Nickelodeon - Accusations of 1990s, 2000s child abuse

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From former child actor Drake Bell speaking out about being sexually assaulted by a Nickelodeon dialogue coach to sexism accusations against producer Dan Schneider made by the only two female writers of The Amanda Show, a new Investigation Discovery docuseries features a slew of disturbing bombshells and allegations.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV goes inside some of the toxic culture of children’s television shows that young actors and others endured in the 1990s and 2000s, including many series produced by Dan Schneider. It also features interviews with former actors, writers and crew members from hit Nickelodeon shows All That, The Amanda Show and Zoey 101 as they detail the alleged disturbing environment behind the scenes.

Schneider left the network in 2018 after an internal investigation into his allegedly verbally abusive and demanding behavior on set. Schneider has denied allegations of misconduct.

All four episodes of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which premiered on March 17, are out now on ID and streaming on Max.

Drake Bell Was Repeatedly Sexually Assaulted By Nickelodeon Dialogue Coach Brian Peck
For the first time, Drake Bell, the one time star of Drake & Josh, speaks of being repeatedly molested by dialogue coach Brian Peck (no relation to Bell's co-star Josh Peck) when Bell was 15.

Bell landed an acting job on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show in 1999. The next year, on the first day of the show's second season, Bell met Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who befriended him and would invite him to his house for acting lessons.

“I was sleeping on the couch where I usually sleep and I woke up to him... I opened my eyes and I woke up and he was…he was sexually assaulting me,” Bell says in the docuseries. “And I froze, and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react.”

Bell also says the abuse happened more than once — and that he was afraid of speaking out.

“And it just got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and I was just trapped,” Bell explains. “I had no way out. The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal.”

In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old in connection with Bell's case. Peck spent 16 months in prison and was required to register as a sex offender.

Brian Peck Flaunted Painting by Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy
In the docuseries, it is revealed that Peck had a signed self-portrait painting of infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy that he boasted about in front of another child star.

Former All That cast member Kyle Sullivan, then 14, talks about seeing the painting inside of Peck’s home, which included a shrine to Planet of the Apes and — most notably — a painting of a clown holding balloons, which seemingly had nothing to do with the famous sci-fi franchise.

Sullivan says when he asked Peck about the painting, the dialogue coach became excited.

“Brian flipped the thing around and on the back it said ‘To Brian, I hope you enjoy the painting. Best wishes, your friend, John Wayne Gacy,’” Sullivan recalls in the docuseries.

The former child star also says Peck had a collection of letters he had been sent by Gacy, who was known as the "Killer Clown" and raped and killed over 30 young men and boys in the 1970s

“Brian actually developed a pen pal relationship with John,” Sullivan says. “He kept this pile of letters and photos from John Wayne Gacy in his nightstand next to his bed.”

James Marsden and Other Actors Once Defended Brian Peck with Letters of Support
Quiet on Set also recounts the actors who wrote letters of support for Brian Peck when the disgraced former dialogue coach was set to be sentenced in 2004 for sexually abusing Bell.

It’s not clear how much about the charges those who spoke out in support of Peck knew at the time.

In his letter of support for Peck, James Marsden wrote, “I assure you what Brian has been through in the last year is the suffering of 100 men,” adding that he has known Peck since he was a teenager. A representative for Marsden did not respond to a previous request for comment from PEOPLE.

Peck, who appeared on two episodes of Boy Meets World, also received letters of support from two of the show’s stars, Will Friedle and Rider Strong. Though they did not immediately respond to previous requests for comment from PEOPLE, Friedle and Strong addressed the letters as well as their appearances at the sentencing hearing on their podcast, Pod Meets World. Both expressed regret for supporting Peck.

Other actors who the docuseries says wrote letters in support of Peck include Alan Thicke — who died in 2016 — SNL alum Taran Killam, Growing Pains star Joanna Kerns and Twin Peaks actress Kimmy Robertson. X-Men producer Tom DeSanto was also named in Quiet on Set as having written a letter. Killam and Robertson could not be reached for comment.

In a statement featured in Quiet on Set, Kerns expressed regret over having written her letter.

“I have now learned that my letter of support was based on complete misinformation,” Kerns said. “Knowing what I know now, I would never have written the letter.”

The series also notes that neither Schneider nor any top Nickelodeon executives wrote letters in support of Peck.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brian Peck Are Briefly Shown on Set of ABC's 'Growing Pains'
In the ID docuseries, an archival clip is shown of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brian Peck on the set of ABC sitcom Growing Pains. During an interview with Drake Bell’s father, Joe Bell — who managed his son’s career before Peck stepped in — Joe recalls the first time he met Peck on the set of The Amanda Show.

Joe says he was told that Peck was a skilled coach who could help his son to book more acting gigs. People had told him that Peck had even worked with DiCaprio, Joe says.

