James Marsden, Alan Thicke, more wrote letters of support for convicted child abuser Brian Peck during Drake Bell trial

"SNL" alum Taran Killam, "Growing Pains" star Joanna Kerns, and "Boy Meets World" actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong were also among those who vouched for Peck before his 2004 sentencing.

James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Boy Meets World stars, and several other prominent entertainers wrote letters of support for convicted child molester Brian Peck when the former Nickelodeon dialogue coach was set to be sentenced for sexually abusing 15-year-old Drake Bell.

In the forthcoming docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Bell reveals that he was the anonymous teenage victim whose testimony led to the 2003 arrest of Peck, whom the actor met while working on The Amanda Show. The Investigation Discovery series (premiering Sunday) petitioned for court documents from the case to be released, and found several letters of support by now-prominent entertainers who vouched for Peck’s character at the time. Peck — no relation to Bell's Drake & Josh costar Josh Peck — pled no contest to two counts of child sexual abuse, and was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2004 and registered as a sex offender.

Among the letter writers were Marsden, Taran Killam, Growing Pains stars Thicke and Joanna Kerns, Twin Peaks actress Kimmy Robertson, Boy Meets World actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong, American Horror Story actor Ron Melendez, and Amanda Show crewmembers Rich and Beth Correll.

Reps for Marsden, Killam, Robertson, Kerns, Friedle, Strong, Melendez, and Rich Correll did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. Beth Correll could not be reached for comment.

The docuseries shows an excerpt from Marsden’s letter, which says “I assure you, what Brian has been through in the last year is the suffering of a hundred men.” The doc noted that Marsden had known Peck since the Jury Duty star was a young teenager.

The letter from future Saturday Night Live cast member Killam, who also stared on The Amanda Show, included the sentence, “I have seen the affects this situations has had on Brian and I know for a fact that he regrets any mistakes made.”

In his letter, Thicke, who died in 2016, insisted Peck “was never inappropriate in any way.”

Meanwhile, Robertson wrote, “I believe with all my heart that Brian was pressured and pushed beyond belief before he caved in.”

Rich Correll’s letter said, “It would be my pleasure to…work with him again.” Once Peck was released from prison, the Corrells did indeed work with him again, this time on Disney Channel's The Suite Life With Zack and Cody. However, according to the doc, the Corrells stated that "they had no input or involvement" in Peck's casting, and said when they asked him about the case, "Mr. Peck simply replied that 'the problem had been resolved.'"

Quiet on Set makes a point to note that it is unknown what any of the letter writers were told about Peck's situation, and it's entirely possible documents may have been written in good faith due to misinformation about the case.

Kerns wrote in her letter, “I can only believe that there must have been some extreme situation or temptation exerted upon him to influence his actions.” She provided a follow-up statement that made it into the docuseries that said: “I have now learned that my letter of support was based on complete misinformation. Knowing what I know now, I never would have written the letter.”

Excerpts were not shown from the other letters. Friedle and Rider discussed regret over their friendship with Peck on a recent episode of Pod Meets World. "He didn’t say that nothing had happened," Rider said. "So by the time we heard about this case and knew anything about it, it was always in the context of, 'I did this thing, I am guilty. I am going to take whatever punishment the government determines, but I’m a victim of jailbait. There was this hot guy, I just did this thing and he’s underage.' And we bought that storyline. I never heard about the other things because, back then, you couldn’t Google to find out what people were being charged with. So in retrospect," Rider suggested, "he was making a plea deal and admitting one thing, which is all he admitted to us, but it looks like he was being charged with a series of crimes, which we did not know."

"There’s an actual victim here, and he turned us against the victim to where now we’re on his team,” Friedle said. “That’s the thing where, to me, I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing]. Getting taken in by somebody who’s a good actor and a manipulator, I could chalk that up to being young and that’s the way it is. It’s awful. I’m going to use that for my growth as a human being, but when there’s an actual victim involved and now I’m on the abuser’s side, that’s the thing I can’t get over and haven’t been able to get over."

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV airs March 17 and 18 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ID.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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