Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider has been under fire for several remarks made in the new documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
The series has concluded, but on Sunday night a bonus episode aired, featuring former stars from the network sharing their thoughts on the events that have transpired since the premiere.
In one segment, two actors slammed Schneider for the apology he made on the show, claiming it was insincere.
Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Hearne both appeared on “All That,” a sketch comedy show that aired on the children’s network, in the early 2000s.
After being shown part of Schneider’s apology from an earlier episode of “Quiet on Set,” they both began laughing.
When asked what was funny, Hearne explained, “The thing about his interview as a whole is, I just thought it was funny… if I could be candid, Dan was an actor before all of this, so I think that he brushed off some chops and gave us a nice performance.”
He continued, “Where was all this apologizing when Jeannette McCurdy’s book came out?” He was referring to “iCarly” star McCurdy’s memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” in which she claimed she was “exploited” at the network.
“Or when Angelique Bates had said something very publicly?” Samuels added. Bates also appeared on “All That,” and said in a 2016 video interview with The Shade Room that she was “physically, emotionally, mentally abused in front of the producers and cast members” during her time with Nickelodeon.
Hearne said, “I just feel, what’s an apology without accountability? Realistically, if you take the inappropriate jokes away, do you have a show anymore? If you take all the foot jokes, take all the face shots, all of that inappropriateness – is it just commercials then?”
While Schneider made a series of apologies on the show, Hearne and Samuels were reacting to one he made for “On-Air Dares,” Nickelodeon’s version of “Fear Factor” type stunts.
“At the time, I had no indication that any kid ever had a problem with it,” Schneider said. “But, when I was watching the show over the past two nights, I now know that there were kids that had problems with the ‘On-Air Dares’ and it breaks my heart. And I’m so sorry. I am so sorry to any kid who ever had to do a dare or anything that they didn’t want to do or weren’t comfortable doing. We went out of our way to make sure they were safe, and that everything was done properly, but if a kid was scared and didn’t want to do it, kid shouldn’t have had to do it. Period, the end. If I had known at the time, I would have changed it on the spot.”
At another point in his interview, Schneider apologized for certain jokes that appeared in shows on the network, saying, “Every one of those jokes was written for a kids’ audience because kids thought they were funny, and only funny. Now, we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens, and they’re looking at them, and they’re saying, ‘That’s inappropriate for a kids show.’”
He continued, “And I have no problem with that if that’s how anyone feels. Let’s cut those jokes out of the show. Just like I would have done 20 years ago or 25 years ago, I cut it. I want my shows to be popular, I want everyone to like it. The more people who like the shows, the happier I am. If there’s anything in a show that needs to be cut because it’s upsetting somebody, let’s cut it.”
In Sunday’s episode, Samuels and Hearne were asked if they remembered those jokes being funny, to which Samuels said, “No, only because one, we’re kids, we don’t know, we’re a bit naive, and when you have a writer or a showrunner and he’s laughing the hardest, you go along with it because one, you don’t know any better and two, this is your job. This is your boss.”
“There are jokes that were going over our heads,” Hearne agreed. “I’m 13 years old, I’m very new… I’m not allowed to watch ‘South Park’ and ‘Family Guy’ and things of that nature. I’m sitting here just trying to be funny.”
Samuels added that by the time they came to Nickelodeon, Schneider had already launched several careers, so they trusted his judgment when it came to what was funny.
“The foot stuff was crazy,” Hearne said about the many scenes and jokes centering on feet that appeared in multiple shows. “I never liked the foot stuff,” Samuels laughed, and Hearne agreed, saying “Nobody likes the foot stuff.”
Samuels reiterated that the adults in the room laughed at those sorts of jokes, so the child actors went along with it all.
She later claimed that a week before “Quiet on Set” aired, Schneider called her and asked her to “give a quote of support” for him. She clarified that he’d known she was doing the documentary, but that he still thought she’d be on his side.
“I don’t know what possessed him,” Hearne told her.
Samuels said Schneider had insisted to her that she’d had a good time on set with him, but she replied she was “terrified of him.”
“I said, ‘You had the power to make people stars,’” she recalled. “And I was intimidated by you. I wanted to do a good job.”