A writer for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nickelodeon">Nickelodeon</a> animated children’s series “The Fairly OddParents” explained why one of the character names had to change.
In a new episode of the spinoff <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cartoons">series</a> “The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish,” the son of main characters Cosmo and Wanda announces that he has a new name. “Hey kid, I’m Poof — or at least I was,” he says in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/television">episode</a>. “I changed my name to Peri, like Peri-winkle.”
“Fairly OddParents” writer, producer, and star Ashleigh Crystal Hairston explained the name change with an X post. “The former name is a slur in many countries and cannot be used,” she <a href="https://x.com/shleighcrystal/status/1815524124909027415">wrote</a>.
According to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poof">Merriam-Webster</a>, “poof” is used as “a term of abuse and disparagement” for gay men in British English.
The original “Fairly OddParents” series follows the main character Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy, as he goes about his life with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The godparents grant his wishes to make life easier and overcome obstacles.
The series originated with shorts on Nickelodeon and aired from 1998 to 2002. It became very popular and was eventually developed into a half-hour series that premiered in March 2001. It ended in 2006 and was revived in 2008, making it Nickelodeon’s second-longest-running series ever, with only “SpongeBob SquarePants” going on for longer.
The series has had several spinoffs, including a live-action series on Paramount+ and several live-action TV movies starring Drake Bell as Timmy. “The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder” came out in 2022, while this latest iteration, “The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish” premiered in May 2024.
Peri, originally named Poof, was introduced in 2008 as a baby who caused drama with the relationship between Timmy Turner and his fairy godparents when he was born. Poof was the first fairy baby born in thousands of years. 
The new version of Peri grown up looks just like a combination of his parents Cosmo and Wanda.

Nickelodeon

Animated Nickelodeon Series Changes Character’s Name Because It’s ‘A Slur In Many Countries’

Animated Nickelodeon Series Changes Character Name Because It's 'A Slur In Many Countries'

Cartoon

Entertainment

Television

U.S.

Ariana Grande finally broke her silence about the allegations revealed on the “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” docuseries and admitted she’s “upset.”
Speaking on Penn Badgley’s “Podcrushed” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAQGlvnFc1E">podcast</a>, the 30-year-old singer said she’s still “reprocessing” her experience from that time when she was on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nickelodeon">Nickelodeon</a> TV on “Victorious” from 2010-2013 and “Sam &amp; Cat,” <a href="https://pagesix.com/2024/06/12/entertainment/ariana-grande-breaks-her-silence-on-quiet-on-set-docuseries/">Page Six</a> reported.
Grande spoke about looking back at the things she was told to say and do on the show — things that now seem different watching the clips.
“Specifically about our show, I think that was something that we were convinced was the cool thing about us — is that we pushed the envelope with our humor,” the singer said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArianaGrande?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ArianaGrande</a> is finally breaking her silence on the disturbing allegations against <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Nickelodeon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Nickelodeon</a> &#8212; and opening up about her experience on the network. <a href="https://t.co/len7gWvdD6">pic.twitter.com/len7gWvdD6</a>
— TMZ (@TMZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/TMZ/status/1800894575407493369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
“And the innuendos were … it was, like, the cool differentiation,” she added. “And I don’t know, I think it just all happened so quickly, and now looking back on some of the clips, I’m like, ‘Damn, like really? Oh, sh*t.&#8217; Like, if I had a daughter… and then the things that weren’t approved for the network were snuck onto, like, our website or whatever.”
“I guess I’m upset, yeah,” Grande continued, noting how “devastating” it&#8217;s been to learn about what some of her colleagues went through.
At one point, the “thank u, next” hitmaker said environments where kids are going to be acting need to be “made safer” and that “there should be therapists.”
“I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they want to be, and I think not only on kids’ sets,” she added. “If anyone wants to do this, or music, or anything at this level of exposure, there should be in the contract something about therapy is mandatory twice a week or thrice a week, or something like that.”
The comments come after clips went <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38M0uc-Ed-k&amp;t=32s">viral</a> during the release of the docuseries that showed Grande from her time on the Nickelodeon shows doing things like attempting to milk a potato, sucking on her toe, and laying down on a bed pouring water all over herself, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-documentary-uncovers-child-abuse-at-nickelodeon">reported</a>.
Following the documentary’s release, former child star Drake Bell came forward and said he was the John Doe from a sexual abuse case from 2004 involving former Nickelodeon dialogue coach, Brian Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to the charges, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and ordered to register as a sex offender, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal">reported</a>.
Docuseries contributors also spoke frequently about former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, who they said perpetrated abuse by acting in a controlling manner and making sexually suggestive jokes, some of which were used in children’s programming. They also alleged that Schneider was filmed in a hot tub with then-16-year-old actress Amanda Bynes.
“I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said in a statement following the release of the docuseries.
Schneider later filed a defamation lawsuit against producers of the series for implying he“sexually abused the children who worked on his television shows,” as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ex-nickelodeon-exec-sues-quiet-on-set-producers-for-defamation">reported</a>.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kirk-cameron-on-quiet-on-set-revelations-been-going-on-for-a-long-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kirk Cameron On ‘Quiet On Set’ Revelations: ‘Been Going On For A Long Time’</a>

