mom enhancing her natural beauty by dyeing her hair and making her white in her teeth, to restricting her calories and measuring her thighs every week to ensure she could play younger. What the fuck? Her mom's a psychopath. Debra also gave her breast and front butt exams. Jesus Christ. In the shower at age of 14. Sometimes while her 16 year old brother showered right next

to her to make sure she didn't have cancer. So her mom is very mentally ill. Her mom should have been institutionalized. Jeanette should have been taken from her for that shit. Jeanette was relieved when she booked iCarly. Maybe this was her final ticket to making her very ill mom happy, but it wasn't. Now Jeanette had to deal with some other shit. In an early episode, she had to wear a bikini for a gag. A wardrobe assistant told her that Schneider, whom Jeanette refers to as the creator in his memoir, explicitly asked for a bikini. So a one piece was no go. Cringing Jeanette said she waited as the wardrobe assistant snapped Polaroids of her in two

different bikinis. Now let me stop again. This is presented in the documentary series as if this is like, you know, child porn being, you know, filmed here, taking these pictures. My wife Lindsay worked in the costume department on a lot of TV shows with kids and movies with kids. She was a set costumer on a 2014 film called The Little Rascals saved the day. Kyler Monroe and I got to visit her on set. It was super cool actually and she was so mad with how this doc framed this portrayal of Snyder. It is standard operating procedure for Polaroids to be taken.

Adults, kids, everybody. It's so various producers and execs can approve or reject wardrobe choices quickly and not have to actually get up and go see the kids dressed, you know, or whatever actors, you know, dressed with whatever is being shown in the picture. It's not evidence of anything creepy. Also, others have come forward from the costume department of the show

and said that Dan Schneider did not choose Jeanette's outfit. This is a bunch of bullshit. In another episode, Schneider directed Jeanette to kiss her first kiss Her co-star Nathan telling her to move her head around more when she tried to but didn't deliver what he wanted She said he berated her Few years into filming Jeanette and Debra met Schneider for lunch Debra was incredibly excited Schneider was known to create spinoffs for his favorite actors. Was he going to do this for Jeanette now? As soon as they got to the restaurant Schneiderider hugged Jeanette close, lifting her off the ground.

Jeanette would later remember how he complimented her, subtly undercutting the other actors he worked with. Was he trying to pit her against them, she wondered? Did he say the same things to everyone to keep them in line? Okay. She would write, I feel like the creator has two distinct sides. One is generous and over the top complimentary. He can make anyone feel like the most important person in the world. I've seen him do this when he made the entire crew

give our production designer a five minute standing ovation for the jail set he built in two days. Or when he gave a speech thanking our stunt coordinator. The coordinator cried with gratitude. The creator knows how to make someone feel important. The other side is mean spirited, controlling and terrifying. The creator can tear you down and humiliate you. I've seen him do this when he fired a six year old on the spot for messing up a few lines on a rehearsal day.

And when a boom operator accidentally dropped the boom into a shot and the creator stomped over to him and screamed in his face that he was responsible for ruining a magical take and he hoped that that would regret it or that he would regret it for the rest of his life. Okay I've seen the creator make grown men and women cry with his insults and degradation. He's called people idiots, buffoons, stupid, dumb, sloppy, careless, retarded, and spineless. The creator knows how to make someone feel worthless. Okay, I've also witnessed showrunners berate people. I'm not saying it's right, but this shit is par for the course in the film and TV industry. It is a very high pressure industry.

Extremely stressful. There's a lot of money on the line, A lot of hours. It's all-encompassing. If you don't want to ever be yelled at, don't ever go into production. Get a job at a used bookstore or something. Go sell candles in a mall. If you can't handle getting your ass chewed, you're not cut out to be on a production. Context, context, context. No context for this shit is ever presented in these accusations against Schneider. Lindsay watched again most of this documentary series. She laughed at so much of this. She has told me horror stories of working for several bosses way worse than how

Dan Schneider is presented here and she doesn't hate them. Right? She's not fucking talking about them at therapy constantly. Right? They're under immense pressure. Yeah, they're not always like, hey can you please do this the way I want you to. And who hasn't said shit they've regretted or acted in ways or acted in ways they're later embarrassed by when they're stressed out, exhausted, sleep deprived, under intense deadlines. Get the fuck out of here. Anyway, at the lunch, Snyder offers Jeanette her own show. He's already picked out the name. Just Puck It. Right? Okay. Like, Just Puck It. Yeah, sure.

But he said the show couldn't happen for a while because iCarly is still doing well. And then he told her, but if you keep doing what you're doing and listen to me, take my advice, let me guide you. I promise I'll give you your own show. Okay. Now let's switch focus to the fifth Dan Schneider show briefly. Victorious in particular would become the focus of accusations revolving Dan Schneider sexualizing young girls and women in his work.

The premise itself was already racier than many of his former subjects. As Schneider's fifth series, Victorious revolves around aspiring singer Tori Vega, portrayed by Victoria Justice, a teen who attends a performing arts high school called Hollywood Arts High School. On her first day, she meets musician Andre Harris, portrayed by Leon Thomas II, Robbie Shapiro and his puppet Rex, portrayed by Matt Bennett, Jade West, portrayed by Elizabeth Gillies, Kat Valentine, portrayed by Ariana Grande, Jade West portrayed by Elizabeth Gillies, Kat Valentine portrayed by Ariana Grande, probably heard of her, and Beck Oliver portrayed by Alan, I don't know how to say his last name, Jojia. Jojia. Schneider first met Victoria Justice in 2005 when she was 12 and arrived to audition for

the part of Lola Martinez and Zoey 101. Impressed by her energy and look, Schneider hired her and after working with her on three episodes, called Nickelodeon to say, I've got your next star. Justice continued her role on Zoey 101 until the series ended in 2008. By the time Victorious began, Victoria Justice was well into her teens.

