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- [00:00]
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- [00:59]
Mark Gagnon
the late 90s into the 2000 and tens American kids would come home from school. They'd rush inside, jump on the couch and they would turn on Nickelodeon and they would watch all that Keenan and Kel Drake and Josh ike Harley victorious, Zoey 101. The list goes on. Now imagine finding out that the man who created and produced many of those shows, the man who essentially built our childhood, was accused of fostering one of the most toxic environments in the history of children's television. That former child actors, writers and crew members would one day come forward and say that behind the bright lights and laugh tracks something deep would disturbing was going on. His name is Dan Schneider and for nearly 25 years he was one of the most powerful men in entertainment. He was described in the media as the Willy Wonka of television and praised for his Jedi Master like acumen for creating shows that appeal to young people. Then in 2018, Nickelodeon quietly cut ties with them. No explanation, no press conference, just a corporate announcement that their 24 year partnership was done. And what followed over the next six years was a slow motion unraveling allegations, investigations, a five part documentary and a defamation suit that is still ongoing to this day. And today we're going to walk you through everything that's confirmed, what's the ledge and what is still unresolved. I'm going to be honest, we're going to be accurate as we can and we're going to let the victims involved speak for themselves. So sit back, relax and welcome to Camp. What's up, people? And welcome back to camp. My name is Mark Gagon, and thank you for joining me in my tent, where every single week we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories from around the world. From all time, forever. Yes. Yes. That is what I do in this tent every single week. We sit down and, yeah, me, you, the squadron, whoever's present in the tent that day, we will deep dive on the most interesting and fascinating stories ever. I'm trying to figure out everything that's going on. I'm trying to figure out what everyone believes, and I'm trying to find the dark and strange little conspiratorial crannies that the entire Internet has to offer. And oh, boy, today we have a disturbing one. This was an episode that I thought about for a minute because I saw the documentary on this particular individual. But before I begin, I just want to say a few things. First off, I want to say thank you to every person that clicks on this video. Video. Every time you comment or you like or you just interact with the show, you truly. I mean, you make my dreams come true. You keep the lights on in the tent and you keep the fire burning. Also today, I'm not joined by my friend Christos. Unfortunately, I think he's off in the south of France on a yacht with a menagerie of models. But instead, today I'm joined by my dear pal Miles, the return of Miles. Miles, as you guys know, is a friend of the show. Truly a class act, a great guy, and I know you guys love him. I read the comments every time. They're always just talking about how great Miles is and how. How much they just think he's awesome. Right?
- [03:41]
Miles
I think they love.
- [03:42]
Mark Gagnon
That is exactly what I think as well. Now, a few things before we jump in. I know I said that already, but we're talking about a guy named Dan Schneider. If you never heard of him, buckle up, because the story is pretty disturbing. You read Jenna McCurdy's book about him? Sort of about him. Kind of about him.
- [03:58]
Miles
Yeah. I read her book. Wish My mom was dead or I'm
- [04:01]
Mark Gagnon
Glad My Mom's dead.
- [04:02]
Miles
I'm Glad My mom was dead.
- [04:03]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah. And it discusses him. Well, by proxy.
- [04:07]
Miles
Yeah, by proxy. They. I think they only refer to him as the creator. And I think maybe they use the word Dan once, if I'm not mistaken.
- [04:16]
Mark Gagnon
Now, I just want to be very clear. What we're talking about here is allegation. I mean, there's been many allegations by different people that have had different proximity to Dan Schneider. But with that said, it's purely allegation. There has been no criminal case brought forward against Mr. Schneider, so I'm not levying any type of new accusation. And furthermore, he has not been convicted in a court of law. So as of this moment, he is an innocent man. But yet the allegations remain. But who is this guy, Dan Schneider, and what are the allegations? Let's go back to the beginning. All right. Memphis, Tennessee. January 14, 1966. Daniel Schneider is born, and he was involved in theater in high school. He's, you know, serving as senior class president, generally pretty well liked. After graduation, he moves to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. And his early career was actually in front of the camera. So through the 80s, Schneider appears in like, minor roles in like, teen comedies like Better off dead in 85, next to John Cusack and Hot Resort that same year. His most notable role was in the ABC sitcom Ahead of the Class, where he plays a character named Dennis Blunden from 1986 to 1991. And here's kind of where the story really begins. In 1988, Schneider Co hosts the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. And that night he meets a man named Alby Hecht, a development executive at nickelodeon. And by 1993, Hecht had become the head of production at Nickelodeon, and he hired Schneider to work on a new sketch comedy show called all that. We've never seen all that. I mean, it's kind of a staple of our childhood. It's kind of like SNL for kids, I think is the best way to put it. It's a sketch comedy show and it debuts in 1994 and is a massive hit. Schneider started as a writer and a producer, but then he quickly proved that he had instincts for what worked with this younger demo. And the show really launched the careers of Kenan Thompson, who is now the longest tenured cast member in the history of snl, and Kel Mitchell. I mean, from there, his rise was mediocre. Everything he touched turned to gold. He just had an eye for what type of shows would work. So from this moment until basically he leaves Nickelodeon, these are the shows that he's either creating, producing, working on writing, et cetera. He's doing all that. Kenan and Kel, the Amanda show, drake and Josh, Zoe 101 iCarly, victorious, Sam and Cat, Henry Danger and Game Shakers. He's working on all of these. I mean, all of these are like massive million dollar franchises. And he is involved in a very intimate way with all of them. He also wrote the film Good Burger in 1997 and then co produced Big F Liar in 2002, which grossed $52 million worldwide. So, I mean, this guy's just. Everything he touches just works. His production company is called Schneider's Bakery, founded in 1996. And by the mid-1910s, his shows are Nickelodeon's biggest rated drivers. I mean, they are the major source of revenue for the network. And I mean, if you were a kid between this window like I was, you probably watched a lot of these shows. I mean, I watched the Amanda show. I watched Drake and Josh. I watched icarly like all these were in. I didn't watch Zoe 101. That one missed me.
