Table of Contents 64q43
Before we get into Nickelodeon's controversies, let's the history of the channel and how important it was for television and pop culture in the 2000s. “Nick” was part of many people's childhood and adolescence, but nostalgia has been coming lately turning into shock and surprise due to the latest events and accusations by the actors themselves and artists in general who had some level of and participation within the broadcaster. Understand better everything that is happening. 3o3j1
It is important to note that In this article we mention assaults and situations involving sexual abuse, so if you have any type of trigger due to these points, I suggest not delving deeper.
History of “Nick” and relevance 6n6p3e
Nickelodeon is an American pay television channel founded in 1977 and launched as Pinwheel. Originally, it broadcast commercial-free educational programs. Starting in 1979, the network officially changed its name to Nickelodeon and expanded the concept of original programming to include sketch shows. You Can't Do That on Television, which ran for five seasons. This series was a milestone because it was responsible for the first iconic and frequent use of slime on the channel.
Along with Disney Channel, it is considered one of the most popular channels that brought entertainment to children and teenagers at a time with limited options. Through drawings and series such as Drake & Josh, iCarly, Zoey 101, The fairly Oddparents e Rugrats: The Little Angels and young artists as protagonists, the public identified and the channel became even more famous, contributing to shaping pop culture.
In 1991, Nickelodeon began broadcasting cartoons such as Doug (1991-1994) and Rugrats: The Little Angels (1991-2003). By this time, the mid-1990s, the station had already become the number one cable television channel when it came to daily viewers. Titles that came later, such as the cartoon Sponge Bob Square Pants (1999-present) and iCarly (2007-2012) were among the highest-rated programs in the United States.
Additionally, since 1995, Nickelodeon has been producing children's films, including adaptations and sequels of popular books and Nick's own television series. Two successful examples were the Rugrats movie, The little Angels (1998), which became the first non-Disney animated film to gross more than $100 million, and Range (2011) which won the Oscar for Best Animated Film in 2012.
Main series and artists 314r3i
Like Disney, Nickelodeon also had a cast of children and teenagers for its teen series, which in their time became a rage among the public. Here we some of them and their main actors.
The Naked Brothers Band (2007-2009) 6q265
Em The Naked Brothers Band, each episode features a new song and shows the adventures of these little stars, on and off the film sets. The camera follows Nat and Alex at shows, rehearsals and in private, as they try to grow up dealing with issues such as rivalry, romance, music and other problems. The series had three seasons.
Brilliant Victoria (2010-2013) 55602t
Also known by its original title Victorious, the four-season series followed the life of teenager Tori (Victoria Justice) and the moment she was invited to a Hollywood high school specializing in the arts. From that moment on, Tori meets other iconic characters who will play an important part in her life and the misadventures she encounters along the way. In addition to Justice, the series starred Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Gillies, Avan Jogia, Leon Thomas III and Matt Bennett.
With a strong main cast that featured Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Nancy Sullivan, Jonathan Goldstein and Miranda Cosgrove, Drake & Josh was one of Nickelodeon's most popular and entertaining series, lasting four seasons.
The story revolves around the relationship between two half-brothers who are basically opposites of each other and need to find a way to live together in peace. While Drake (Drake Bell) was very popular at school and managed to develop his talents, Josh (Josh Peck) was a nerdy boy who had a lot of difficulties when it came to socializing.
iCarly (2007-2012) 3b164a
Definitely one of Nickelodeon's most famous series. There were seven seasons, four special episodes, a film and a revival.
In the story, Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) has her life radically changed when her internet program becomes a success among young people. As her parents are away, Carly must rely on the help of her brother and friends to manage her newfound fame. In addition to Cosgrove, the series also featured actors such as Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor.
With just one season, Sam & Cat is a spin off of iCarly e Brilliant victory starring Sam Puckett (Jennette McCurdy) and Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande), two emblematic characters from iCarly e Brilliant victory, respectively. The pair meet and become friends when Sam moves to Los Angeles. They soon start a babysitting job, which takes them on many fun and crazy adventures.