She was 17 in fact. Her co-stars were older too, making it a cast of older teens portraying high school students, as opposed to iCarly, which started with characters in middle school. That combined with the fact that it was set at an art school gave the show kind of a anything goes vibe. Excuse me. Students wore cool somewhat sexy outfits to school like real kids do.

Partied together at karaoke bars and sushi restaurants and made out several times over the course of an episode like real kids do. There are jokes about being slapped with a sausage. There are actors shaking weights in a way that seems sexual. Characters complaining about how they how hot they are as they wiggle slapped with a sausage. There are actors shaking weights in a way that seems sexual. Characters complaining about how hot they are as they wiggle around in bikinis. Again, like real teens who are 17, 18 years old. In one clip, Ariana Grande gets blasted with water by a group of boys using water guns, wiggling and writhing in bikini top as she yells, It's so cold!

Ariana Grande, also 17 when the show began. Former crew members recalled that Justice's character had a locker on set of Victorious decorated with photos of young men alongside the words, uh, the words, doodlicious and who's hot. And one of those photos was a headshot of a young Dan Schneider. Okay, so what? Another thing was Dan's, uh, another thing was Dan's continued use of the online shorts that he would post to his own platforms, clips of characters doing wacky things they may not have done outside of the narrative of the show.

And Ariana Grande would feature prominently in these clips. In one clip, she attempts to juice a potato with both hands. Sometimes, I wonder if you can get juice from a potato, she asked in a video cast. Then proceeds to grip the potato with both hands and yell, come on up the juice as she makes you know some sexual sounding noises and yeah this yeah it's definitely okay what's going on here another clip schnider has ariana yelling i'm thirsty while lying upside down and pouring water down her neck and yeah that is a pretty sexual looking scene another one he uh has her trying to fit her toes into her mouth and another one weighing tomatoes in a bra

Yeah, these scenes do seem pretty sexual but a lot of these actors were 18 or older when they filmed these scenes and Here's what I want to throw out there Are they more sexual these scenes than scenes in any slasher flick or teen rom-com from the 80s or 90s or even today? No, and a lot of those movies featured actual teens in them. Or have. You know, when Millie Bobby Brown from Stranger Things was just 13, she was included in W Magazine's list of why TV is sexier than ever. Drew Barrymore was only 17 when she starred in Poison Ivy in 1992, an erotic thriller. Tom Skerritt, 50 fucking nine years old of that movie, squeezes her tit in a semi nude sex scene. That is fucking way worse

than this Nickelodeon stuff. Where is that docu-series? Right? Where is the line with this shit and did Schneider cross it? It's a big question. 2011, Jeanette McCurdy, now 18, is asked to go out to dinner by Dan Schneider. Now that iCarly is winding down with filming ending that year, Schneider is planning on giving Jeanette her own show, set to begin filming soon. But there's a catch. At the dinner, Snyder tries to get her to drink alcohol, she said, a saying the victorious kids drink all the time. She takes a sip of his drink, whiskey mixed with coffee and cream, Irish coffee, she hates

it, seems to make Snyder laugh. What a monster. Snyder feels it once again, she's his favorite. Soon Snyder puts his hand on her knee, she said, for a moment, then drapes his coat over her shoulders and in the course of that gives her a quick shoulder massage. Does this read as creepy to me? Yeah, a little bit. Does it read as Dan is a ruthless child predator?

It doesn't. By the time the spin-off starts filming, now Sam and Kat with Ariana Grande from Victorious, Jeanette's mom's cancer has come back and in 2013 she passes away. Jeanette now throws herself back into work but something between her and Schneider has changed. The show was supposed to be just Puckett remember? The harrowing tale of a brassy juvenile delinquent turned school counselor but now it's this half baked two-hander Sam and Cat about a brassy juvenile delinquent who with her ditzy best friend starts a babysitting company

called Sam and Cat's super rock and fun time babysitting service. And she feels that, you know, her co-star is getting more of the limelight. Ariana Grande. Yeah, I mean Ariana Grande became hugely famous because she is more charismatic than Jeanette McCurdy. That's just how the fucking business works. Let's return to Amanda Bynes now. After her retirement, she would not have the best time mental health-wise. Various breakdowns would lead to her throwing a bong out of a window of her 36th floor Manhattan apartment May of 2013. July of that year in Ventura County, California, Sheriff's deputies detained her after she allegedly started a small fire in the driveway of a stranger in Thousand Oaks. She was hospitalized under a 72-hour mental health hold and would be

placed on another hold like that in 2013. She said over the years that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and abused drugs, especially the ADHD prescription medication Adderall. She would even take to Twitter during one of her breakdowns and accuse her father of molesting her. Then she would take it back saying she had done so because of the chip in her brain and that her dad had not molested her but he did put a chip in her brain. Yeah, she's struggling with some serious mental health issues, and some people have wondered if the mental health issues were caused by trauma and abuse at the hands of Dan Schneider. This is a reckless, reckless speculation. She has literally never publicly accused him

of any inappropriate behavior. She's accused her dad, but never him. Not even during an episode of mental illness that I'm aware of. Nevertheless, there was a rumor that Schneider had impregnated her at the age of 13. Stems from a private account on X, right, formerly Twitter. The handle at PersianLA27 operated under the name Ashley Banks, somebody who joined social media and that platform in January of 2014. This poster made a series of allegations about Bynes Pass writing in 2016, can you imagine having an abortion at 13 because your boss impregnated you? Committed because your father touched you? Well that post did not name Schneider as the boss who supposedly impregnated Bynes.