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Miles
Oh, I love that.
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Mark Gagnon
Really?
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Miles
Yeah.
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Mark Gagnon
I didn't. Yeah.
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Ryan Reynolds
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- [07:54]
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- [07:56]
Mark Gagnon
Intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com I just had a great theme song.
- [08:02]
Miles
That's a great one. It also. Yeah, that was a great show.
- [08:05]
Mark Gagnon
Didn't they film it at Pepperdine?
- [08:07]
Miles
Yeah, they filmed it at Pepperdine.
- [08:09]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah, in college of California. Anyway, he launches all these careers. I mean, Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, Josh Peck, Miranda Cosgrove, Jennette McCurdy, Jamie Lynn Spears, Victoria Justice. And that's not just a list of, like Nickelodeon actors. That's like some of the biggest names in entertainment in general. And the entire time, Schneider had basically total control. He was writing scripts, he ran the sets, he chooses the actors, he approved wardrobe. He was in every sense the king of children's television. Until he wasn't. So this is how things went for years. And then March 26, 2018, Nickelodeon makes a brief statement. The network would not be extending its production deal with Dan Schneider and Schneider's bakery game shakers. This new show that he's working on canceled. Henry Danger would continue, but with a new showrunner. No explanation. Nickelodeon declines to comment and Schneider's representative declines to say anything. But Deadline Hollywood, which first broke the story, reported something critical. That there have been, quote, complaints about Schneider's behavior within the company. What kind of complaints? Nobody said. The announcement also came in the wake of the MeToo movement, Harvey Weinstein had been exposed in October of 2017, and the entertainment industry in general was in the middle of a social reckoning. And the timing was really impossible to ignore. Right? You have this entire movement against, you know, inappropriate workplace behavior, sexual exploitation and abuse. And then right in that window, this guy gets let go. But for years, the specifics are hidden, and it basically stays that way for, you know, all the way up until 2021. Schneider's basically silent disappears from public life. And then In June of 2021, the New York Times publishes a detailed investigation. And here's basically what they reported. Nickelodeon and its parent company, ViacomCBS, had investigated complaints about Dan Schneider. Before ending the deal. Dozens of employees were interviewed. The investigation found evidence of verbal abuse. Multiple former employees described Schneider as, and this is a direct quote from the Times, prone to tantrums and angry emails. So that's kind of the circumstances, and this is very critical. The Viacom CBS investigation did not find evidence of sexual misconduct. So when the Times asked Shiner for a comment, he defended his work. He acknowledged that some people found him difficult to work with. But he said that if that's the case, it might be because he maintained really high standards as showrunner. That's probably why, you know, people got miffed. So for a while, it seemed like the story was this guy was a control freak. He was a really difficult boss. He had really high standards. He only wanted the best. And as a result, he really pushed people. He also had some anger issues, and he kind of got pushed out in the wake of this whole MeToo era, you know, that he might have been, you know, like a. Like a mean guy. He might have been rude. He might have been, you know, gruff, specifically with kids, but not predatory. But the story was far from over. And then In August of 2022, Business Insider published a wild investigation titled Inside Dan Schneider's Disgusting Nickelodeon Empire. And the report went well beyond what the Viacom CBS investigation had actually found. Among these new allegations were gender discrimination. So former writers Kristy Stratton and Jenny Kilgan alleged that Schneider's writing room was dominated by misogyny and, you know, men basically running the show while women were underpaid and marginalized. Stratton would later describe the environment in Quiet on Set. The documentary that I mentioned earlier, inappropriate requests was another thing that they found. Multiple adult female colleagues alleged that Schneider had asked them to massage, to give him massages at work. So a source described as close to Schneider told Business Insiders that Quote, he regrets ever asking anyone for a massage and agrees it was not appropriate. Now these are some of the other ones. Uncomfortable Interactions with Young Actors so several former child actors described interactions with him that made them feel uncomfortable, though accounts varied in severity and specificity. And then in August 2022, Jeanette McCurdy, who stars in iCarly as well as the show Sam and Cat, published her memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, that is the name of the book. And the book becomes a massive bestseller. And in it, McCurdy describes a figure that she refers to only as the creator. And the creator is a powerful, controlling producer who she says pressured her into uncomfortable situations while on set. McCurdy writes about the creator offering her alcohol when she's underage, giving her unsolicited shoulder massages, and making her feel that her career depended entirely on him and his approval. Now, she never names this person