Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz (‘Quiet on Set’ producer-directors) on sparking ‘a call for industry-wide reform’ in kids TV [Exclusive Video Interview]

Ray Richmond
·5 min read
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It’s rare when a documentary series makes as big a splash as that created by “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.” The five-part Investigation Discovery docuseries has been seen by an estimated audience of more than 20 million over ID and Max and generated a groundswell of chatter over its revelations about toxic children’s TV production environments – primarily at Nickelodeon in the early 2000s. The filmmakers responsible for the series that premiered on March 17 – executive producer-director Mary Robertson and co-exec producer-director Emma Schwartz – are thrilled at a reaction that they describe variously as “inspiring” and “overwhelming.”

Adds Schwartz: “I think one of the most exciting parts of that is really to see how many people are not just impacted by watching it, but want to take action or improve the environment in which these problems occur. Taking the work to a next level is something you would hope for.” Watch our exclusive video interview with Robertson and Schwartz above.

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The topic originally came to the attention of Robertson and Schwartz when they noticed a proliferation of videos online, montages of old Nickelodeon show clips “that were recorded on sets presided over by Dan Schneider,” Robertson recalls. “In some of these clips you saw young teens featured in scenes that were arguably sexual in nature. One example is a scene in which you see Ariana Grande leaning off the side of a bed and pouring a bottle of water on her chest and her face. You see her squeezing a potato in a manner that’s arguably sexual in nature. You see Jamie Lynn Spears receive a squirt of viscous liquid on her face in a manner that is arguably evocative of pornography. Of course, these girls are now women, but at the time these clips were recorded they were young teens. And we noticed there were a lot of questions on social media swirling around these clips.”

SEEDrake Bell discusses massive response to his ‘Quiet on Set’ revelations: ‘We have to tell the world about this, and this needs to change’ [WATCH]

This inappropriately sexualized content piqued the curiosity of the filmmakers. They wondered which adult(s) said yes to creating this kind of content and what might have been happening behind the scenes in terms of working conditions. As Robertson and Schwartz were asking themselves these questions, “(senior correspondent) Kate Taylor had written a story that really moved the ball forward in terms of our understanding of what was happening on Dan’s sets,” Schwartz observes. “And that coalesced to a point where we said, ‘We want to dig in further.’ It led to a partnership with Taylor and outreach to hundreds of people who worked behind the scenes on such early 2000s Nick shows as “All That,” “The Amanda Show,” “Drake & Josh” and “Zoey 101” and later “iCarly.”

What the producer-directors found was a collection of malignant workplace cultures presided over by mega-producer Schneider, places where the child/teen actors and adult crew members lived equally fear of his retribution and over which he presided with omnipotence and impunity. They were also productions where a pair of convicted child sex offenders were able to find employment.

“I think what you see in ‘Quiet on Set’ is ultimately the result of an effort where people who had been holding a lot of experiences, a lot of trauma, a lot of what they went through, very close and very quiet for many years, if not decades,” Schwartz says. “They wanted to share their stories and hoped that by shedding light on what they went through, they might help others not go through that or begin to change the environments going forward.”

Among those participating on-camera and telling their stories are “All That” regulars Giovannie Samuels and Bryan Hearne as well as “Zoey 101” regular Alexa Nikolas and – most tellingly – Drake Bell of “The Amanda Show” and “Drake & Josh,” who endured repeated sexual abuse from Brian Peck (who worked as a dialogue coach on both “Amanda Show” and “All That”). Bell speaks out publicly about what he endured for the first time in the show’s third installment.

At present, remarkably, there is no specific law that bars a production with kids on the set from employing a registered sex offender. “Part of what we’re hearing right now is a call for industry-wide reform,” Robertson says. “Many are talking about how there’s an absence of federal legislation that regulates these work environments for children, specifically film and television sets. At the moment, there’s just a patchwork of state laws in place.” Notes Schwartz: “There are also discussions about whether there should be more resources readily available to children working on sets, and whether that’s mental health specialists or social workers – people who are outside that realm of a parent or a boss or another employee.”

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