Many commenters drew that conclusion. That's it. That's what it's come from. Just some random troll on the web talking crazy. Even the debunking website Snotes has looked into this matter and found no truth in it. Now let's talk about the biggest night of the year in children's entertainment, the Kids' Choice Awards. Even the debunking website Snotes has looked into this matter and found no truth in it. Now let's talk about the biggest night of the year in children's entertainment, the Kids' Choice Awards.

2014, some of Nickelodeon's top stars from across generations gathered to honor Dan Schneider, the man who made them famous. You've not only changed all of our lives, you changed kids' TV, said Victoria Justice, the star of Victorious, as Schneider prepared to accept Nickelodeon's first and only lifetime achievement award. Schneider took the stage surrounded by a throng of former child stars as he accepted his award. One person that was missing prominently was Jeanette McCurdy. Okay, probably pissed that she didn't get the show she wanted or that she you know had not got to direct some episodes like she

wanted. Behind the scenes the network is starting to investigate accusations of not sexual but emotional abuse from Dan. According to Jeanette, Schneider was no longer allowed to be on set with actors, which made showrunning of Sam and Kat very difficult. Dan claimed he just gave notes from the office at that point in his career because that was his preference. She claimed he sat in a small cave-like room off to the side of the soundstage surrounded by piles of cold cuts. His favorite snack and kids' choice award blimps, his most cherished life accomplishment. He watched takes on four separate monitors, one for each camera, and you know they were set up in his lair. To give a note,

he would tell the assistant director and then it would have to be run across the entire soundstage to deliver it to an actor stretching out their work days, from 13 to 17 supposedly. And then soon the show would be canceled. Jeanette was informed by her agent that the show was giving her $300,000 as a thank-you gift. That's pretty fucking nice. They didn't have to do that. Then she says that they dropped the bomb. $300,000 only if she never talked about her experiences at Nickelodeon. Specifically ones related to Dan Schneider. And that is concerning if true. Sam and Kat came to an end July 17th 2014.

The story the press ran with it is that it ended because Jeanette was upset that her co-star, Ariana Grande, was paid more than she was and getting more attention. Jeanette's manager told her it was canceled because of a sexual harassment claim against one of the producers who was never named. That was around the time Jeanette decided to pivot away from acting. This is the time when she does that. She formally quit in 2018. 2017, Dan's back at Nickelodeon working on two new shows, Henry Danger and Game Shakers. This coincides with the rise of Me Too, the hashtag MeToo movement when accusations of sexual assault in film and TV and music industries have

exploded. A costumer who worked on Zoey 101, iCarly, Victoria, Salmon Cat and Henry Danger take they take the opportunity to call their union and tell them that the behavior on set by Dan Schneider has amounted to sexual harassment. Two decades of asking female workers on sets for massages, weekly if not daily, as she reported. And that is something creepy. We do have a lot of evidence for it, right? Dan Schneider loved a shoulder rub.

He did ask for shoulder rubs from female employees, adult employees a lot. And he has not refuted that. And it's fucking weird, right? As I said before, he should not have done that. I'm not a fan of Dan. He comes across like a douche bag to me a lot of times, like a guy who doesn't have respect for women.

But not again as a child molesting sexual predator. The union representative said that she was not the only one who had reported that. They were looking into it. Now Nickelodeon launches yet another investigation into Schneider as the culture reevaluates what is what is not appropriate in the workplace. This investigation does not find a smoking gun, no child sexual abuse, no molestation, no predatory behavior, nothing at all, but does find a host of former co-workers who said they found it to be

controlling, difficult, prone to tantrums, angry emails, a guy with a delicate ego who sometimes made staff members feel as though they were walking on eggshells. So a typical showrunner in Hollywood. But you know he crossed boundaries in other ways because of the fucking shoulder rubs and also texting out child actors outside of work hours. He also spent time during the work which didn't didn't seem to be inappropriate text. Again I was like that yeah definitely needs to be looked into but these are also people working on his shows. He also spent time during the work day interacting with young fans online something that didn't seem right to some

for an incredibly powerful middle-aged showrunner. March 27 2018 the New York Times reports Nickelodeon and Dan have parted ways. Following many conversations together about next directions and future opportunities Nickelodeon and Dan have parted ways. Following many conversations together about next directions and future opportunities, Nickelodeon and our longtime creative partner Dan Schneider, slash Schneider's Bakery, his production company, have agreed to not extend the current deal, Nickelodeon and Schneider said in a joint statement. Since several Schneider's Bakery projects are wrapping up, both sides agreed this is a natural time for Nickelodeon and Schneider's Bakery to pursue other opportunities and projects.

At the time, no news outlet made connections between anyon and Schneider's bakery to pursue other opportunities and projects. At the time, no news outlet made connections between any accusations against Schneider. For its part, the Times simply discussed how it had been a tumultuous year for Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom and that they were trying to reverse years of declining ratings. The channel had lost roughly 22% of its audience among its core demographic of 2-11 year olds over the last four months, according to research firm Moffat and Nathanson. Was that the only reason the two parted ways? For his part, Schneider largely disappeared from public view, returning home with a $7

million compensation payout from Nickelodeon. On top of all the money he had already made creating and executive producing numerous hit shows for the network. Internet sleuths feel confident that he made north of 40 million from the network overall and he keeps making you know a lot of money because his shows are in syndication. Uncharacteristic, some of them, uncharacteristically his rapid fire twitter account quieted and now he only made rare public appearances. And although the announcement that was made when he parted ways with Nick Loding suggested he would pursue other opportunities and projects for years there were no indications that Snyder had any new shows lined up.