directly, but based on the context with her roles and the timeline and the shows and, you know, all of the things surrounding this, multiple Outs concluded that and again, this is not just one or two. This is like Vanity Fair, Slate, buzzfeed, they all reported that the creator was widely understood to be built on, based on, or is literally Dan Schneider. Now, Schneider is again never publicly mentioned in the book and he has never responded to this book. And then on March 17, 2024, Investigation Discovery premiered a five part documentary called Quiet on the Dark side of Kids tv. It's directed by Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz and produced in partnership with Business Insider, the same paper journalism team that did the that first explosive expose. And it was the most comprehensive public accounting of what allegedly happened while at Nickelodeon. The documentary features testimony from former actors and writers and parents. And it really doesn't hold back at all. And here's came from it. Alexa Nicholas. Nicholas played Nicole Bristow on Zoe 101 from 2004 to 2006. She was 12 years old when she was cast and in the documentary she alleged that she did not feel safe around Schneider on set. She described a toxic environment and alleged that Schneider was dismissive when she raised concerns about being bullied by her co star. Nicholas later founded an organization called Eat Predators, dedicated to ending predatory behavior in the entertainment industry. And then there's Lori Beth Denberg. Denberg was an original cast of all that from 1994 to 1998, one of the show's most popular performers. And in a 2024 interview with Business Insider that was featured in the documentary, she made the most serious allegations against Schneider to date. Denberg accused Schneider of showing her material, touching her inappropriately and attempting to initiate phone sex with her when she was only 19 years old. She also claimed that after she voiced concerns for the well being of Amanda Bynes on the Amanda Show Set in 1999, Schneider had her banned from the set entirely. Schneider's representatives called these wildly exaggerated allegations. Now, the sexualization of children's content is another thing that came out of this. So director Mary Robertson testified that she became interested in the story after noticing a string of viral videos showcasing scenes from Schneider's show that appear to have pretty overt sexual undertones. So one clip shows Ariana Grande as Cat Valentine on Victorious, pouring water on her face while lying upside down. Another shows Jamie Lynn Spears from Zoe 101 Getting this like viscous liquid squirted onto her. Again, this is content for children to watch. Robertson stated that the clips evoked a very sexual imagery. Russell Hicks, a former Nickelodeon executive, defended the productions and claimed that, quote, every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinized and approved by parents, guardians and network executives. And then, of course, you have the unfortunate story of Drake Bell. The most devastating revelation in Quiet On Set was not even really about Dan Schneider is about a man named Brian Peck. And it involved confirmed convicted evil criminal conduct. Brian Peck was a dialogue coach and an actor who worked on several Nickelodeon productions, including the Amanda show and all that. And in 2003, Peck was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. And in 2004 he pleaded no contest to a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16 years old. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison and then was required to register as a sex offender. The victim's identity had been sealed by the court and for 20 years nobody knew who Brian Peck's victim was in Quiet on Set. Drake Bell, the star of the Amanda show, and Drake and Josh. You've probably seen him if you've ever watched either of those shows. He revealed publicly that for the first time that he was Brian Peck's victim. He was 15 years old when the abuse began and Peck was Drake Bell's dialogue coach. He was a person specifically assigned to work one on one with these young children. And according to Bell, Peck groomed him over time, gaining his trust. And then the trust was family before the abuse escalated into full on sexual assault. And in the documentary, Bell describes the experience as something that just shatters him. It changes fundamentally his perspective of reality. And after filming his interview, director Mary Robertson said that Bell told told her that a weight was lifted off of him. Bell himself later revealed on the Sarah Fraser show on March 22 that he went to rehab after filming the documentary because of the emotional toll. It's important to note Brian's case is separate from the allegations against Dan Schneider. Peck was arrested and charged and convicted and sentenced. He is a registered sex offenders. His crimes are confirmed now. Dan Schneider has not been arrested. He has not been charged with any crime. And the allegations against him, while very serious, are just purely allegations. But for many people, the documentary raise a question. How did a convicted child predator operate within Nickelodeon's walls? And why did the people in charge, including the most powerful producers, did they know about any of this? And if they did, why did they allow it? So after Quiet on Set airs, Dan schneider posted a 19 minute video response on his YouTube channel on March 19th of 2024. And in the video, Schneider acknowledged some of the criticism. He apologized for asking colleagues for massages. He said that he actually supported the idea of removing or editing inappropriate jokes from reruns of his shows. And he said, looking back on some of the content that I and others made, I understand that