While Joe says he was “always within eye distance” of Peck and Bell as they worked together, he started to become uncomfortable with the relationship that was developing between them. He claims that while his son was in his dressing room, Peck would touch Bell in front of others in ways that made him question Peck’s intentions.

Joe also says he frequently saw Peck wrap his arms around Bell’s waist while feeding him lines, or place his hand on Bell's shoulder and "kind of run it down his arm." He compared the behavior to a video he once saw — which is also shown on Quiet on Set — of Peck with a young DiCaprio behind the scenes of Growing Pains.

Female Writers Accuse Dan Schneider of Making Them Give Him Massages
The docuseries explores the unusual tasks allegedly assigned to female writers on The Amanda Show by Dan Schneider, such as continuously massaging him in front of other writers and crew members.

Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen, who were featured in the docuseries, were hired for The Amanda Show in 1999. They were the show's sole female writers, and they both split a single salary between the two of them, the docuseries reveals.

Kilgen claimed in the docuseries that Schneider "didn't think women were funny," showed pornography from his computer and pressured others to publicly perform uncomfortable activities — like allegedly asking Stratton to tell a story like she was being "sodomized" — as jokes.

“Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship,” Stratton alleges in the docuseries.

Kilgen also talks about the meaning behind the name of The Amanda Show character “Penelope Taynt,” claiming Schneider was inspired by the word “taint," a term used to refer to the perineum.

“Dan had said to us in the writers room, ‘Don’t tell what this word really means.’ He wanted us to keep that a secret,” Kilgen alleges.

According to the docuseries, Kilgen and her lawyer filed complaints against the production company for gender discrimination, hostile work environment and harassment. While a settlement was reached and an internal investigation completed, Kilgen claims her career suffered as a result.

In a statement to PEOPLE, a spokesperson for Schneider said, “Nothing has been alleged about Dan other than him being a tough boss who got into disagreements with other adult executives at Nickelodeon and when Dan departed Nickelodeon a full investigation was done and again, that’s all that they found.”

Former Nickelodeon stars have shared their reactions to Quiet on Set, the Investigation Discovery documentary series that explores allegations of unsafe work environments on the sets of multiple hit shows created by the producer Dan Schneider. On Thursday, Josh Peck, who co-led the show Drake & Josh with Drake Bell, released a statement on Instagram addressing Bell speaking out in the docuseries about being sexually assaulted by Brian Peck (no relation to Josh Peck), a dialogue coach at Nickelodeon.

“I finished the Quiet On Set documentary and took a few days to process it,” Peck wrote. “I reached out to Drake privately, but wanted to give my support for the survivors who were brave enough to share their stories of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets with the world.”

He added: “Children should be protected. Reliving this publicly is incredibly difficult, but I hope it can bring healing for the victims and their families as well as necessary change to our industry.”

Bell and Peck played stepbrothers on Drake & Josh, which ran from 2004 to 2007. After Quiet on Set aired on Max on March 17, social media users kept a close eye on Peck’s TikTok and Instagram accounts to see if he would say anything in response. On Monday, Peck posted a video on TikTok where he’s lip-syncing to an audio that says, “If I haven’t talked to you since 2023, take that as a sign that you don’t exist to me anymore.”

Viewers took this as a slight toward Bell because in 2022, Peck said that he and Bell were no longer friends on Dave Portnoy, Josh Richards, and Brianna Chickenfry’s podcast. “Drake & Josh is something I’ll be synonymous with forever, and I’m proud of it. And I want to like the guy that my name is attached to forever, but unfortunately, it just sort of worked out the way that it did,” he said.

On Wednesday, Bell posted a TikTok video addressing the comments about Peck and rumors that he’s been unsupportive, telling his followers to “take it a little easy on him.” The video amassed over 21 million views in less than a day.

Peck is not the only former Nickelodeon star that has spoken out. Bell’s former TV mom, Nancy Sullivan, posted a statement on Instagram on Wednesday saying, “It broke my heart into a million pieces to hear just how much Drake was holding inside while we were working together. I was both devastated and proud seeing the man he's grown into sit down on camera and bravely tell his truth.”

Not everyone’s comments were positive. Devon Werkheiser, who was in Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, and a few of the cast members from the show were criticized for making light of the docuseries in a TikTok livestream. In a clip of the livestream that was later posted to X, Werkheiser makes a joke and then says, “Sorry, we shouldn’t joke about this. We really shouldn’t. ... Listen, our set was not like that. And no, it’s f-cking awful. The Drake Bell sh-t, that’s crazy to hear.”

Bell called Werkeheiser out on X and quote-tweeted a clip of the live stream and said, “Ned’s Declassless…this is wild…laugh it up guys…laugh it up.”

Werkheiser later apologized for “being an idiot.” In a statement posted on X on Tuesday, he said, “I feel horrible that my dumbass was even speaking about it without seeing it.”

