Everything We Learned From Episode 5 of Quiet on Set

On Sunday night, Investigation Discovery released a fifth episode of Quiet on Set, a docuseries that has generated much conversation about what happened behind the scenes of several popular children’s TV shows in the late 1990s and 2000s. The series' first four episodes tell the story of the allegedly toxic workplace culture on Dan Schneider’s Nickelodeon shows. In the fifth episode, journalist Soledad O’Brien interviews former cast members of Schneider’s shows, including one who had previously not spoken out but chose to come forward to discuss his experience with Brian Peck, the former dialogue coach who pleaded no contest to sexually abusing actor Drake Bell when the latter was a teenager.

The docuseries, originally billed as a four-part series before the additional episode was announced, aired on Max on March 16 and 17. It features interviews with former Nickelodeon employees, including Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan, and Bryan Hearne, all of whom worked on All That. While the series asserts that Schneider was viewed as Nickelodeon’s “golden boy” because he was the creative mastermind behind the network’s biggest shows, including Drake & Josh, iCarly, Victorious, Sam & Cat, and Zoey 101, many of the people involved in those series allege that Schneider created a toxic work environment for the cast and crew. Schneider released a video on YouTube two days after the docuseries aired, in response to the allegations against him, in which he acknowledges that he could have done some things differently.

One of the biggest revelations of the series comes in episode three, in which Bell, the star of Drake & Josh, a teen sitcom that ran from 2004 to 2007, reveals himself to be the John Doe in the child abuse case for which Peck served 16 months in prison and was required to register as a sex offender.

Since the series came out, conversations around workplace safety in children’s television have intensified, especially as many on social media have discussed the revelations of what the stars of their nostalgic childhood TV favorites endured when the cameras weren’t rolling. A few of the former child actors who appeared throughout the first four episodes return to discuss the response the project has received with O’Brien in the new episode.

Here’s everything we learned from Episode 5 of Quiet on Set—and a refresher on what the series revealed leading up to it.

What we learn from the first four episodes

The docuseries held a mirror up to the dark side of children’s television, specifically Schneider’s shows on Nickelodeon. The project runs through a slew of incidents in which child actors were put in positions that could be seen as sexualized, as well as jokes or innuendos that were not apparent to the children at the time, but which they later realized were inappropriate. Many former actors came forward and reflected on some of these uncomfortable positions, as did two female writers who worked on The Amanda Show, who said they were employed on the condition that they split a single salary.

The series also delves into the presence of three sex offenders on the sets of Schneider’s shows. One is Peck, whose abuse of Bell is discussed at length. Another is Jason Handy, a production assistant who emailed a nude photo of himself to a young girl who was an extra on The Amanda Show. Handy was arrested in 2003, and when the police raided his home, they found “an enormous trove of child pornography,” which included “over 10,000 images of children.” The third was Ezel Channel, a former freelance animator who was convicted of sexually abusing a young boy in the parking lot of Nickelodeon.

Drake Bell says none of the celebrities who wrote letters of support for Brian Peck have reached out to him

The docuseries recounts how 41 people wrote letters of support for Peck after he was arrested in 2003. Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison in 2004. Bell returns for an interview with O’Brien in Episode 5 and says he has not received an apology from any of the people who wrote those letters.

Bell recounts being in the courtroom for Peck’s sentencing and seeing Peck’s side of the courtroom filled with some “recognizable faces.” Bell says his side consisted of him, his mother, and his brother. Peck’s supporters included friends and former co-workers like Rider Strong and Will Friedle from Boy Meets World, James Marsden, and Taran Killam. Strong and Friedle spoke about the trial on their podcast on Feb. 19, saying, “We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything … The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid.’” Friedle said he had a moment of realization and wondered, “What the hell am I doing here?” Tom DeSanto, a producer on X-Men, recently told People that he wrote the letter of support with “incomplete” information and would not have written the letter if given all of the information regarding the accusations.

Dan Schneider reached out to Giovonnie Samuels after Quiet on Set aired

O’Brien interviewed Giovonnie Samuels and Bryan Hearne, two former All That cast members who spoke about their experiences as two of the few Black people on Schneider’s shows. They say that they were surprised by the fallout from the documentary and the support they’ve received. O’Brien then asked if they had spoken to Schneider in the weeks following the release of the docuseries. Samuels says Schneider reached out to her a week before the documentary aired and asked if she could “give a quote of support.” O’Brien asks if Schneider knew that she was in the documentary, and Samuels affirms that he knew.

Samuels said that when she worked with Schneider on the set of Henry Danger, he asked her if she had a good time. She said she told him that she was terrified of him because he had the power to make people stars, and she was intimidated. “I wanted to do a good job,” Samuels says in the new episode.

Another former All That cast member speaks out

Shane Lyons was a cast member on All That from 2000 to 2004 and says he also worked with Peck. He says that hearing Bell speak about his experiences in Episode 3 of Quiet on Set was “gut-wrenching.” When O’Brien asked him why he felt the need to come forward now, he said he feels “the only way we can change is to really evaluate the past,” and that he felt he had some insight to share.

Of his experience, Lyons said, “I feel very lucky and blessed that nothing like that happened to me, but there were definitely some passes that were made.” He goes on to say that Peck asked him if he knew what “blue balls” were, and he thought at the time that they were racquet balls. “As I think back now as a 36-year-old, would I ever have a conversation with a 13-year-old boy like he had with me? No.”

He says that an enforceable tactic to protect kids on set would be to introduce legal restrictions preventing any person convicted of molesting a child from ever setting foot on a Hollywood set again.

The series has helped bring the issue of children’s safety to the forefront of the entertainment industry. According to The Wrap, since the years covered by Quiet on Set, Nickelodeon and Disney have instituted background checks for anyone working with minors.