it wouldn't be appropriate for production in today's world. But he denied allegations that he had intentionally sexualized child actors. He pushed back against the idea that scenes like the ones highlighted in the documentary were meant to be sexual, saying that, and this is a, quote, some adults project their adult minds onto kids shows. He did not address Laurie Beth Densburg's allegations directly at all. And not everyone agreed with the documentary's portrayal. Former Nickelodeon actress Madsen Shipman, who starred in the show game shakers from 2015 to 2019, actually publicly defended Schneider. She stated that she had, quote, nothing but positive things to say about him based on her experience on set. But other Nickelodeon stars responded very differently. Victoria justice, who starred in Zoey 101 and Victorious, said that in a 2024 interview she felt that she was being treated unfairly at times and described Schneider as having a very large ego. In May of 2024, Schneider filed a defamation lawsuit against Warner Brothers Discovery, Sony Pictures Television, and the directors of the documentary. And in the lawsuit, he claims that Quiet on Set defamed him by falsely implying he sexually abused child actors that he worked with. And in a statement accompanying the lawsuit, Schneider acknowledged, quote, mistakes and poor judgment during his time in Nickelodeon. But he said that the public reaction to the documentary left him, quote, no choice but to take legal action against the people behind it. And the Lawsuit. This defamation lawsuit that we're talking about is still going as of this very day. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break because I want to talk to you about something that happens in your late 20s, early 30s, that no one tells you that basically your ability to handle a night out drinking with the boys completely changes, bro. When I was 22, I could go out on like a Thursday, sleep three hours, wake up, go to work, then go to the gym, feel completely normal, and then do it again the same day. Like, I felt un invincible. And now I have, like, two glasses of wine, and the next morning I wake up and I'm like, what did I do? And the craziest part is I can actually, like, see it now. Like, I literally will wear, like, a whoop. And I can see my sleep score that night and be like, oh, I had two beers. So now I'm have, like, a 5% recovery. My body's trying to recover from alcohol in a bunch of different ways. Not just dehydration. I mean, it affects, you know, brain chemistry. And your liver has to process everything you drink. And that is why I started using Cheers Restore. Now Cheers Restore is unbelievable. I'm not even the biggest drinker, and this absolutely has saved me on multiple occasions. All right, this is an after alcohol aid that's designed specifically to support your liver and your brain after drinking. So the key ingredient is something called dhm, which researchers started studying for how it interacts with alcohol in the body. Cheers was actually invented by a student at Princeton, and now it's everywhere. I mean, it's been on Shark Tank, 50 million doses, 30,000 stores. It also has thousands of five star reviews on Amazon and has been backed by doctors and PhDs and clinicians and all this stuff. And the idea is very simple. You're a normal adult. You're having a couple drinks, all right? Cheers help support your body so that you feel way better the next morning. And all you do is you take three capsules after your last drink or before bed. And obviously, this isn't for, like, the insane, you know, college nights. All right, if you have, like, 12 tequila shots, I don't know what to tell you, but if you're a responsible adult having a couple drinks at a wedding, it's going to make a huge difference. And honestly, for me, the biggest thing is that, you know, I just wake up feeling like a functional person that's still able to get stuff done. I'm able to recover better, and I'm still able to have fun with the boys at night. So same night out, but a way better morning, and that is with Cheers. So for a limited time, our listeners are getting 20 off their entire order when they go to cheershealth.com and they use the code Camp. So you just go to Cheers Health, use the code camp, and you're going to get 20% off. And after your purchase, they're going to ask where you heard about Cheers. Please tell them it was from the good people over at camp. Gagged on. It really helps us. It keeps the fire burning. It keeps the lights on. Thank you guys so much. Cheers has been amazing. I can't handle the uneasiness of the next day. And Cheers makes it all possible. Now let's get back to the show. Now let's just look back from Dan Schneider specifically for a moment and talk about the system that actually makes this possible. Because this is kind of the uncomfortable truth that the entertainment industry has a structural problem with kids. And it always has. When a child becomes a star, they enter a world that is designed and created for adults. And they work long hours on sets governed by, you know, child adult power dynamics. Their income typically supports their entire family, their self worth and like their own personal image becomes tied to the audience and the approval and the ratings and if the director likes them and the decisions of producers and the people who basically control whether that child ever works again, or whether they keep on making money for themselves or their family, or whether they even stay relevant, they hold an extraordinary amount of power. So Dan Schneider shows they employ children. Obviously, that's not weird for kids television. But the specific dynamic described by former actors and crew members paints a picture of what this workplace was like. And it really shows how