Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

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.

I feel as tho the producers of the show were trying very hard to cast Dan Schneider as this really bad guy in the first 2 episodes, but were short on actual evidence of it. Was he a saint? No, and he absolutely did some very weird and inappropriate things on set, but nothing that I saw in this doc made my jaw drop, especially when it pertains to Hollywood. Again, There is no excusing the behavior, but when you consider the environment back then and the fact that Dan is regretful for his actions at the time, I think it was a bit over the top. Some of the gags that they were calling sexual were a bit of a stretch to. Getting squirt in the face, comparing pickles to male genitalia? Not everything is secretly nefarious in nature. And no sexually deviant evidence is ever brought up that would suggest Dan Schneider was sexually abusing kids on the set. Certainly there were things that were over the top and repugnant in the writers room, like the example of the lady being coerced into acting like she was being sodimized as part of a gag in the writers room in order to get laughs. That made me cringe for sure and there is no excusing that behavior. Former actors and actresses that they brought on gave some decent insight and I can sympathize with them to an extent, but I also felt some where jilted about not having as much success as they would have liked in a cutthroat business where few make it to stardom. I definitely felt for them, because when you are that young you are obviously going to be naive and believe fame and fortune are heading your way, but not everyone can be center stage unfortunately. Thats just the business and I feel as tho their parents or guardians weren't relaying that to them at the time which is unfortunate. Learning about the sexual predators on set was by far the most gut wrenching aspect of this documentary, and they did do a great job of pointing that out and letting Drake Bell tell his story. It was also revolting to learn that the man who abused him was set free quickly and was very briefly allowed to be back on a children's tv show. Truly disturbing.

Overall, it's a decent documentary that could have been better if they just would have stuck to the facts and not tried to make Dan into this nefarious villain who traumatized the children he worked with. Again, there were definitely some bad things he did, but the constant portrayal of him being a bully tyrant who couldn't care less about the kids actually made me sympathetic toward him a little in the end. If they would have stuck with the facts and hard evidence on hand it would have made for a better documentary j my opinion.

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.

These kids were completely let down by all the adults who had one job - protecting them. Absolutely heartbreaking testimonies from witnesses and victims.

Nickelodeon was unknown to me (as living in another continent) prior to this documentary and I didn't know so many celebs started out there on these shows. So in that sense very educational. What is actually wrong with show business in the US, I have to wonder.

The style of the documentary was not to my taste though and I wish the seriousness of the topic would've been respected more by choosing a more grounded tone. Now it looks too cheap at times and was annoying to follow with all the fast cuts and back and forths.

Recommended regardless.

Episodes 1,2 & 4 were essentially a bunch of people complaining that Dan Schneider was a bad boss. I'm sure it's very probable that he was, and there were many cringeworthy things that he did. This sort of thing goes on in all types workplaces and it would be great if something would be done about it. It's presented in a way, however, that what went on was exceptional - this is what bugged me. We have all heard stories about the rampant abuse in Hollywood. I was expecting some sort of exposé of this. It's almost as if this documentary was thrown out there to cover up what really goes on in Hollywood - ie 'outside of Harvey Weinstein, this is the worst we have uncovered'

The standout episode was episode 3. It was truly heartbreaking. Drake Bell was very brave to sit in front of the camera and talk about what happened to him. This is what someone telling the truth looks like. Watching his father crying over not being able to protect his son brought me to tears. I'm sure this type of thing has gone on in Hollywood for many decades, which is moreso what I was anticipating this documentary to uncover.

I rate Quiet on Set overall as a 7 - for episode 3 alone (which deserves a 10)