By Abby Bullock
While many Bellarmine students are likely familiar with Nickelodeon’s more recent shows like “Drake and Josh,” “iCarly,” or “Victorious,” the story that HBO Max’s documentary “Quiet on Set” tells is likely to blow the minds of multiple generations of Nick watchers.
The documentary covers the dark side of Nickelodeon: many of the crew’s and actors’ negative experiences working there and Dan Schneider
, a television producer and creator of many of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows. Through “Quiet on Set,” many of Nick’s past writers, producers, and actors had a platform to come forward and share their experiences with the company and Schneider.
Four episodes of “Quiet on Set” are available to watch on HBO Max, with a fifth episode being released on April 7.
As someone who has watched the entire thing, I say it will definitely make you rethink moments of your childhood. To say the least, it was very heartbreaking to see what these people went through, especially these actors who were children at the time. However, I am so glad that they were given this opportunity to speak.
Unfortunately, none of what these people said surprised me, as I had actually seen conspiracy YouTube videos revolving around the exact subjects that “Quiet on Set” covered. But at the same time, I was shocked and sickened to see that what I had originally thought were just conspiracies actually had some merit to them.
It is also incredibly sickening to see all of the strange things that were featured in some of these Nickelodeon shows that I watched as a kid and not being able to see the fact that some of these things were completely inappropriate and had some absolutely horrible connotations.
It’s hard to process because I absolutely loved these shows when I was younger, and I still want to look at all of the wonderful aspects of them. However, knowing what was going on behind the scenes (and having more context and understanding of some things that were even happening on camera) makes that very difficult.
But that’s okay with me because I am glad all of this is being brought to light, and overall, I think that “Quiet on Set” did a wonderful job documenting what Nickelodeon tried to hide for so many years. It stayed informative and interesting, and I loved being able to hear from such a diverse group of people. I would even say that I would’ve loved to see even more variety and diversity – even more actors, writers, crew members, directors or producers.
Not that it was required, but I also would have loved to see or know for sure if the documentary’s producers reached out to some people who didn’t appear in the film. The documentary spoke extensively about people like Jennette McCurdy and Amanda Bynes, but were they asked to speak in the documentary? It even would have been fascinating to know if they were asked to comment but declined.
The people the producers interviewed were wonderful, and I think the makers of the documentary handled them all so gracefully. I loved particularly how they handled Drake Bell’s episode. For some of it, it almost felt like watching raw footage, with only a cut to a picture every once in a while and little music being used. I also was very impressed with the fact that they allowed Bell to address his own controversies and own up to them.
Overall, I think that the documentary was very well done and structured. I definitely appreciated it being in chronological order. If anything, I would have loved to see some “fleshing out” of information in the “iCarly” and “Victorious” era, and covering potential bad situations that occurred during that time.
This is when I began to watch Nickelodeon, and I wanted to hear more about some of the dark things that I heard were going on during the production of these shows specifically. However, what we got was already much more than I expected, and covering even a year’s worth of what went on would be impactful and heartbreaking enough.
Several Bellarmine students have watched the documentary, and have a lot to say about it:
“It was mind-blowing seeing all the ways that child actors were manipulated and assaulted. Heartbreaking that so many felt stuck and uncomfortable on set.” – Karsyn Gregory, first-year theatre major
“It was incredibly interesting and disturbing. It definitely shifts perspective on nostalgia-watching the shows mentioned, knowing more about the experience of working on these shows. However, as an investigative piece, there did not seem to be a lot of new information- more about the ethical complications of actions that have already been recorded/investigated.” – Holly Kissel, senior business and theatre major
“It’s really heartbreaking to hear even more stories from victims of the entertainment industry who entered as a child. It’s horrifying, truly. It needs to be talked about more. Corey Feldman came out years ago sharing his story of abuse from pedophiles working in the entertainment industry. Documentaries like these are important for people to be aware of when thinking of putting their child in that environment.” – Samantha Hacker, senior communications and DAT major
“Absolutely mind blowing. The fact that administration didn't catch on or didn't care blows my mind.” – Katelyn Carter, sophomore theatre and arts administration major
“It’s just been eye-opening how much of the film industry is kept secret and how awful it can be. Children being exploited should not be as commonplace as it is.” – Jordan Warfield, first-year education major
“I think it's very disturbing that everyone knew of the abuse taking place and did nothing. Brian Peck should have not been allowed to further his career after ruining the childhood of Drake Bell.” – Aubrey Brumley, first-year
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