Schneider's control was, I guess, strangely total. He just, he wanted to be in charge of everything. He wrote the scripts, he ran the set, he chose the actors. He decided which actors were promoted. He controlled the creative direction, the tone, the wardrobe. If you wanted to work on a Dan Schneider show, by all accounts, by the reports that We've read for 25 years, you need a Dan Schneider's approval. So for a child actor, that dynamic really creates a situation where one adult in your life holds all the leverage. Your career, your family's income, your future is all based on one person. And this isn't unique to Schneider. I mean, the history of child stardom is littered with stories of exploitation from, you know, Judy Garland. Like, she was literally given amphetamines by MGM studios to, you know, keep her weight down. Shirley Temple's mom Was told by a producer to get used to it when Shirley temple, at age 12, was subjected to weird, unwanted sexual advances. I mean, Corey Feldman and Corey Heim spoke for decades about being abused by powerful men in Hollywood before anyone ever took them seriously. I mean, the pattern is fairly consistent, right? An industry that treats really everyone as assets, specifically children governed by adults who face little accountability, protected by kind of the structures of how corporations run. You got NDAs, and financial incentives are just basically designed to protect the people that are bringing the money, like the executives, and silence the people that are subjected to their abuse, like the victims and specifically the kids in these cases. So what's different about Schneider's story is the scale. He didn't run one show with one group of child actors. He ran this empire, dozens of shows, hundreds of child performers over 25 years. This massive. I mean, really, like a generation of childhood shows ran through his production company. And the question that hangs over all of it is what responsibility did Nickelodeon, the network, the corporation, what did they owe to these kids? I mean, what did Dan Schneider owe to these kids? And did he or the network fulfill that responsibility? So when Quiet on Set actually airs In March of 2024, the public response is crazy. I mean, I watched it around that time, and it was shocking for me to even hear what was going on specifically with characters and actors that I kind of grew up watching. So on social media, you have people from, you know, taking clips from Schneider shows showing, like, all the craziest stuff. Scenes of child actors and positions that critics would describe as sexually suggestive sketches involving feet. This was a recurring motif across many of Schneider's shows, and people on the Internet have been flagging it for years. I mean, scenes of children eating or being splashed with substances that, you know, when care, when viewed through an adult lens, appear to have these sexual undertones. And as a result, the hashtag for the documentary trended on X for days. Drake Bell actually posted on Instagram on March 18, 2024, after the first episode aired. And he said, it took everything I had to sit in that chair for those interviews and let 20 years of secrets, fear, and shame come pouring out. He continued, but this was bigger than my pain. This is about making sure that what happened to me never happened to another kid. Alexa Nicholas posted on her Instagram on the same day and basically said, I was 12 years old. I was silenced. I was bullied, and the adults who should have protected me didn't. But I'm not 12 anymore. Ryder Strong and Will Fradle, the boy meets World actors who had written joint letters supporting Brian Peck. They released a joint statement on their podcast and said, we were lied to. We were manipulated by a predator, and we are deeply sorry for the letters that we wrote. Josh Peck, who is the co star in Drake and Josh with Drake Bell, he posted a statement expressing support for Drake despite their personal relationship, having some issues over the years. He came out and just personally issued a statement of support. It's also worth mentioning Josh Peck and Brian Peck are not related. Brian Peck, of course, is the guy that sexually abused Drake Bell, but he happens to have a last name, but is not related to Josh Peck. Now, the documentary received a 100% score on rotten Tomatoes from critics. You have people saying that it is a journalistically solid, straightforward, and at times heartbreaking expose. Now, what's interesting about this documentary and this story as of now in 2026 that's a little bit different than when it actually aired in 2024, is I think, a lot of the coverage in the conversation around Epstein, because obviously Epstein is not directly connected. I don't think any of these people show up in the Epstein files. But the Epstein case does shift the frame when looking at this type of a thing. I mean, it changes how we think about these stories. Right before Epstein, when a powerful dude is accused of inappropriate behavior, specifically with minors, people often would dismiss it. They'd be like, ah, it's just allegations. What's the proof? You know, why, why didn't they come forward sooner? But then with Epstein's case, you have a revelation that dozens, if not hundreds of extremely powerful people are connected to a convicted sex trafficker operating in plain sight for decades. It just. Just changes the entire perspective on this type of situation. It proved that systems of power can and do protect the most evil people in our society, right? The NDAs and the settlements can just bury the truth. And that the people at the very top of these power structures, oftentimes, if they're not facilitating it, they can be complicit in this type of abuse. Now, again, there's no direct connection between Dan Schneider