Big Time Rush (2009-2013) 6c662f
With four seasons, Nick presented its own boy band with the series Big Time Rush (which eventually also became a band). It features four hockey players James (James Maslow), Kendall (Kendall Schmidt), Logan (Logan Henderson) and Carlos (Carlos Pena Jr.), who are invited to form a boy band and accept the challenge.
For four seasons, we follow Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell), a pair of friends who are together in every mess they face. Being an unbeatable pair, each one has their own personality and together they make everything much more fun amidst the confusion.
Ned's School Survival Handbook (2004-2007) 582g58
In English, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, the three-season series follows the lives of Ned Bigby (Devon Werkheiser), and his friends Cookie (Daniel Curtis Lee) and Moze (Lindsey Shaw) as they try to survive adventures and mischief at school.
As the title suggests, Ned uses a complete manual that has tips for surviving the classic situations that we usually face at school, such as bullying boys, harsh teachers and break times.
Zoey 101 (2005-2008) g1k4x
With four seasons, this series was probably one of Nickelodeon's most expensive. It starts with the fact that the protagonist, Zoey Brooks, was played by Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney Spears' younger sister. In the series, she goes to study at a boarding school and makes a series of new friends. The school was for boys only, but with the arrival of the girls, love is in the air.
Dark stories 4zx38
Behind all this success, Nickelodeon's dark reports and controversies eventually began. One of the most active artists in denouncing what happened behind the scenes is Alexa Nikolas, who played Nicole Bristow in the series Zoey 101, as well as other talents who decided to open up as soon as the documentary series Quiet on Set began to be produced.
In interviews, she even emphasized that young artists were frequently subjected to sexually suggestive scenes. At least four studio professionals have been accused of misconduct and child abuse, including assistant Jason Handy, former dialogue and acting coach Brian Peck, freelancer Ezel Channel and the extremely abusive and misogynistic behavior of Dan Schneider, director of many of the programs broadcast.
In one of the speeches, Alexa explains that the lines are very fine between what is inappropriate and what is appropriate. This is because someone in real life can signal what is inappropriate, while on screen, they teach that in Hollywood it is appropriate because it is a make-believe story, it is not real life. It's a role played, it's just lines. These producers repeat this logic so that the child, even if they find everything very strange, understands what can come naturally.
Furthermore, in her interview with Newsweek, Alexa Nikolas also claimed that one of the writers was present at the costume fittings for the series' recording. Zoey 101 when she was just 12 years old and took polaroid photos of herself dressed in short skirts, with the excuse of it being a tool for creative control.
In the meantime, Alexa Nikolas founded the movement Eat Predators, an activist group aiming to protest predatory behavior. For years, the former Nickelodeon star has spoken out about the network's toxic behind-the-scenes environment and all the abuse she and other child actors at the time suffered while working for the channel.
She was not the first or only one to comment on cases of abuse on Nickelodeon, nor on the ambiguous meanings of some of the channel's sketches. Several talents came forward to reveal what happened behind the scenes and how they were forced to participate in scenes that included sexually suggestive jokes or racist speech.
In fact, Drake Bell himself, one of the main talents in the house, revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse by acting and dialogue coach Brian Peck, who also appeared in small roles while working at Nickelodeon. At the time of the accusation, Bell kept his identity secret, only after a long time did he open up about the matter.
The actor even described how Peck acted towards him. The ab purposely created a barrier between Drake and his father, Joel Bell, so that he could spend more time with the young man, who in turn had a recurring role in the series O Amanda Show before having his own show as a protagonist, the Drake & JoshIn 2004.
As a result, Peck began taking Drake to auditions and then letting him sleep at his house, with the excuse that it was too late to take the teenager home. The actor said that, on one of those nights, he woke up on the couch, where he always slept, and saw Peck sexually assaulting him. “I was paralyzed and in complete shock, not knowing what to do or how to react. I didn't know how to get out of this situation”, revealed Bell in an interview with the documentary Quiet on Set.
He recalls that Brian Peck even apologized, but the abuse didn't stop there. Still, Bell couldn't tell anyone, until his then-girlfriend's mother realized something was wrong and took him to a therapist. The actor's biggest fear was that if he said anything, his career would be ruined.