In 2021, interviews with friends, coworkers, and television executives would reveal more about his departure from Nickelodeon, like the investigation that found workplace discrimination and harassment. Snyder himself would defend his leadership style, denied he left on bad terms, and described his departure as a natural confluence of events

after an exhausting period in which he delivered as many as 50 episodes of shows each year. I took a break to take care of a lot of stuff that I'd let go by the wayside for decades, Schneider said, noting that he lost more than 100 pounds during his time off. Whatever I do next, I wanted to outdo what I've done in the past. But he'd unequivocally call the social media accusations of inappropriateness ridiculous. Kids find feet in slime goofy and funny, he said, and there was no effort to sexualize as young stars.

And he said acting inappropriately with the cast members would have been bad for his career. I couldn't and I wouldn't have the long term friendships and continued loyalty from so many reputable people if I'd mistreated my actors of any age, especially minors, he said. In June of 2021, when Nickelodeon Studios released its reboot of iCarly for the Paramount Plus streaming platform, it did so without Schneider, a decision that rekindled the mystery of why a figure at the height of his industry would vanish from the airwaves. Amid all of this, the New York Times would seek out an interview with Schneider, who claimed that

he was not ready to return to television. During a three-hour interview at the Beverly Hills Hotel, he discussed the state of children's TV and his plan to bring forward an ambitious and very different pilot That he had written and sold to another network. The new show is aimed at more of an adult audience He said he'd also say he was working simultaneously on other projects in development including one pilot meant for kids and their families August 9th, 2022 Jeanette McCurdy releases her memoir titled. I'm glad my mom died Brutal title but also based on what we'd heard about her mom. No, I get it. Among accounts of her mom's abusive behavior, it also gets into the interactions she and

Dan Schneider had that we already mentioned. The book was an immediate hit, sparking conversations about behind the scenes tension at Nickelodeon. August 30th, 2022, just a few days after the memoir hits the shelves, the website Business Insider releases its own investigation. Multiple writers, actors, and crew members who worked with Schneider spoke to Business Insider's Kate Taylor, who also spoke a lot in the docu-series, as part of the publication's investigation.

While many former child actors shared positive comments about working with Schneider, one long-term writer described the environment fostered by Schneider as maddening, disgusting, controlling little bubble. Many of the actresses interviewed in the doc like Alexa Nicholas said the same things in the investigation. Representative for Schneider, the same things we've already gone over, representative for Schneider said in a statement to rebut the accusations, everything that happened on the shows Dan Rand was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults and approved by the network. If there was an actual problem with the scenes that some people now years later are sexualizing they would be taken down but they are not. They are aired constantly all over the world today

still enjoyed by both kids and parents and that is true. And that brings us to today. The docu-series Quite Unsaid was released in March of this year immediately garnered a ton of attention. Following the release of the documentary, Snyder appeared in a 19-minute interview with Boogie, who played Tebow on iCarly. "...watching over the past two nights was very difficult, facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing, and that I regret. I definitely owe people, oh excuse me, I definitely owe some people, a pretty strong apology,"

Snyder said at one point. And then he added, "...when I watched the show, I could see the hurt in some people a pretty strong apology," Snyder said at one point. Then he added, "...when I watched the show, I could see the hurt in some people's eyes and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry. I wish I could go back, especially to those earlier years of my career and bring the growth and the experience that I have now and just do a better job and never ever feel like it was okay to be an asshole to anyone ever." Finally, as I mentioned earlier, on May 1st, Dan filed a defamation suit against Warner

Brothers, Discovery, and other companies behind the series in LA Superior Court because the quiet-onset trailer and episodes of the show, quote, deliberately mix and juxtapose images and mentions of him with criminal sexual abusers to imply he was involved in the sexual abuse. Quiet-onsets portrayal of Schneider is a hit job, the suit says. While it is indisputable that two bona fide child sexual abusers worked on Nickelodeon shows, it is likewise indisputable that Snyder had no knowledge of their abuse, was not complicit in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it was discovered and, critically, was not a child sexual abuser himself.

The suit seeks damages to be determined at trial for what it calls quote, the destruction of Snyder's reputation and legacy through false statements and implications. And I hope he makes fucking millions and destroys the producers of that docu-series. On my point, they did exactly what he alleges. And with that, let's get out of this timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. Before sharing my final thoughts, one more quick ad.

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if they would have broadened their scope and done more work. It felt lazy. Why didn't the producers look at Disney shows as well? Right? Other kids shows on other networks. Why only focus on Nickelodeon? Why hyper-focus on Dan Schneider?

I think the series would have been a lot more powerful if they'd focused on an industry lack of background checks. Right? It's not like Nickelodeon was the only network not doing that. Disney wasn't doing it either. Lindsay, as I mentioned, worked in the costume department on numerous TV shows and movies on a variety of different studio lots in the costume department, worked with kids a lot.

And she would be in dressing rooms alone with small children. And you know what? She touched them. My wife, Lindsay Cummins, she touched those kids. It's time for a fucking reckoning! It's time we bring down the queen of bad magic and long last! I wish a documentary would have focused on putting my wife behind bars where she belongs! No, uh, she did touch them though. She had to. She was helping them get dressed you know get in and out of outfits as part of her job and she

never did any background checks right that is problematic and the long hours on set the doc barely touches on that but that's been an industry-wide problem for a long time right young kids working too many hours that's problematic also in both of the in-depth looks at child predators on Nickelodeon shows, with the molestation of Drake Bell by Brian Peck, the grooming of Brandy by Jason Handy, Mr. Handy, fucking fitting piton name by the way, the mothers allowed their kids to have inappropriate relationships with older men. Drake should have never been spending the night with Brian over and over on a regular

basis. Brandy should not have been messaging back and forth with some grown man that she used to work briefly with on set. The fuck is going on? Where's the docu-series on the parents of child actors? Why aren't their shitty choices being judged a lot more harshly? They are the people most responsible for protecting their own kids. Stop fucking pushing past the buck. Trying to blame somebody else for your own dumb fucking choices. How many showbiz kids have been exploited by their parents?