and Epstein, but the Epstein case does create the cultural context in which the Schneider story can kind of be told. Right? You need the MeToo movement to start the conversation in order to get these types of revelations to come out. And then, I think, in a big way, the Epstein revelations remove whatever remained of the public's willingness to look the other way. Now everyone's like, dude, you got pitos running the entire government. Like, they're probably everywhere. And, you know, if this story had come out in, you know, 2005, people would have been like, ah, you know, who cares? You know, move on, whatever. I think people would have been much more likely to look the other way. So where do things stand now? Well, here's what's confirmed. Dan Schneider was removed from Nickelodeon in March of 2018 following this internal investigation. Once again, the investigation found evidence of verbal abuse, but not sexual misconduct. You know, that's from the New York Times story. Multiple former employees and actors have made public allegations of inappropriate behavior, including gender discrimination, unwanted massages, sexualization of, you know, the content in the children's show. And Schneider did acknowledge that, you know, there were some mistakes and poor judgment, but denies any allegations of sexual abuse. He filed a defamation lawsuit against the makers of Quiet on Set in May of 2024, and that is continuing to go on now. Brian Peck, the dialogue coach at Nickelodeon, he was arrested in 2003, convicted of child abuse in 2004, and then sentenced to 16 months in prison. Drake Bell was his victim. That was sealed at the time. And Peck is a registered sex offender. The case is separate from the allegations against Schneider. But again, here is what is alleged, but not sexual misconduct against Dan Schneider, inappropriate touching from Lori Beth Denberg, intentional sexualization of child actors in his productions, and systematic exploitation of the power dynamic between Dan Schneider and the kids. Those are the allegations that have not been proven. And then here's what's not really established. There's been no criminal charges against Dan Schneider. And I think what's important to think about in stories like this is we want it to be very simple. We want like a clear villain and you want clear victims, you want a verdict, you want justice to win. But life doesn't really work out that way. What we do have is that, you know, you have this guy, Dan Schneider, this guy who's created some of the most beloved children's television shows in history. And that is true. And it's also true that a lot of people that worked with him and people that were kids at the time have described that experience in a very, a wide ranging way, going from uncomfortable to disturbing. The Viacom CBS investigation did find verbal abuse and a defamation lawsuit is testing those allegations out in court. Like, we will see what actually comes from the lawsuit against the documentary directors and the network behind the documentary. And that is an abridged explanation as to the allegations that are brought forth against Dan Schneider. And ultimately, what was discussed in the documentary Quiet on Set that involved the massive allegations, or rather the massive revelation from Drake Bell against his accuser, Brian Peck. Now, you read the book from Jeanette McCurdy.
- [31:42]
Miles
Yeah.
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Mark Gagnon
There are some of the things that don't necessarily appear in any of the New York Times reportings that have existed online where people talk about. Oh, like the foot stuff, where it's like the Nickelodeon, like, foot thing. People say Dan Schneider is a big foot fetish.
- [31:57]
Miles
Big conspiracies that are tied to him,
- [32:00]
Mark Gagnon
which are purely unfounded and conspiratorial.
- [32:02]
Miles
Yeah, yeah. Purely conspiracy. But one of them is that Jimmy Lynn Spears, who had the show Zoe100.101, she leaves because she gets pregnant in, like, the second season, and there's a conspiracy that it's Dan Schneider's child. Now, that is hearsay, but I remember hearing that pretty young, if I'm not mistaken.
- [32:23]
Mark Gagnon
Really?
- [32:24]
Miles
Yeah. I feel like that was sort of, like, not young. I wasn't obviously, like, watching the show and thinking. Even knew what an executive producer was at the time.
- [32:31]
Mark Gagnon
But is it confirmed who the dad of her kid is?
- [32:36]
Miles
She has a husband and who's the father? If I'm.
- [32:40]
Mark Gagnon
If I'm not mistaken, they had Casey Aldridge and she had the kid when she was 16.
- [32:48]
Miles
Yeah. Young. What show ends on that?
- [32:53]
Mark Gagnon
She's not praying the show. No, no.
- [32:55]
Miles
They end the show without it. Nothing in the book that Jeanette McCurdy wrote is, like, technically illegal. Nothing in the book. She just says he's like, a control freak. Like, he was just very, like, berating and, like, hard to work with and tough to be around as a child actress. She does bring up a thing where he's being investigated in 2017, if I'm not mistaken, and nickel it. The. The book just explains that he is directing from his office. He's no longer on set, but rather like in an office within the building watching a live feed and then doing sort of walkie talkie directing, which is apparently confirmed that it happened. But there is no confirmation if Nickelodeon asked him to do that or if he. He says he just wanted to get offset and he would direct. He did a better job directing while handling other things. And he had other minor directors or, like, secondary directors that were on set. But there is a posit that Nickelodeon took him offset at that point.
- [33:59]
Mark Gagnon
Wow.
- [34:00]
Miles
Because there was problems arising.