The longer he held onto this situation, the worse it got. Until he finally “exploded” and told everything to his mother, who promptly called the police. Bell had to tell detectives all the details of the abuse and then call Peck to get him to confess while the police listened. It worked and he was arrested in 2003 and forced to as a sex offender.
Furthermore, former talents from the network report that Nickelodeon's controversies don't stop there and have many more reports. Some commented on feeling uncomfortable at the time about some of the clothing they were forced to wear, and also about several crude double-entendre jokes that were still broadcast to all of the channel's viewers.
For example, Leo Frierson, who participated in the series All That, re having to wear pantyhose and skin-colored underwear to play a superhero called “Nose Boy” who used accessories that resembled a penis and testicles on his shoulders. Frierson says that in one of the scenes, the character needed to sneeze and a drop hit a girl in the face. This issue of viscous liquids hitting girls' faces was not an isolated case, it was a recurring joke in several Nickelodeon series.
Katrina Johnson, who also participated in the series All That, says that she didn't act much after that and that some details from the period she worked at Nickelodeon still haunt her. She says that one day, one of the producers called her at home to talk to her parents about the fact that the young woman was gaining weight and that she couldn't get fat, since the program already has a fat person at its core. Shortly after this episode, Johnson entered puberty and was replaced by younger versions.
And more Nickelodeon scandals loom All That, now with Bryan Christopher Hearne who participated in the seventh and eighth seasons. His role was to play “the youngest rapper of all time”, yet another character with very tight clothing. The actor said in an interview that he heard someone on the film set reinforce that “the skin tone should be charcoal”.
This phrase he heard when he was young really affected his psychology. But at the time, like the other talents, he was afraid to tell his mother, Tracey Browne, who had already established a reputation on the network for defending her son in every way – something that was frowned upon on the recording sets.
But the racism that circulated behind the scenes was no secret. It was noticeable that Hearne was only called for roles that reinforced black stereotypes. For example, the character who sold cookies as a Boy Scout in a tone as if he was selling drugs.
His co-star, Kyle Sullivan, despite having criticized Dan Schneider and itting that he found the tone of the jokes strange, commented in an interview that he generally had a good relationship with Schneider. But Hearne counters by saying that the director actually had a pleasant relationship with white boys.
And to try to combat the Nickelodeon controversies – one of the – involving his name, Schneider's spokesperson contested this statement saying that there was a prominent participation of black actors in his television programs.
But it wasn't just children and teenagers at the time who the Nickelodeon scandal and how the network turned out to be a toxic workplace, especially in the series directed by Schneider. Screenwriter Jenny Kilgen said in an interview with Quiet on Set that when she and writer-producer Christy Stratton were hired to Amanda's Show, they asked them to share the salary – the total being what a single screenwriter should generally earn.
But since Kilgen really wanted the job, she accepted. In fact, she and Stratton accepted a lot of things, including Dan Schneider calling them “the girls” instead of referring to them by their names. To top it off, the duo commented that Schneider made misogynistic comments stating that women are not funny, in addition to playing humiliating jokes.
Later on, we will talk a little more about Dan Schneider, the main accused. But here, we also another moment when the director created the character Penelope Taynt for Amanda Bynes to play in the Amanda's Show. The writing duo were instructed not to tell Nickelodeon executives that the name had an intentional sexual double meaning, so they ended up following the instructions out of fear of what might happen to their jobs.
When Jenny Kilgen sought her rights and discovered that the salary split as it was being done was against union rules, she promptly flagged this situation. After that, she says that Schneider threatened her, saying that if she found out that she was the one who reported him, she would never work at the channel or any other Viacom company again.
Regarding the various positions raised in the documentary Quiet on Set, Nickelodeon spoke on NBC News with an official statement:
While we cannot corroborate or deny allegations of behavior from decades-old productions, Nickelodeon, as a matter of policy, investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to promoting a safe and professional work environment free from harassment or other types of of inappropriate conduct. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests of not only our employees, cast and crew, but all children, and we have adopted a number of protective measures over the years to help ensure we are meeting our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.
Official announcement
Accusations against Dan Schneider (and responses) 3x74t
Before delving into the cases of abuse at Nickelodeon by Dan Schneider, let's start at the beginning. Who is the director?
