An investigation into Dan Schneider, a former high producer at Nickelodeon who was let go in 2018, has make clear new allegations of misconduct throughout his reign at the kids’s cable community, the place he allegedly fostered a “maddening, disgusting, controlling little bubble”.
The Business Insider story printed Tuesday (Aug 30) reported how Schneider — who was as soon as described by The New York Times as “the Norman Lear of children’s television” — allegedly insisted on hyper-sexualised content material in his reveals, “the most revealing” teen costumes and male-dominated writers rooms and that he additionally requested for on-set massages.
The piece mentioned that the showrunner “created an uncomfortable, bizarre environment that he ruled over like a fiefdom”; it comes on the heels of parallel allegations against an unnamed “Creator” in iCarly star Jennette McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died.
Writers, actors and crew members instructed Insider that they had been disturbed by sexualised scenes in Schneider’s scripts, akin to a goo pop shot on Zoey 101 that mimicked a intercourse act and concerned a younger Jamie Lynn Spears. Another occasion concerned a teenage Victoria Justice having meals rubbed on her naked abdomen in Victorious on-line extras. Schneider additionally allegedly created a hostile work setting and traumatised many, the accusers mentioned, all whereas curating among the most coveted baby performing gigs of the early 2000s.
Representatives for Nickelodeon didn’t remark Wednesday, and a consultant for Schneider didn’t reply to the L.A. Times’ request for remark.
However, Business Insider repeatedly cited an individual near Schneider who refuted a number of of the allegations, saying that every one costumes “were seen and approved by dozens of people, including the parents of the actors, and the state-licensed teachers on set”; that he “never fired a six-year-old on set”; that he would “include some jokes intended for the parents”; and that he “regrets ever asking anyone [for massages] and agrees it was not appropriate, even though it only happened in public settings”.
Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s former president of content material and manufacturing, instructed the Insider {that a} standards-and-practices group learn each script for Schneider’s reveals, that programming executives watched each episode and that folks and caregivers had been at all times on set. “Every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinised and approved”, Hicks wrote in a press release to the outlet.
The former baby actor joined Nickelodeon in 1993 as a author on the hit sequence All That, a Saturday Night Live-model sketch comedy that starred Kenan Thompson and Amanda Bynes. Bynes went on to star in Schneider’s first sequence, The Amanda Show, which cemented his model of slapstick comedy that children cherished.
He adopted it with the hits Zoey 101, iCarly and Victorious and turned Nickelodeon into “a US$10bil-plus powerhouse”, the report mentioned.
Rising because the cable community’s breadwinner, Nickelodeon allegedly gave him immense energy that enticed actors, baby actors and their households to win him over as a result of it might result in higher profession prospects for his favourite solid or crew members, even their very own sequence, the report mentioned.
Schneider’s solid and crew described him as an obsessively hands-on creator, government producer and author and that he maintained a relentless presence on the set.
Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas, who final week protested exterior Nickelodeon’s headquarters and has publicly mentioned she “did not feel safe around Dan Schneider” whereas working at Nickelodeon, detailed and corroborated numerous accounts within the report.
She described Schneider as risky and the on-set setting of Zoey 101 as “traumatising”. She mentioned she left the community when she was about 13 after a contentious change together with her co-star’s sister, pop star Britney Spears, that resulted in Schneider later occurring a tirade against Nikolas in entrance of Nick executives.
“He’s not a good guy,” Nikolas mentioned. “And Nickelodeon was just letting it happen.”
Nickelodeon was additionally topic to a gender-discrimination and hostile-workplace declare made in 2000 that had not beforehand been made public during which a author on The Amanda Show mentioned Schneider had made her uncomfortable by persistently requesting massages. Schneider was not named as a celebration within the criticism.
The community parted methods with Schneider in 2018 beneath murky circumstances, together with years of whispers and two investigations into his alleged habits, particularly that he was verbally abusive.
The Insider reported that McCurdy and her Sam & Cat co-star Ariana Grande made complaints a couple of producer on their present, which launched a 2013 investigation into inappropriate behaviour on the set of the iCarly spinoff. The investigation concluded that Schneider had contributed to the “toxicity”, however McCurdy wrote in her guide that at the time, “the Creator” was “no longer allowed to be on set with any actors.”
The present was cancelled in 2014 after one season, however Schneider remained at Nickelodeon and created two extra reveals: Game Shakers and Henry Danger. Nickelodeon’s father or mother firm, Viacom CBS, launched one other investigation in late 2017 and early 2018 into Schneider’s “alleged sexual behaviour”, the report mentioned. Although it discovered no proof of sexual misconduct, it concluded that Schneider could possibly be verbally abusive.
Schneider has since saved a low profile, though he was the topic of a New York Times profile to advertise the iCarly reboot” for Paramount+ (that didn’t include McCurdy) and mentioned he by no means acted inappropriately towards co-workers. Still, the piece was met with some backlash.
He’s additionally retreated from social media because the publication of McCurdy’s memoir this month. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