- [34:01]
Mark Gagnon
I mean, the Jamie Lynn Spears conspiracy. That one's tough to believe.
- [34:05]
Miles
I mean, it's.
- [34:06]
Mark Gagnon
But that's something I could see circulating on, like, an email chain, like 2010.
- [34:09]
Miles
Yeah. It's a huge stretch and obviously, like, probably very upsetting for everyone. Involved because it's so. It seems to be so untrue.
- [34:20]
Mark Gagnon
But it's crazy that it existed as lore. Like, why would that even be out there, you know? Yeah, yeah, those also. I mean, this is completely unfounded in my opinion, but I do think it is kind of hilarious. The Nickelodeon logo. Epstein Island Connection.
- [34:35]
Miles
Yeah, yeah.
- [34:35]
Mark Gagnon
This is wild.
- [34:36]
Miles
They're sort of shaped similar.
- [34:38]
Mark Gagnon
They're kind of like. They're sort of vaguely similar. Like, obviously there's discrepancies, but, like, you got like the main island with like a little island off to the side. The Nickelodeon logo has kind of like the same sort of shape with like a little dot off to the side. Like, being slimed and all that stuff is just like, weirdly. I don't know. Again, I. I recognize that, like, adults are putting their. Their gross brains onto children's content, but there is. It is a little weird.
- [35:04]
Miles
Yeah. The Brian Peck thing is obviously the only, like, actual
- [35:10]
Mark Gagnon
illegal thing that's been like, proved to have been undergone, like a conviction in a court of law where someone actually went to prison or was convicted of sexual abuse against minors.
- [35:19]
Miles
And the interesting thing about the Brian Peck situation is there's no one confirmed on who hired Brian Peck.
- [35:27]
Mark Gagnon
Right.
- [35:28]
Miles
But he was involved in other projects that Dan Schneider was also involved in. As they're younger, they're both actors, like, in the same world. It's a very small world. I imagine Hollywood in the 80s doing like, daytime television shows or even like primetime television shows. He was a. He had friends all around the industry, Brian Peck, it seems. And he was incredibly well liked. I think he did like 50 or 60 shows in some way, shape or form. So he's incredibly well liked. 40 people signed a document once he was convicted to say, you know, he's a good guy. So, like, he was an incredibly well liked person.
- [36:03]
Mark Gagnon
Right. He was on the Return of the Living Dead as an actor.
- [36:07]
Miles
He was on a bunch of stuff. Like, he was the.
- [36:10]
Mark Gagnon
The pickle boy.
- [36:10]
Miles
Yeah.
- [36:11]
Mark Gagnon
On all that. Which now people look back on and they're like, really? The Pickle Boy?
- [36:16]
Miles
Dan Schneider, famously. Not famously. Dan Schneider shared a photo on his Instagram once of the all that poster, and it's all signed by, like, the cast. And the one from Brian Peck says, dan, I'm your pickle Boy whenever you want, dip me in your dill or something. And it's like, all right, a little weird, but also, I'm sure I wrote weird shit in yearbooks. You know what I mean? Like, it's one of those.
- [36:43]
Mark Gagnon
But then you become a convicted sex offender and you're like, all right. Yeah, doesn't look that funny anymore.
- [36:50]
Miles
Yeah, of course. And then so he. He gets convicted, does 16 months in prison, and then gets hired by Disney, funny enough.
- [36:58]
Mark Gagnon
How crazy is that?
- [36:59]
Miles
In 06, to work on Suite Life of Zack and cody.
- [37:02]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah. In 2005, he gets hired by Suite Life of Zack and Cody, the Disney Channel show. His crimes are overlooked in part due to character letters supporting him by Richard and Beth Carell, directors of the show. This is from Wikipedia.
- [37:15]
Miles
They apparently work together on Nickelodeon shows.
- [37:17]
Mark Gagnon
He did voiceover work for three episodes, but then was later fired after Disney Channel executives learned that he's a convicted sex offender.
- [37:24]
Miles
Disney immediately. Apparently the Disney didn't do their due diligence, but they trusted that the producer and director can just hire and like, it'd be fine. And then immediately fired him and recast that role. And I think, like, re. Voiced over the role.
- [37:38]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah, they did. But I mean, just crazy.
- [37:41]
Miles
Wasn't the worst on that outside of just negligence of the hiring.
- [37:46]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah. I mean, yeah. Wild. According to. I mean. Yeah, it's. This is just insane. In an episode of Pod Meets World, Friedel and Strong said they were misled by Peck, who told him that the misconduct occurred only once and that the victim was almost 18, which is kind of crazy.
- [38:05]
Miles
Yeah.
- [38:05]
Mark Gagnon
That's the defense letter.
- [38:06]
Miles
And be like, well, come on, judge. She was almost. He was in his 40s.