Why have so many child stars emancipated themselves? Is it because unscrupulous producers wanted more access to them? Or is it because unscrupulous parents have treated their kids like cash cows? Right? And put this, you know, need for fame above their kids health and safety. Also the focus of the docu-series on how these kids dress provocatively, weak as fuck to me. You know how the kids in Nickelodeon shows dressed like kids in real life dressed at that time? It's not like in real life teens around America were dressing like the Amish, and then the producers were like, remove her long dress and bonnet, and put her in a swimsuit for daddy's pleasure.

No, get the fuck out of here. I feel like the Lifetime reality show Dance Moms suit for daddy's pleasure. Now get the fuck out of here. I feel like the lifetime reality show, dance moms features way more, or I guess did since the show's over, featured way more overtly sexualized kids than these Nickelodeon shows do. I mean, dance pageants in general creep me out. They feature little kids wearing skimpy as fuck skin tight outfits, shaking their little hips and asses all over the place.

That is more problematic to me than anything Nickelodeon has ever aired that I've ever seen. But I bet if you complained to someone involved in these pages about these outfits and the dancing they would tell you that you're making it sexual. And there's an argument there right that you are reading into something that is actually innocent. I'm not saying they're wrong. So why can't that same logic apply to Dan Snyder and Nickelodeon? I find that problematic. If Dan was truly a huge piece of shit, a monster, why haven't the actual stars from his shows come forward and complain? Why isn't Amanda Bynes tearing him down out there?

Or Ariana Grande or Kenan Thompson? How can the producers can only find a handful of, I know this is mean, but washed up has-beens, clearly bitter that their acting career stalled once they hit early adulthood to make honestly pretty weak accusations. A handful out of hundreds who worked on his shows? I hate shit like this because I feel like it takes away from the power of other people when they make much more serious much more credible accusations. If more docu-series were like quiet on set eventually I think a lot of people

start to tune them out. Like yeah yeah just a bunch of bullshit again. Also if Nickelodeon truly was some kind of breeding ground for child exploitation and abuse, why did the producers only find three examples of pedophiles being on set? Two of which were not convicted pedophiles when they worked for Nickelodeon and didn't molest any kids or try to onset. Three pedophiles were discussed, three in two decades worth of shows. Thousands of people from extras to caterers to cast and crew working during that time. Are three cases statistically, oh my god I can't talk you know it, statistically significant? Were there more pitos of Nickelodeon than there were just anywhere

else? I don't think so. I'm honestly surprised that people give a fuck about this docu-series, that it made the splash it did. I think it's trash. Maybe the single biggest hatchet job of a docu-series I've ever watched. Jason Handy and Brian Peck, yeah garbage humans. And both never worked for Nickelodeon again when their crimes were exposed. But Dan Schneider, a very successful showrunner who asked for way too many shoulder-ups, maybe put, probably put some tasteless jokes on air out of a lot of jokes. Probably was a controlling boss with a bad temper and was chauvinistic demeaning asshole to at least a few occasions, you know, to at least two female writers on a few occasions. Should he be punished for that? Sure, you know, and he was it seems. Nickelodeon did let him go. Is he a sexual predator who deserves to have some documentarians smear his

name and destroy his reputation forever based on this. Not based on the evidence I watched. I mean at one point the docu-series honestly tried to link Dan via the MeToo movement to Harvey Weinstein, R. Kelly, Kevin Spacey and Bill Cosby. Get the fuck out of here. That's outrageous. He should win his lawsuit based on that alone. One thing that the documentary did make me think about this important though, and I don't think they intended for this to be the effect at all for their documentary docu-series, is the relationship between fame and self-worth. One thing that the documentary did make me think about that's important though, and I don't think they intended for this to be the effect at all for their documentary, docuseries, is the relationship between fame and self-worth.

That worries me more, you know, when it comes to child actors in general, than anything uncovered regarding Dan Schneider. I do feel bad for kids working in entertainment because they are given a brush with fame at an early age when they need more help than adults to psychologically process what's going on. Imagine being 10 or 12.

Your cast member on some kids show, the producers love you, they're considering giving you a spinoff. How could you not start to fantasize about how magical, how monumental that would be? In the near future, you could be pulling up to red carpet events and a limo making millions of dollars, be the envy of your peers on the cover of magazines, have millions of followers on social media constantly commenting on how much they love you. What a rush. What a massive adrenaline shot to the ego.

But then the producers move on to some other kid and they give them a show instead. And then your show ends and you don't get picked up for another show. And now not only are you not a star, you're not coming to the studio a lot at all anymore. No hair and makeup, no cameras, no sightings of stars on set. Now you're not even just another kid. You're a kid who used to do something really cool. A kid who other kids thought was going somewhere. How did you blow it?

They might wonder now, why aren't you still doing more shows? Why aren't you a star? No wonder so many child actors are so fucked up. I think there needs to be a child psychologist on set for these shows. And when the show ends, I think parents need to get their kids into some counseling, whether they feel the kid needs it or not. Help them transition out of showbiz.

Make sure they're okay. Help them transition back to being another struggling actor at least. Hustling to auditions. And I think culturally, we need to all stop equating fame with worth as much as we do. You don't need to be famous, to have fucking value and worth. Stars should be seen as people who got lucky, much more than as people who are somehow better than the rest of us.