Defined as Nickelodeon's prodigy, Dan Schneider was responsible for creating the channel's most successful series. Some sources close to the network say that his imminent success allowed him to be an abusive person behind the scenes.
His career at Nickelodeon began in the 1990s when he signed on as a writer and producer for a few shows. He created Amanda's Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 e Icarly. In 2018, he was removed from the channel after being accused of being abusive in the workplace.
As soon as Jennette McCurdy, one of the main stars of iCarly, released his memoir I'm Happy My Mom Died, speculation began among readers about some reports being in relation to Dan Schneider. In Ligo, she reports situations in which an executive pressured her to drink alcohol, gave her unwanted massages and spent time pitting young actors against each other.
And in fact, McCurdy and Ariana Grande (both of whom performed together in Sam & Cat), filed some complaints against one of the producers of the Nickelodeon series. An investigation launched in 2013 ended up uncovering inappropriate behavior on that set. From this, it was concluded that Schneider had contributed to the work environment being extremely toxic.
Between 2017 and 2018, Nick's owner, Viacom CBS, opened another investigation into alleged cases of abuse at Nickelodeon by Schneider. Although they found no evidence of inappropriate conduct at the time, he was found to be verbally abusive.
Nickelodeon's former president of content and production, Russell Hicks, spoke out by pointing out that a team in charge of standards and practices read all of Schneider's series scripts. He also alleges that the programming executives watched all the episodes and the parents or guardians of the children and teenagers were always present on the set.
However, Alexa Nikolas returns to make some statements. She claims to have seen Schneider invite an underage talent from the cast to his house without his parents present and also to have seen him send messages to some children outside of work.
According to Business Insider's investigation, the director actually had a habit of taking young actors to dinners, inviting them to his home for holiday parties and even delaying his work on writing the scripts so he could socialize with them on the recording set.
The actress and activist also alleged that among Nickelodeon's controversies involving Dan Schneider is the fact that he asked for photos of underage actors' feet and paid a fee if they accepted. In an interview with Newsweek, she added: “My mom wouldn't let me do that, so I never took pictures of my feet. But other cast did and he would walk around with dollar bills and give them those bills to take a picture of his feet“. Because they were children and young people, they probably didn't see the sexual nature of this request and just found it all very funny.
Amid this Nickelodeon scandal, in a 2021 interview with The New York Times, Schneider once again said he was never inappropriate with the behind-the-scenes team. “I could not, and would not, have the long-term friendships and continued loyalty of so many respectable people if I had mistreated my actors of any age, especially minors.,” Schneider told the newspaper.
In another interview with Business Insider, actress Lori Beth revealed that the director, who was head writer of the series All That throughout the seasons, he showed her pornography videos on his office computer, initiated phone sex with her on one occasion, and committed other acts of misconduct when she was still a teenager.
In another statement, Dan Schneider responded to Lori Beth's allegations by saying that “are extremely exaggerated and, in most cases, false”. He further added: “If I did this in regards to Lori Beth, I sincerely apologize to her. But I can't apologize for things I didn't do."
The actors still don't believe Dan's apologies to this day, mainly because he denies most of the accusations.
Quiet on Set: documentary denounces abuse 1n5lc
the documentary series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Children's TV, of five episodes, which premiered in April 2024 on Max reveals the toxic culture behind some of the most iconic children's programs of the 1990s and 2000s and especially the empire built by producer and director Dan Schneider, who is responsible for series such as Drake & Josh, iCarly, Zoey 101, The Amanda Show, between others.
From this documentary, the public had access to behind-the-scenes and abuse cases at Nickelodeon that were previously too hushed up or distorted for anyone to pay attention to the network's scandals.
In response, Schneider published a video after the series premiered. “Watching the series the last few nights was very difficult", he said. "I'm coming to grips with my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and which I regret... and I definitely owe some people a strong apology."
The director also said that all scenes considered inappropriate or that were bothering someone could be edited, and also reinforced that Nickelodeon's scripts and series were previously approved by the channel's executives.
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Sources: Vanity Fair, Vogue e Buzzfeed
Text proofread by: Pedro Bomfim
