Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

I just watched the first 2 episodes of the show, and it was a solid start for a Discovery documentary. I definitely learned a lot of new things about the controversy surrounding Dan Shneider and the people he let into his inner circle.

The first episode sets up how Dan became a success, and how he came to weild his power negatively over anyone except cis white men. I certainly have a lot more empathy for Amanda Bynes and the person she is today. The second episode dove deeper into the ways Dan and his on-set friends integrated sex into the children's shows in very non-sublte ways. Unfortunately, we are left on a cliff-hanger, as expected. However, even though we are introduced to the actor who was abused, I still can't wait for the next episode to drop so that we can hear them tell their truth.

I give it an 8, I even rewound the show as a spit take on some of things the grown child actors had to say about their experiences. After watching it, you won't think of pickles the same way.

Docu-series dealing with troublesome or traumatic events are always tricky. While I believe that such stories need to be told, it is difficult (sometimes downright impossible) to do so with objectivity and clear-headedness. Somewhat unfortunately, Quiet on the Set gets that balance wrong, for the most part-but also features one gut-wrenching story that has the potential (I think) to spur real change.

The first, second, and fourth episodes of Quiet on the Set are pretty poor from a journalistic perspective. Ostensibly, the goal from directors Mary Robertson & Emma Schwartz seems to be to implicate Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider as a child molester. There is, however, no hard or tangible evidence to point to in this reckoning. As such, viewers get three episodes of circumstantial suppositions and a guilt-by-association angle of trying to link Schneider to other Nick employees who were documented child predators. I do not support such journalism. Was Schneider a weirdo who should not have been afforded as much reign with children as he had? Almost certainly. Am I going to condemn his entire career/reputation based on the scraps of "evidence" this doc submits? Certainly not.

Throughout those three episodes the doc also suffers from the "hindsight is 20/20" problem from nearly all its commentators. To a person, everyone says "someone should have done something to stop this"-but all also come up with excuses as to why they did nothing. It doesn't work both ways like that. One can have regrets for actions or inactions of the past, to be sure, but I have no sympathy for complaining about it and smearing the reputation of others years after the fact. Had any one of these many individuals "blown the whistle" sooner, perhaps much trauma could have been avoided.

On those three eps alone, I'd give this doc maybe 4 stars. So, why the 7-star rating overall? Because the third episode is an important, gut-wrenching tale from star Drake Bell. To me, he seems to be perhaps the only grounded, clear-headed thinker in this entire production. Not only does he tactfully tell a traumatic story (one of legitimate-not supposed-sexual assault), but he does so with a thoughtfulness one might not expect from such a young man. My heart broke for what he went through, but if any good or meaningful change comes from this whole ordeal it will be on the back of his harrowing stories.

So, though the rest of this doc is "tenuous at best", I'll give it a 7/10 overall because of that one extremely compelling story. I hope other viewers are able to separate fact from speculation and not fall into the easily-accessible trap of "guilt by association" that Quiet on the Set is eager to spring.

This is a story that needs to be told. 5 minutes into the first episode and I was already sick to my stomach. I can't even imagine what else was happening behind closed doors seeing what was even allowed to air.

Really engrossing documentary so far and its utterly shocking seeing everything that was allowed and pushed under the rug simply due to the fact that the shows were getting viewers and making money.

I genuinely feel sick I cannot stress it enough, just be advised before you watch. The conditions these literal children were put in at the hands of a disgusting pervert and writers, coaches that allowed it to happen will trigger you. Nervous to even finish the last two parts.

I feel as tho the producers of the show were trying very hard to cast Dan Schneider as this really bad guy in the first 2 episodes, but were short on actual evidence of it. Was he a saint? No, and he absolutely did some very weird and inappropriate things on set, but nothing that I saw in this doc made my jaw drop, especially when it pertains to Hollywood. Again, There is no excusing the behavior, but when you consider the environment back then and the fact that Dan is regretful for his actions at the time, I think it was a bit over the top. Some of the gags that they were calling sexual were a bit of a stretch to. Getting squirt in the face, comparing pickles to male genitalia? Not everything is secretly nefarious in nature. And no sexually deviant evidence is ever brought up that would suggest Dan Schneider was sexually abusing kids on the set. Certainly there were things that were over the top and repugnant in the writers room, like the example of the lady being coerced into acting like she was being sodimized as part of a gag in the writers room in order to get laughs. That made me cringe for sure and there is no excusing that behavior. Former actors and actresses that they brought on gave some decent insight and I can sympathize with them to an extent, but I also felt some where jilted about not having as much success as they would have liked in a cutthroat business where few make it to stardom. I definitely felt for them, because when you are that young you are obviously going to be naive and believe fame and fortune are heading your way, but not everyone can be center stage unfortunately. Thats just the business and I feel as tho their parents or guardians weren't relaying that to them at the time which is unfortunate. Learning about the sexual predators on set was by far the most gut wrenching aspect of this documentary, and they did do a great job of pointing that out and letting Drake Bell tell his story. It was also revolting to learn that the man who abused him was set free quickly and was very briefly allowed to be back on a children's tv show. Truly disturbing.

Overall, it's a decent documentary that could have been better if they just would have stuck to the facts and not tried to make Dan into this nefarious villain who traumatized the children he worked with. Again, there were definitely some bad things he did, but the constant portrayal of him being a bully tyrant who couldn't care less about the kids actually made me sympathetic toward him a little in the end. If they would have stuck with the facts and hard evidence on hand it would have made for a better documentary j my opinion.

Many people know sexual harassment, sexual assault and predation has been happening in Hollywood for decades.

"Quiet on the Set" covers Nickelodeon's rise with creator, Dan Schneider, and some of his less-than-tasteful actions to the discovery of three sex offenders working among them. It is an interesting documentary that will hopefully give confidence to those who were previously afraid to speak out.

It's very disheartening to see the support given to one of the offenders by many of Hollywood's "elite". To then find out the offender, not only didn't serve any time for his crimes, but went on to be employed by Disney working on another kid's program.

It's a disgusting look at how the industry turns a blind-eye in keeping kids safe from these people. I certainly hope this documentary will prompt a huge step toward shutting these criminals down and ensuring kids are safe without the almighty dollar being the bottom line.