Former Nickelodeon Producer Dan Schneider Sues “Quiet on Set” Creators

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Nickelodeon producer and writer Dan Schneider sued the creators of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” on Wednesday, alleging that the docu-series creators wrongly implied that he sexually abused minor actors. of age with whom he worked.

Schneider filed the defamation lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery and other companies behind the series in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Schneider, who himself was an actor as a teenager, was a central figure in Nickelodeon’s dominance of children’s television in the 1990s and 2000s with his work on the shows “All That,” “The Amanda Show” and “ Kenan & Kel” and as an executive producer on shows such as “Zoey 101,” “iCarly” and “Victorious.”

He is also a key figure in “Quiet on Set,” which aired on true crime cable channel ID in March and is currently available on Max and has caused quite a stir among former stars of the shows and Nickelodeon viewers.

The documentary includes interviews with the cast and crew to describe the sexualization of minors working on the shows and a toxic and abusive work environment that many said Schneider was responsible for. It also includes descriptions of sexual abuse of underage actors, including members of “The Amanda Show” and Drake Bell of “Drake & Josh” by members of the production team who were later found guilty of it.

But Schneider, who parted ways with Nickelodeon in 2018, said in the lawsuit that the “Quiet on Set” trailer and episodes of the show deliberately mix and juxtapose images and mentions of him with sexual abusers to imply that he was involved.

“Schneider’s portrayal in ‘Quiet on Set’ is a premeditated criminal act,” the lawsuit says. “While it is indisputable that two child sexual abusers worked on Nickelodeon shows, it is also indisputable that Schneider had no knowledge of their abuse, was not complicit in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it was discovered, and, what is Most importantly, he was not a child sexual abuser.”

The lawsuit names as defendants Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of ID and Max, and the show’s producers, Sony Pictures Television and Maxine Productions.

Emails seeking comment were sent to representatives of all three companies, but no response was received.

The four-part series suggests that Schneider’s shows had a tendency to put young women in comical situations with sexual implications, and depicts him as an angry and emotionally abusive boss.

It includes direct accusations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination by women who worked as screenwriters under his direction on “All That.” The women alleged that he showed pornography on her computer in her presence in the writers’ room and asked for massages, joking that this would lead to the sketches the women did for the show, which Schneider has denied.

It also includes an interview with Bell in which she describes “extensive” and “brutal” sexual abuse by a speech coach when she was 15, and with the mother of another minor who was sexually abused by a member of the production team. .

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Bell has done.

After the documentary premiered, Schneider apologized extensively in a YouTube video for “past behavior, some of which is embarrassing and which I regret.”

But the lawsuit says the show and especially its trailer unfairly implicate him in child sexual abuse by showing footage of him, including some with his arm around young actors, discussing an environment that was unsafe for them.

The lawsuit seeks compensation to be determined in a trial after what it describes as “the destruction of Schneider’s reputation and legacy” through “false statements and implications.”

Nickelodeon, which is not involved in the lawsuit, said in a statement about the series that it cannot “corroborate or deny” the decades-old allegations, but it investigates all formal complaints and has rigorous protocols for working minors.

“Our top priorities are the well-being and interests of not only our employees, cast and crew, but all children,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement, “and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help to ensure that we live up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”