Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

Wow so much darker and more disturbing than I was expecting, so glad I watched this. I have never seen a documentary bring the topic kids side of TV to such light. This was incredibly sad and yet so captivating. I was literally in the edge of my seat through the second half. I really hope this documentary changes things in the industry. Wanting, if you watch this be prepared to never enjoy watching your favorite Nickelodeon shows again. This was so incredibly heartbreaking and I expect it to sit with me for a few days. Everyone who shared their story was incredibly brave and it means so much for the kids that are being protected through bringing this darkness to the surface.

The only villains in this story, other than the monstrous child predators, are the adults, parents and members on the set, who chose to do nothing when they could've spoken up and been the heroes. Instead, they put their own careers ahead of doing the right thing and keep quiet until now. The gutless mother of Brandi, who struggled whether or not to involve police, after her daughter was victimized by Jason Handy, should be ashamed!!! As a parent and grandparent, I found her story and her tears unconvincing. She completely failed her daughter and is a lousy example of a mother. This series should serve as a lesson to others, but I found myself frustrated and infuriated the whole time I watched it.

Many people know sexual harassment, sexual assault and predation has been happening in Hollywood for decades.

"Quiet on the Set" covers Nickelodeon's rise with creator, Dan Schneider, and some of his less-than-tasteful actions to the discovery of three sex offenders working among them. It is an interesting documentary that will hopefully give confidence to those who were previously afraid to speak out.

It's very disheartening to see the support given to one of the offenders by many of Hollywood's "elite". To then find out the offender, not only didn't serve any time for his crimes, but went on to be employed by Disney working on another kid's program.

It's a disgusting look at how the industry turns a blind-eye in keeping kids safe from these people. I certainly hope this documentary will prompt a huge step toward shutting these criminals down and ensuring kids are safe without the almighty dollar being the bottom line.

Docu-series dealing with troublesome or traumatic events are always tricky. While I believe that such stories need to be told, it is difficult (sometimes downright impossible) to do so with objectivity and clear-headedness. Somewhat unfortunately, Quiet on the Set gets that balance wrong, for the most part-but also features one gut-wrenching story that has the potential (I think) to spur real change.

The first, second, and fourth episodes of Quiet on the Set are pretty poor from a journalistic perspective. Ostensibly, the goal from directors Mary Robertson & Emma Schwartz seems to be to implicate Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider as a child molester. There is, however, no hard or tangible evidence to point to in this reckoning. As such, viewers get three episodes of circumstantial suppositions and a guilt-by-association angle of trying to link Schneider to other Nick employees who were documented child predators. I do not support such journalism. Was Schneider a weirdo who should not have been afforded as much reign with children as he had? Almost certainly. Am I going to condemn his entire career/reputation based on the scraps of "evidence" this doc submits? Certainly not.

Throughout those three episodes the doc also suffers from the "hindsight is 20/20" problem from nearly all its commentators. To a person, everyone says "someone should have done something to stop this"-but all also come up with excuses as to why they did nothing. It doesn't work both ways like that. One can have regrets for actions or inactions of the past, to be sure, but I have no sympathy for complaining about it and smearing the reputation of others years after the fact. Had any one of these many individuals "blown the whistle" sooner, perhaps much trauma could have been avoided.

On those three eps alone, I'd give this doc maybe 4 stars. So, why the 7-star rating overall? Because the third episode is an important, gut-wrenching tale from star Drake Bell. To me, he seems to be perhaps the only grounded, clear-headed thinker in this entire production. Not only does he tactfully tell a traumatic story (one of legitimate-not supposed-sexual assault), but he does so with a thoughtfulness one might not expect from such a young man. My heart broke for what he went through, but if any good or meaningful change comes from this whole ordeal it will be on the back of his harrowing stories.

So, though the rest of this doc is "tenuous at best", I'll give it a 7/10 overall because of that one extremely compelling story. I hope other viewers are able to separate fact from speculation and not fall into the easily-accessible trap of "guilt by association" that Quiet on the Set is eager to spring.

This is a story that needs to be told. 5 minutes into the first episode and I was already sick to my stomach. I can't even imagine what else was happening behind closed doors seeing what was even allowed to air.

Really engrossing documentary so far and its utterly shocking seeing everything that was allowed and pushed under the rug simply due to the fact that the shows were getting viewers and making money.

I genuinely feel sick I cannot stress it enough, just be advised before you watch. The conditions these literal children were put in at the hands of a disgusting pervert and writers, coaches that allowed it to happen will trigger you. Nervous to even finish the last two parts.