- [38:10]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah. Like, it's not like, oh, he was 19. She was all almost 18. It's like he was a 40 year old, five seven creep. And that. He's like, no, no. I was just like this thing, I guess. Yeah. There's.
- [38:23]
Miles
Can I. Can I tell you something you're gonna love?
- [38:24]
Mark Gagnon
Oh, goodness. What?
- [38:26]
Miles
Brian Peck, apparently. And this is by one person who was in a documentary on paper. This is not a full conspiracy. This is someone's actual. What they're saying was that he, Brian Peck, had written communication with John Way. John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer. Yeah. When Kyle Sullivan, who performed Peck, who performed with Peck in the Nickelodeon show All that recounted on Quiet on Set, that he had correspondence with the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Sullivan visited Peck's residence at the age of 14 and recalled observing a significant volume of written communication between Peck and Gacy. Sullivan asserts that Gacy, who pursued painting while on death row, purportedly sent Brian Peck an autograph painting of a clown which Peck reportedly displayed in his home.
- [39:17]
Mark Gagnon
What?
- [39:19]
Miles
That's the weirdest little attach of it all.
- [39:25]
Mark Gagnon
Come on, bro.
- [39:27]
Miles
Yeah. All that to say Dan Schneider technically just seemed like a incredibly bad boss. A really aggressive person that should not be working with children.
- [39:36]
Mark Gagnon
Yeah, it's crazy that no one knows who hired him.
- [39:39]
Miles
Yeah. Both what's his face Dan Schneider and the company at the time both disagree on who hired that person.
- [39:48]
Mark Gagnon
Interesting. It's also one of those things like if you hire him, like you don't know, like he's not. Like he was convicted before they hired him.
- [39:53]
Miles
Yeah, exactly. He was also on all that, if I'm not mistaken, he's the pickle boy. The pickle boy. So he was hired before Dan Schneider had hiring power. I imagine. So the original hiring for all that may not have been Dan Schneider. It's was Dan Schneider hiring him on the other shows that then he created Drake and Josh.
- [40:13]
Mark Gagnon
Right. And then more so are they hiring him after all these allegations are coming out.
- [40:18]
Miles
So here's the final sort of like Drake Bell, Brian Peck, which ties into Dan Schneider actually. Apparently Brian Peck wanted. Had already assaulted Drake Bell at this point and wanted to be Drake Bell's father character Walter on the show and was asking Drake to go to Dan and say, you should hire me for the show. They, they filmed that pilot apparently for that show with multiple actors, like multiple times. But Drake and Josh were baked in, as was Marina Cosgrove, I think. So they were doing like sort of testing and like the first pilot it didn't go well with the father. So the second testing they do another father character. And the reason Drake went public with the accusation or with like the assault is because he didn't want to work so closely with him. It sort of like was the spin up of it. Dan Schneider also, and this seems to be confirmed or at least reported on. Dan Schneider helped Drake's mother write her her statements in court against Brian Peck. Drake, from what I understand, seems to not have anything bad to say about Dan Schneider. He has obviously bad stuff to say about Brian Peck and came became public with it in that documentary.
- [41:35]
Mark Gagnon
Whoa. Maybe with AI we can just, you know, make like kid shows without having to like abuse kids, you know, like, because it's not like this is the first time this happened. I mean this is just now getting caught up with now. I mentioned Judy, Judy Garland before Shirley Temple.
- [41:49]
Miles
I mean like true Barrymore, there's tons.
- [41:52]
Mark Gagnon
There's so many. I mean like Brooke Shields was like photographed 15 years old. I was like, yeah, this is fun. So like this, all this stuff is psychotic and like frankly demonic. What with that said, it's like Just, I mean, look, try to support the shows if you can where it's like, you know, there's abuse involved. Also, don't let your kids be in Hollywood. I don't know. What do you guys think? If there's anything I missed in this or if there's anything I skipped over, please don't hesitate to correct me. I'm always interested in the truth. I'm not a journalist. I'm not a, you know, I'm not a full time column writer for the New York Times or something. I'm just a comedian with a WI fi connection that's curious about weird stuff. So if there's anything that I skipped over, please don't hesitate to let me know. If there's anything that you didn't know that you learned in this episode, please drop a comment. I read all of them. YouTube, Spotify, all that. So just please be nice about it. Also, great news. There's a few more places you can go if you're interested in more content. Of course we have religion camp. Those are where I deep dive in all these religious topics. Of course we have history camp where I deep dive on all these historical topics. Of course we have the campfire, the inner sanctum, the meeting site where all the campers gather together, where we do live zooms every month, extra content ad free episodes just for the price of a cup of coffee. You're getting hours of content. And that's over on patreon. Com. Camp Gagnon. And if you just rock with us here, that's cool with me. Also, we got brand new merch live on the website camprnd. Com. You can check all that out in the description below. I'll see you next time. God bless. Peace.