There's a lot of talented actors in LA. Some of them become famous, others don't. And the ones who become famous, compared to the ones that don't, it isn't always about like, they're so much more talented. And we should stop looking at former entertainers as being people who have failed. Instead, why not look at it like how lucky were you to have the run you had? How fun, what a cool life experience. That's what I would want to say to the bitter former child actress speaking out on the Quiet On Set, you know, docuseries. Let it go. You're okay.

You're still alive. You're still young. You're healthy. You've got some cool stories to tell Right. You had a good run. You got to be on a cool show. Be happy with that. Move on. Get out of the entertainment business You had a cool unique experience as a kid. It didn't continue. Fucking oh well. So what? Every career comes to an end eventually one way or another There's an end date to everyone's run on whatever they're doing. Grim Reaper is undefeated So just enjoy the fact that you live long enough to reflect on this interesting thing that you did. I think that's all I've got to say on this one. Time Shuck Top 5 Takeaways. Number one for two decades, Dan Schneider was the king of Nickelodeon. It's Golden Boy. It's Hitmaker.

In a time of increased competition with Disney, Dan Schneider was the king of Nickelodeon. It's Golden Boy. It's Hitmaker. In a time of increased competition with Disney, Schneider appeared with the answer. Programming that was goofier, sillier, more fun, more glamorous with teen stars and a little Nickelodeon ecosystem all of its own. But then he got a little too handsy on set. Good lesson here. You want a shoulder rub? Have your lover give you one.

Hire a masseuse. Ask a friend. Don't ask an employee. Creepy at worst. Tone deaf at best. For the record, I've never asked anybody here for a shoulder rub. Number two, for as long as children's programming has been around, there's been questions about whether or not it necessarily has to be educational. Various legislation over the years has attempted to infuse public broadcasting with educational

content, but in the 80s and 90s that meant the private networks like Nickelodeon and Disney pivoted towards content that definitely wasn't educational and geared towards getting a wider audience. What are the ethical implications of that? Should kids programming have to be educational or should networks get to make mindless entertainment if that's what they want to do? I think they should. Number three, at least three predators were involved with Nickelodeon in the mid-2000s. Jason Handy, Brian Peck, Ezell Channel, all worked at Nickelodeon and were found to be child sexual abusers. Two of them, Handy and Peck, worked directly with kids

and undoubtedly used their proximity on set to get closer to the victims. And one of them already was a convicted sex offender who should have never been allowed on set. Hopefully background checks on productions, especially productions with children, are now mandatory. Number four, many Nickelodeon stars have struggled since her time on the shows. Amanda Bynes, the star of The Amanda Show, would eventually have several breakdowns, be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, go on Twitter tirades complaining her father had sexually abused her and or put a chip in her head.

Drake Bell, victim of Brian Peck, would develop substance abuse issues during his time filming Drake and Josh and go on to plead guilty to improper conduct with the minor as an adult himself. There are countless other stories. Not only Nickelodeon of child stars dealing with substance abuse, mental illness and other issues. Is child acting really worth it? If this is a you know possible or maybe even probable outcome. How do you keep a child actor from struggling later in life? Would you let your kid pursue acting? Number five new info. Remember the kid we talked about? One of the first child stars Jackie Coogan? Well

Coogan would help usher in some of the first laws protecting child actors. Coogan first gained fame when he starred alongside Charlie Chaplin in the 1921 classic The Kid. In the years that followed, Coogan continued to act and made a small fortune. When he turned 21, however, he discovered that his mom and stepdad spent the bulk of his money. In 1939, Coogan would sue his parents and win, but was not able to recover the majority of his money because he'd already spent it. However, as a result of that case, the California State Legisl legislature enacted the Coogan Act, aka Coogan's Law. This law mandates that a trust fund be created specifically for a child actor

to place a portion of their earnings. That portion cannot be touched until the actor turns 18, place a portion of the earnings in like savings. The Coogan Act did not completely solve the problem, but it's helped. Loopholes could be found. Parents continue to casually steal from their children in covert ways. As the parents of Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, and Macaulay Culkin have all done. However, in 2000 the Coogan Act was updated to mandate that a minimum of 15% of the gross income be saved. Additionally, parents and guardians no longer allowed to access this fund as it was now seen as the sole property of the minor. But the Coogan Act pertains only to California.

Many states still do not require child actors to set aside any of their income in a trust. But they should. Time Shuck Top 5 Takeaways Nickelodeon's Dan Schneider, witch hunt victim or predator, has been sucked. I should probably stop playing this music. While he might be a predator, I don't know what he maybe has done that he's never been caught for. He certainly is a witch hunt victim. And I hope again, I hope he wins his defamation suit.

Thanks to the Bad Magic Productions team for helping making Time Suck this week. Thanks to Queen of the Suck, who may be getting in trouble now. About time. Thanks to Logan Keith, recording this episode designing merch for the store at badmagicproductions.com. Thanks to Sophie Evans for the initial research today. Also thanks to the all-seen eyes moderating the cult of the Curious Private Facebook page, the Mod Squad, making sure Discord keeps running smooth. And everyone over on the Time Suck subreddit and Bad Magic subreddit. And now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker updates. I'm excited to kick this one off.

Okay, so first things first. The Human Monsters podcast Richard Bird debacle continues. Bring you up to speed if you missed last week's updates. Wednesday May 22nd the Human Monsters podcast released an episode called Double Trouble Part 11 and at 30 minutes and 33 seconds in the host Morgan Rector starts to plagiarize the Richard Bird episode. He starts to talk about Richard Bird as if he is a completely real serial killer. At various points he's just straight up reading off the script I wrote for that episode. Well, people have asked.

So his researcher did reach out to us, Ms. Demeanor, OK, as did Morgan. We did get emails from both and both of them. Technically apologized, but not really. It was the worst apologies. It was like a pseudo apology, but really like also blaming you for somehow them stealing your thing. They both denied plagiarizing the Richard Bird episode, which they definitely did.

