The follow-up to Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV doesn’t have many bombshells to offer. Instead, it’s designed to capitalize on and legitimize the ID docuseries, by bringing in journalist Soledad O’Brien to do additional interviews with the series’ subjects (plus one new interview with a different All That cast member, who doesn’t have much to add). The bonus episode “Breaking The Silence,” which aired on Sunday, does have the benefit of being filmed after the Quiet On Set had already made a splash online. The response was so overwhelming that it prompted a response from Dan Schneider, who was at the center of many of the show’s toxic workplace allegations. But the former child stars from Quiet On Set aren’t accepting any apology Schneider has to give.
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“Dan was an actor before all of this. And so I think he brushed off some chops and gave us a nice performance,” All That alum Brian Hearne said of Schneider’s video response. “Where was all of this apologizing when Jeannette McCurdy’s book came out?” Both Hearne and Giovonnie Samuels feel that All That’s jokes were inappropriate in ways they couldn’t understand when they were child actors. As for Schneider’s insistence that he was a champion of diversity, they laughed it off—particularly because, as the only two Black performers in their All That cast, he didn’t even mention them by name in his video “apology.”
Perhaps that’s because Schneider reached out to Samuels before the documentary aired looking for a quote of support, which she declined. “He asked because I did come back to do Henry Danger, which was some time later. He was like, ‘You had a good time on set, right? Right?’ … I told him I was terrified of him,” Samels revealed. “I said, you have the power to make people stars. And I was intimidated by you. I wanted to do a good job.”
Drake Bell, who was also interviewed in the bonus episode, said that seeing the accusations against Schneider in the video was “really hard to watch, because I can only speak from my experience. And I can’t take away from anyone else’s experience.” Bell didn’t have a negative experience with Schneider; instead, when he was dealing with the fallout from his sexual abuse case against Brian Peck, “Dan was really the only one from the network that even made an effort to help me and make sure I was okay.”
Bell, who himself pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges in 2021, said it “boggles [his] mind” that there wasn’t more of a scandal at Nickelodeon surrounding Peck’s abuse of him as a minor. He came to the defense of both his parents as well as his former co-star Josh Peck, who had taken some heat online for his perceived reaction to Bell’s revelation. (“[At] the end of the day, we have such a close connection, and this unique bond that’s so rare in this industry,” Bell said, adding that Josh is “a really great person.”) But regarding the Brian Peck supporters (like Will Friedle and Rider Strong) who have since voiced their regret for backing him during the trial, Bell said he appreciates “their perspective now,” but it doesn’t change his own feelings about the trial and seeing all the “recognizable” Hollywood figures backing his abuser. “Not one person who’s written one of those letters has reached out to me,” Bell said.