The Amanda Show, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, iCarly, and Victorious are among the Nickelodeon childhood favorites that Gen Z grew up with. These programs, known for their playful jokes and intriguing teen drama, had a chokehold over young audiences in the early 2000s as episodes played on repeat. In addition to the programs, viewers fell in love with the child actors, such as Amanda Bynes and Drake Bell, who brought these shows to life. Nickelodeon soon became one of the most popular television platforms, primarily because of these shows, and it marked the golden age of child television.
Many credit Nickelodeon and their beloved child stars as significant contributions to making their childhoods. However, the deep truth behind these childhood shows required an exposition that would completely change the perspectives of fans, and the Investigation Discovery docu-series, Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, did just that. The five-episode docu-series did a phenomenal job of playing with the heartstrings of these once-Nickelodeon fans and exposing the truth behind Nickelodeon’s fun-loving plotlines and child stars’ seemingly glamorous Hollywood lives.
The Quiet On Set mission was a difficult one. Effectively changing a perspective on something that has been previously so adored is a risky task. However, they did not fail their mission. The series pulled out all the dramatic cinematic stops to convince audiences of the sexual harassment and inappropriate treatment of Nickelodeon’s child actors on set.
The series included ample examples and stories from child actors themselves who suffered at the hands of Nickelodeon staple names such as Dan Schneider and Brian Peck. Former child stars, including Leon Frierson and Bryan Hearne, offered a firsthand account of the matter. Seeing the now grown-up faces of the stars who had made childhoods brought a heartbreaking and dramatic effect. The pain hidden in their stories effectively appealed to my heart as one of the former fans who once religiously watched and adored Nickelodeon’s programs as an innocent child.
One actor’s story, in particular, brought a significant boost to the series’ engaging factor as it called attention to former Nickelodeon dialogue coach, Brian Peck. In 2003, Peck was convicted of molesting one of his Nickelodeon students. While rumors spiraled over who the possible victim was for the past 20 years, there has been no confirmation of the true victim’s identity, until Quiet On Set. In the series’ fifth episode, after detailing the allegations against Brian Peck, the show did not fail to make my heart drop as child star and teen heartthrob Drake Bell took a seat at the interviewee chair, and revealed himself as Peck’s victim. Paired with suspenseful music and a lowly lit setting, this buildup of suspense fulfilled its purpose in facilitating a dramatic effect that keeps the audience’s eyes locked on the screen in horror.
Additionally, Quiet On Set included multiple examples of multiple behaviors that went ignored and unnoticed during the show’s prime time. The series does a great job of detailing Dan Schneider’s inappropriate actions by including clips that he aired in his episodes. These clips revealed jokes and actions that had sexual intentions behind their seemingly innocent manners. This was ultimately a very effective way of revealing how the behind-the-scenes horrors of the shows were hidden in plain sight and raising the question as to how many adults purposefully turned a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon the child stars.
Overall, the documentary did a great job of bringing to light the corruption of Nickelodeon’s golden age. Not only did Quiet On Set present a heavy truth in an effective way, but it really brought a heartbreaking effect that garnered the traction it deserves. It is about time that justice is brought to the kids who sacrificed their childhoods so that we could have ours.