And they both very strongly played the victim. Somehow the real problem with all of this, in their minds it seems, is that some of you are being mean to them now. And accusing them of ripping off another podcast content. Which is exactly what they did. My podcast agent when he heard about this was ready to go to their ad agency and call them out and try to get him fired. I do not want that. But I'm also not going to tell you to leave him alone either like they've asked me.

The fuck? Come on. You fucking stole some shit. You got caught, right? People can be mad at you. Deal with it. And also the comments and reviews left by so many of you are so fucking funny oh my gosh oh my gosh yeah so so good um I wanted to say I don't know I want I wanted to

say some more things I probably shouldn't but just as a one of the analogy I meant I will say that Morgan's email to me was the equivalent of saying like hey I stole your car But really you should left it unlocked. I thought it was free car. I was gonna give it back You know to barn it for a bit. Can you please tell the police kind of you know, you know be nicer to me It's upsetting to be arrested Okay, so and now in case they get taken down sometime soon. I do want to share some comments Under the YouTube video and I love how much some of you are loving this drama. It is fun, whatever. But here's some of the comments under the YouTube video for the

plagiarized human monsters episode. I just pulled like about the first 10 or so I saw. At Melissa Crane 5436 posts, this is by far the best Cummins law I've ever heard of. Oh my god. Yes. Andre Cicatilo, 187, posts, this wouldn't have happened if the great library of Alexandria hadn't burned down. Nick Ramosi, 3045, posted, man, Dick Bird, the pride and joy of his town. His childhood is a dead giveaway for his adulthood. His death could have been avoided if he'd used some peanut butter, which is widely available in prison. I hear that's how they do it in Hollywood. Hollywood.

Every day. Toaster Shark. Six days ago post, oh my heck gosh dang. If you're going to cover this monster in the second half, you need to get your facts straight. They called him Dick Turd, not Turf. This mistake is a dead giveaway that someone didn't do enough research. You're gonna cover this monster in the second half. You need to get your facts straight. They called him Dick Turd, not Turf. This mistake is a dead giveaway that someone didn't do enough research.

If you wanna learn more, give him a Google. I think there's another podcast that covers him and it's great. Three out of five stars wouldn't change a thing. At Mrs. America posts live by the hairbrush, die by the hairbrush. At Casey Avellino, 9328 posts, there was actually a strange Richard Byrd reference in an old

comic I used to read. I don't remember what the comic was called, but the two main characters were fighting about something, and one of them rammed a hairbrush up the other's rectum and said, put it in your lunchbox, Shirley! Just like Dickie Byrd! I didn't get it at the time, but I laughed about that for years. It all makes sense now. It all makes sense now. At one, odd duck 777 posts, do you even cult, bro? At Raven Blackfeather, 8612 posts, my mother was almost a victim of Bird.

She met him back when she worked at the Triple M Strip Club, little hole in the wall joint, probably never heard of it, and was given a major fright, enough to make her quit. Her boss, a guy named Bobby Willie, who also met and had run in with Bird, to get her to stay but it scared her so bad She just couldn't go back. She was headed home after a session and man grabbed her from behind He tried to push her into an alley, but she fought back Thankfully she had taken martial arts one thing he did to her was he that he never did his other victims

Was he whispered in her ear? I need you to wear my brush She managed to slip away and ran and he gave up Chase. She said that she knew his bird because when his story was revealed she remembered the brush comment in this mustache. The man nearly made my mom wear his brush. What a sicko and a creep. Oh and Bobby Willie had to rough the guy up one night because he was caught in the girls dressing rooms plundering through their belongings. He said it was odd because all that was missing was brushes. No money, no other valuables. And there are so many other comments. You Time Stuck fans are so damn funny. This has to be the only podcast that has thousands of fans

who are clearly funnier than the host. Not trying to be self-deprecating. I think I'm pretty funny, but I think a lot of you are funnier. And I will just explain, if anybody thinks I'm being mean here about this podcast, yeah, we all have to pull from different sources other people's information about these episodes or we wouldn't be able to do them. We're not out doing like interviews and that kind of investigative journalism. But I think it's very different to pull directly from another podcast because what you're doing now is like, oh hey, you go do all the research. You put all these sources together. You look through newspapers.com. You pay researchers. You collect all this information from this database, you write it out in a compelling narrative, and then, you know, we'll just take it and then just, you know, use it as our own.

That's the difference to me between like regular research for a podcast and plagiarism. Now for a Moonies update. From SuperSackTroyMongillo, who writes in with the subject line of The Moonies. Hail Master Sucker, I just finished the second part of The Moonies Suck and I got some info for you. I used to work at the Manhattan Center Studios for nine years, from 2005 to 2014. I worked in the beverage department, started as a bar back, then as a liquor room manager. I bring this up to add what you touched upon. The building the Manhattan Center Studios was in had two venues. On the ground floor was the Hammerstein Ballroom where where famous bands have played Guns N' Roses,

Velvet Revolver, Korn, 311, Black Label Society, Rob Zombie, just to name a few that passed through during my time there. The second venue was located on the seventh floor, the acoustically engineered Grand Ballroom, which housed smaller events. From the end of August to the end of February, it was non-stop events. Some nights we would have a rock concert in the Hammerstein and a convention of some sort in the Grand Ballroom. The last week in December was always the craziest, right? Yeah, New Year's. We would have the MTV holiday party just for the employees, started at

8 p.m. ended at 2 a.m. 6-hour open bar for about 2,000 people. Holy shit. Not kidding. 20 bar locations, 2 to 5 bartenders at each, 50 bartenders, a secondary liquor room on the second floor just to provide alcohol for the bars on that floor. Yeah, MCS would annually pull several million dollars in liquor sales. I hope this paints a picture of how the Moonies had so much money at their disposal. Oh yeah, because they own all this. During the episode, you said that MCS was the headquarters for them. You aren't wrong. You're half right.

