Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider recently responded to allegations made against him in the new documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” CBS News reported.
Schneider, who produced several children’s shows, including “Drake and Josh,” “The Amanda Show,” and “Victorious,” said in an interview with “iCarly” actor BooG!e that watching the Discovery docuseries was “very difficult.”
Schneider said it forced him to face embarrassing “past behaviors” that he regretted. He added that he owed an apology to some people.
Even before the documentary was released, Schneider had been accused of including inappropriately suggestive jokes in his children’s shows. He said in the interview that at the time the shows were made, the kids in the audience found them funny and suggested that as adults, they are looking back 20 years and saying the jokes were inappropriate. At the same time, Schneider said he would have no problem with the jokes being edited out in future broadcasts.
Schneider disputed the claim that he was in complete control of the content that made it to broadcast, saying that within the production, there were “many levels of scrutiny” including from other executives, crew members, and the parents of the child actors on the set.
One accusation made in “Quiet on Set” was that Schneider unfairly forced two female writers to split a single staff writer’s pay. However, Schneider said he had nothing to do with determining the salaries of writers and noted that it was common for first-time writers to split a single staff writer’s salary.
However, Schneider acknowledged that asking for on-set massages was wrong and he apologized to the people he put in that situation.
Schneider addressed the controversy over “The Amanda Show’s” dialogue coach Brian Peck, who in 2004 was sentenced to 16 months after he pleaded no contest to child molestation charges.
Schneider said he had nothing to do with Peck getting hired and said when actor Drake Bell told him about being assaulted by Peck, he was “devastated.”
