‘Quiet on Set’ directors on exposing abusive behavior behind the scenes of Nickelodeon

Amna Nawaz:

The kids network Nickelodeon helped shape pop culture for decades.

But a new docuseries, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," is exposing the toxic culture behind some of the most iconic children's shows of the '90s and 2000s. As young viewers flocked to the channel for beloved programs like "The Amanda Show" and "All That," sexual abuse and harassment were rampant behind the scenes.

Here's a quick look.

Woman:

A lot of these kids in the entertainment industry are vulnerable. The power balance between a child and an adult is so striking already. And then on top of it, you add that it's an employment situation.

These are 8-to-15-year-olds, and they are often responsible for the entire economic success of their families. What are they going to do if they get in trouble? What if all of this goes away because they complained?

Woman:

And so you spend your time working, hoping that people don't poke the soft spots on your body and in your brain.

Amna Nawaz:

"Quiet on Set" directors Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson join me now.

Welcome to you both.

Emma, start us off here. Your docuseries includes allegations of sexual assault, of pervasive harassment, the overt sexualization of children on these sets. How did you first hear about these allegations, and how hard was it to get people to talk about it?

Emma Schwartz, Director, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV": You know, we first started looking into this because a number of years ago we saw clips online, clips of — from these shows where you could see the actors who were being very sexualized, clips like Ariana Grande massaging a potato online.

And we began to ask questions about what was happening behind the scenes. Fast-forward, there was a — Jennette McCurdy came out with a memoir about her experience growing up on these sets. Kate Taylor of Business Insider wrote an article beginning to sort of delve deeper into what was happening behind the scenes.

And we decided to dive even further. It was very difficult to get people to speak, but we reached out to many, many people, and I think those that participated felt that they had been holding a lot of secrets, a lot of trauma, a lot of darkness, and that, by sharing their experience, that hopefully others would not have to walk down the same path as they had.

Amna Nawaz:

Mary, why was this a story that you think a larger American audience needed to know about?

Mary Robertson, Director, "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV": When we were first looking at those clips that Emma references in which you see young teens in situations that are arguably sexual in nature, arguably evocative of pornography, we also saw questions swirling on social media platforms from many adults who were once children watching these shows.

And these now-adults said, how could it be that this material was made? Was I watching a lot of content that was in fact sexualized, but because I was a kid, the jokes went over my head, and I didn't know it? And if this arguably sexual content had been created on these sets, who said yes to the creation of this material?

Who said no to the creation of this material? And if this material exists, what might it suggest about what inappropriate, illegal behavior was happening behind the scenes? Those feel like meaningful questions to us because they pertain to working conditions for children, and we all have a responsibility to protect minors, and because the content that was created on these sets was ultimately consumed by generations of children, impressionable young minds.

And it shaped their sense of normal and their understandings — understanding of what is appropriate behavior.

Amna Nawaz:

Emma, the man who created many of these shows, someone named Dan Schneider, The New York Times once called him the Norman Lear of children's television, and you document a number of instances in which he really sexualized shows and themes in the show.

He's, since your docuseries came out, posted an apology of sorts. He's saying that he watched the series. He said it was difficult to watch. He regrets his behavior. He owes people an apology. What do you make of his response?

Emma Schwartz:

You know, in the process of putting together our documentary, we reached out to Dan to ask if he would participate and sit down for an interview. He declined to participate on camera, so we sent him a series of questions and incorporated those written responses into the documentary.

As you will see in the episode five that came out on Sunday, a number of the participants felt that Dan's response video was insincere and raised questions about why it happened just now, after many people had raised questions for a long period of time.

Amna Nawaz:

There's also Mary, the story of this former dialogue coach at Nickelodeon named Brian Peck. He was convicted of sexually abusing a minor in 2004.

And we learned through your work that was actually child star Drake Bell, who comes forward. We also learned there's a number of powerful Hollywood figures who came forward on behalf of Mr. Peck, offering letters of character support for him.

What should we make of that?

Mary Robertson:

You mentioned these letters of support that were written by many Hollywood insiders on behalf of convicted child sex offender Brian Peck.

And throughout the course of our reporting, our company petitioned the court to unseal these letters, which had been sealed for decades. And after arguing before the judge, he ultimately agreed to unseal these letters. We now do have these letters in the public record, and they raise many questions.

And many of those questions remain for us, questions around what information the letter writers had at the time of writing them, who may have asked them to write the letters, if any pressure was exerted, and what the nature of that pressure may have been.

Amna Nawaz:

Emma, there's also the bigger question here of the idea that these men weren't working in a vacuum, right? And you wonder, for a system that is built around children, for children, how was this kind of abuse and assault of women — of children allowed to continue?

Emma Schwartz:

There's a lot of layers to the abuses that people experience.

Some of it — and not everyone saw all of the different kinds of abuses, right? So you have the adult women that we hear from, Jenny and Christy, who endured a lot of what they say is sexual harassment and other forms of abuse inside the writers room.

But if you were a child on set, you might not have seen or even known what was happening behind those closed doors. Likewise, some of these child sex offenders like Jason Handy and Brian Peck, they often met their people on the sets. But some of the actual abuses occurred outside of the sets themselves, because there was a closeness and relationships that formed in what people often described as sort of families on these sets.

But they were families with a lot of dysfunction beneath them.

Amna Nawaz:

Mary, what has been Nickelodeon's response to all of this? And is there any kind of accountability here?

Mary Robertson:

We offered Nickelodeon an opportunity to send a representative who would appear on camera in the project. We also included written questions. We also sent them written questions and include their responses in the project.

What we're hearing right now amongst many of those who've watched the film is a call for industry-wide reform. It has been noted by some that, at the moment, there's a real absence of federal legislation that could or would protect children working in entertainment. At the moment, there's merely a patchwork system of state laws in place.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, all episodes of this docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," are available to stream on max.

Directors Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson, thank you so much for joining us.

Emma Schwartz:

Thank you.

Mary Robertson:

Thank you for having us.