Manhattan Center Studios is physically connected to the New Yorker Hotel. That's where they stayed, had their own dedicated floor, own conference room. This part is going to sound like a stretch, but bear with me. When I first started there, I was a bar back and the event determined how many bar backs were on. Being a solid worker, I was always on and so was this guy Lem, whose dad ran the New Yorker. Well, he was the number two to Moon's wife, but he ran the hotel.

After an event, we would all go out, get blitzed, somehow end up at the TikTok diner at the base of the New Yorker. It sounds fun as hell. We would rack up a solid 80 to $100 tab and he would sign it for us, telling us to leave a tip. This happened almost every night during the busy season. It was during one of our drunken outings

when he let it slip that the Moonies owned both buildings, but wouldn't confirm any of the rumors we had heard, one being the New Yorker was an illegal brothel. He would just laugh and drink his beer. Now fast forward a few years, and what felt sudden to me, there was a mass firing. The internal security was completely axed, only the guys working the front desk were saved, half of the event staff and several upper management. The rumor going around was that the Reverend Moon's son had died.

Oh, that's when Black Young Jin shortly after hearing this rumor. I was working in the basement where the liquor room is getting the bars ready for the night's concert when in walks my boss his assistant and a man I'd never seen before. He introduced himself as James Park. I shook his hand ignorant of his crazy ways. Sadly though I left the hammerstein to bartend excuse me and make a steady income. I wish I had more to tell hopefully this email gives you some insight or at least some entertainment. If by some bizarre chance you read this, can I get a shout out to my angry marshmallow, Andy, for being there for me and pushing me to do better.

It's been a rough two years for us. We were struck by an SUV, damn, on our second anniversary. I was out of work for seven months and she worked hard to keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. That's the story for another time. Thanks for your time. Please scratch Bojangles behind the ears for me and knowledge in Nimrod. Your loyal spaces are Troy from the Hudson Valley. Oh man, Troy, I love hearing inside connections to the stories we share here. Yeah, poor James Park, husband of Injin Tatiana Moon, the woman who tried to take over the Unification Church when her father died. The woman married one of the women. the woman married to the musician Ben Lorenzen, whose music I played clips of

in the second episode of the Moonies. That's crazy that the Moonies owned a really famous music venue in New York City. I didn't realize that the Hammerstein Ballroom was connected to their studio. Yeah, funny that bands like Radiohead, Marilyn Manson, Jane's Addiction, others were performing in a Mooney-owned venue.

Sounds like you had a hell of a lot of fun there and made tons of good memories. And yeah, shout out to Marshmello! So cute, so glad you two survived what sounds like a very tough year. And now another quick update on the Moonies from Jack, who writes in with the subject line of just Moonies. To the master sucker and hairbush butt fucker, great to see that you finally did an episode on the Moonies.

Now I know exactly where the Moonies... Now I know exactly where the Moonies... Now I know exactly where the Moonies bust. Oh, yeah, one of my dad's friends. The 600 acre compound in Northern California. The guy was working in Silicon Valley as an engineer for a defense firm at the time. Did you know they lured people onto buses to their compounds using cute girls? Then they'd indoctrinate those people by giving them food poisoning, making them do physical activity until they were bone tired. Ultimate Frisbee was a favorite. And then shoving their heads full of propaganda while making sure they couldn't sleep. And when this guy asked, wait, are you guys the fucking Moonies? The people running the place said, we follow the teachings of Reverend Moon, but please don't swear.

The friend managed to escape. Thank goodness. But man, what a story. Yeah, I didn't know about the buses. They're a little compound in California. Once again, thanks for making my menial desk job more entertaining. If you read this on air, can you shout out my dad Lloyd? Takes a certain type of guy to not only be the funniest guy I know, but to definitely not be the zodiac killer. If it wasn't for him and his awful sense of humor, I probably would be a lot more offended by this podcast. Three out of five stars wouldn't change a thing. Jack. Yeah, man. Thanks, Jack. Jack originally wrote in about the Moody's in July of 2023,

wondering why I had not covered them yet. And honestly, Jack, I just thought they'd be boring. I did not realize how weird they were. I certainly did not know about Black Young Jin. If I would have known about him, I would have done that episode immediately. Thank you for the info. Thank you for the info. Thank you Lloyd, not the zodiac killer for corrupting your son's mind in the very best

of ways. Thanks Time Suckers. I needed that. We all did. Well thank you for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast. Scare to Death and Time Suck each week, short sucks and nightmare fuel on the Time Suck Scared to Death podcast feeds some weeks. Please don't try and film any sketches this week

that look kind of like cum shots or foot fetish porn. You know, just film kids accidentally hurting themselves in like skateboard or trampoline accidents, stuff like that. No one's done a doc yet about how fucked up it is that most of us find videos of kids hurt themselves pretty funny and keep on sucking. Ad Magic Productions I just want to remind Disney lawyers listening that it is totally legal to parody Mickey and his friends. In US copyright law, illegal parody is a

derivative work that imitates an existing creative work such as art, literature, or film in a humorous, exaggerated, and critical way. Parodies can be used to comment on the original work as creator or something related to it. I'm not actually claiming that Mickey Mouse, buttfucked and animated character who used to be named Sirius, so many times he ended up being called Goofy. I just think that's funny. And even if it is definitely not funny, it is still legal for me to make outlandish accusations. Thank you. That is all.