After watching all episodes of this documentary, I came away with two basic reactions. The first was shock that 3 pedophiles were caught working at Nickelodeon, on the same set. And one was convicted of doing horrible things to a minor child star. That discovery alone warranted a 2-hour or so documentary. And the fact that the most egregious pedophile turned around and got a job at Disney after his sentence was beyond concerning. That really was the story here.
The second reaction was that the remainder of the documentary seemed to be looking for issues where there weren't really any. It looked through a 2024 "sensibility lens" at shows produced as much as 25 years ago. Was Schneider a toxic, misogynistic jerk? Yeah probably, but it's highly likely he wasn't alone in Hollywood (this was going on years before Harvey Weinstein was caught). Adults looking back on their child star experience may think it was racist or pornographic now, but the evidence just wasn't presented. Does goo on the face mean it's porno? Look at most kid's shows (even going back to Soupy Sales) and getting creamed in the face was "normal" and considered funny back then. It may seem cringe-worthy today, but we are looking at this differently now.
Were little girls overtly sexualized by producers? Perhaps, but critics have been saying that since Annette Funicello appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club. Again, our current sensibilities have colored the way we look at things done decades ago.
And did child stars have trouble adjusting to post-child roles? Absolutely. But that is nothing new. You can go as far back as the Little Rascals or Shirley Temple - sometimes when kid stars grow up, their careers disappear. And for every Amanda Bynes or Lindsay Lohan meltdown, there were numerous previous examples such as Dana Plato.
The kid-star machine is (and has been) pretty hard on children. A few survive and go on to successful adult careers (such as Jodie Foster, as one example). But there are many more that become "has beens" when they hit puberty. You can't really blame Schneider or Nickelodeon for that.
In the end, the documentary was long on sensationalism, with a few genuinely sad revelations. But the "cultural" reporter (or whatever she called herself) lacked journalistic credibility. I'd rather see a more credible group like 60 Minutes do a deep dive into this world, with more tangible results.
The second reaction was that the remainder of the documentary seemed to be looking for issues where there weren't really any. It looked through a 2024 "sensibility lens" at shows produced as much as 25 years ago. Was Schneider a toxic, misogynistic jerk? Yeah probably, but it's highly likely he wasn't alone in Hollywood (this was going on years before Harvey Weinstein was caught). Adults looking back on their child star experience may think it was racist or pornographic now, but the evidence just wasn't presented. Does goo on the face mean it's porno? Look at most kid's shows (even going back to Soupy Sales) and getting creamed in the face was "normal" and considered funny back then. It may seem cringe-worthy today, but we are looking at this differently now.
Were little girls overtly sexualized by producers? Perhaps, but critics have been saying that since Annette Funicello appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club. Again, our current sensibilities have colored the way we look at things done decades ago.
And did child stars have trouble adjusting to post-child roles? Absolutely. But that is nothing new. You can go as far back as the Little Rascals or Shirley Temple - sometimes when kid stars grow up, their careers disappear. And for every Amanda Bynes or Lindsay Lohan meltdown, there were numerous previous examples such as Dana Plato.
The kid-star machine is (and has been) pretty hard on children. A few survive and go on to successful adult careers (such as Jodie Foster, as one example). But there are many more that become "has beens" when they hit puberty. You can't really blame Schneider or Nickelodeon for that.
In the end, the documentary was long on sensationalism, with a few genuinely sad revelations. But the "cultural" reporter (or whatever she called herself) lacked journalistic credibility. I'd rather see a more credible group like 60 Minutes do a deep dive into this world, with more tangible results.