He ends the statement by saying that he’s “truly heartbroken about what [his] fellow actors went through” and is “sorry for compounding any hurt.”

Ex-Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider is speaking out after accusations of inappropriate and abusive behavior were made against him in the new docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV."

Schneider, who was behind popular children's shows such as "The Amanda Show," "Victorious" and "Drake and Josh," responded to some of the allegations in an interview on his YouTube page with "iCarly" actor BooG!e. He said it was "very difficult" to watch all four episodes of the Investigation Discovery special, which aired Sunday and Monday night.

"Facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret," he said. "I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology."

Even before the release of "Quiet on Set," Schneider had faced criticism for including sexually suggestive jokes in his shows meant for children. Schneider said he's in favor of cutting those jokes from his shows if viewers find them upsetting.

"Every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny — and only funny," he said. "Now, we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens and they're looking at them and they're saying, 'I don't think that's inappropriate for a kids' show.' And I have no problem with that... Let's cut those jokes out of the show."

Schneider also refuted the idea that he had complete control over the content that eventually made it on his shows, saying "there were many, many levels of scrutiny," pointing out executives from the company, crewmembers, parents and other adults on set could have raised objections. The documentary, however, portrayed Schneider as vindictive, volatile and hard to sway.

Another accusation made against Schneider in "Quiet on Set" was that he mistreated two female writers by having them split a single staff writer's salary. Schneider said he personally had "nothing to do" with paying writers or determining their salaries, but also noted it was "common practice" for first-time writers to split salaries. Schneider also admitted it was wrong for him to ask for massages on set — another allegation made during the docuseries.

"I apologize to anyone I ever put in that situation," he said.

Schneider also said he was not responsible for hiring Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who in 2004 was sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of child sex abuse. The victim's name was sealed at the time, but in "Quiet on Set," actor Drake Bell revealed he was the one who had been sexually assaulted by Peck, who met Bell while working on "The Amanda Show."

Schneider said that when Bell told him about the assault, he was "more devastated by that than anything that ever happened to me in my career, thus far."

Former "Zoey 101" actor Alexa Nikolas, who has been a vocal critic of Schneider's, slammed the former producer's comments on Tuesday and said she would have preferred a private apology, instead of a public statement.

"I don't even feel any remorse from him," she said in a YouTube live stream after Schneider's interview. "He's not even crying. I know everyone deals with their own emotions in their own way, but I don't feel anything from you, Dan. I don't feel a thing."

In response to alleged behaviors on past production sets, a Nickelodeon spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that it can't "corroborate or negate allegations from productions decades ago."

Supporters of former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell have rallied behind him after he came forward with his child sexual abuse story in an explosive docuseries. But some people have gone to extremes, harassing women who previously shared their own abuse allegations against Bell, who pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment in 2021.

In the wake of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” dozens of TikTok videos have been published discussing the child endangerment case, casting doubt on his alleged victims’ claims of abuse against Bell. Some have received millions of views. Some commenters under these videos called the victim in the case a liar, comparing her to the actor Amber Heard (who was similarly attacked online for her claims of abuse) and speculating that she was hired by Bell’s convicted abuser Brian Peck to destroy him. Peck didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Melissa Lingafelt, Bell’s ex-partner who separately accused the actor in 2020 of physical and emotional abuse, which he denied, shared on her Instagram Stories last week that she had received harassment from his fans after the docuseries debuted. A representative for Bell declined to comment.

The attacks on Bell’s accusers fit into a larger pattern of social media being used to harass, demean and discredit female victims of sexual violence and abuse. In Bell’s case, experts who study gender and psychology said that onlookers often struggle to recognize that a perpetrator can also have been a victim, even though perpetrators have often been victimized in the past.

“In our culture, we just want people to be good or evil,” said Carine Mardorossian, a University at Buffalo professor who authored “Framing the Rape Victim: Gender and Agency Reconsidered.” She said that in the search for the “good” or “bad” person in a nuanced scenario, oftentimes, “more harm than good” is done.

The internet particularly seized on the allegations of child sexual abuse that Bell made against Nickelodeon dialogue coach Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious acts with a 14- or 15-year-old child and oral copulation with a minor under 16 in 2004. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison. The minor in the case, who was previously identified as John Doe, is revealed to be Bell in the docuseries. Peck has not responded to multiple requests for comment from NBC News.

Following the docuseries’ release, some people have responded to Bell’s experience by defending him against women who have accused him of sexual misconduct in the past.

TikToks with as many as 8.4 million views claim that Bell was falsely accused during his 2021 court case. The viral videos show court footage of the anonymous female victim and some even include her name. TikTok recommends suggested search terms at the bottom of many videos, and at least one of the recommended search terms about Bell’s 2021 sentencing included the victim's real first name. Most of the court documents were sealed to protect her privacy. After NBC News reached out, TikTok said it removed the search suggestion with the woman's real first name for violating its community guidelines.