Ariana Grande

‘I’m Upset’: Ariana Grande Breaks Silence About ‘Quiet On Set’ Documentary

'I’m Upset’: Ariana Grande Breaks Silence About ‘Quiet On Set’ Documentary

Celebrities

Hollywood

Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nickelodeon">Nickelodeon</a> producer Dan Schneider is suing producers of the documentary “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” for defamation.
The 58-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/television">TV exec</a> made a public apology for his behavior after the documentary first aired. &#8220;Quiet on Set&#8221; included interviews with Schneider&#8217;s former colleagues telling stories of a toxic workplace and what they saw as questionable actions. 
 “Watching over the past two nights was very difficult — me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said in late March, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-producer-reacts-to-child-abuse-doc-owe-some-people-a-pretty-strong-apology">reported</a>.
The new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lawsuit">lawsuit</a> states that while he takes responsibility for his actions, “Quiet on Set” was “a hit job” which insinuated that Schneider &#8220;sexually abused the children who worked on his television shows.&#8221;
&#8220;While it is indisputable that two bona fide child sexual abusers worked on Nickelodeon shows, it is likewise indisputable that Schneider had no knowledge of their abuse, was not complicit in the abuse, condemned the abuse once it was discovered and, critically, was not a child sexual abuser himself,&#8221; the lawsuit says, per <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2024/05/01/dan-schneider-sues-defamation-quiet-on-set-series/73531094007/">USA Today</a>. 
&#8220;Defendants have destroyed Schneider’s reputation and legacy through the false statements and implications that Schneider is exactly that,&#8221; it states. &#8220;At times, he was blind to the pain that some of his behaviors caused certain colleagues, subordinates, and cast members. He will regret and atone for this behavior the rest of his life. But one thing he is not—and the one thing that will forever mar his reputation and career both past and present—is a child sexual abuser.&#8221;
The former Nickelodeon exec also told the outlet, &#8220;After seeing &#8216;Quiet on Set &#8216;and its Trailer, and the reactions to them, I sadly have no choice but to take legal action against the people behind it.”
“In their successful attempt to mislead viewers and increase ratings, they went beyond reporting the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted,&#8221; Schneider continued. 
&#8220;I have no objection to anyone highlighting my failures as a boss, but it is wrong to mislead millions of people to the false conclusion that I was in any way involved in heinous acts like those committed by child predators. I owe it to myself, my family, and the many wonderful people involved in making these shows to set the record straight.&#8221;
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The four-part docuseries caused a stir when it premiered on March 17. Actor Drake Bell went public saying he was the unnamed victim of sexual assault at the hands of convicted pedophile Brian Peck, who was a dialogue coach at the network.
While no formal complaints of sexual abuse were made against Schneider, the documentary highlighted interactions he had with child actors who worked at the network, including airing video of him spending time in a hot tub with then-teenager Amanda Bynes.
The producer was let go from the network in 2018 amid allegations of abuse but was never formally charged with any crimes.

Dan Schneider

Ex-Nickelodeon Exec Sues ‘Quiet On Set’ Producers For Defamation

Ex-Nickelodeon Exec Sues 'Quiet On Set' Producers For Defamation

Courts

Defamation

Lawsuit

“Growing Pains” star <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kirk-cameron" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kirk Cameron</a> said the “dark,” “evil” and “twisted” revelations we’ve seen in the “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nickelodeon-star-melissa-joan-hart-responds-to-quiet-on-the-set-allegations-believe-them-100-percent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quiet on Set</a>: The Dark Side of Kids TV” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-says-she-was-forced-to-kiss-30-year-old-man-as-a-teen-on-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">docuseries</a> have &#8220;been going on for a long time” in Hollywood.
Speaking to The Daily Wire, the 53-year-old actor said as a child working in Hollywood he definitely witnessed the “disturbing” behavior by those in the business, including his former personal dialogue coach on “Growing Pains” Brian Peck, the convicted sex offender named in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-documentary-uncovers-child-abuse-at-nickelodeon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">series</a>. Peck was arrested, charged with sexual abuse crimes, and ordered to register as a sex offender, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“So, the evil, the darkness, the twisted sickness of Hollywood has been going on for a long time,” Cameron told us. “I started acting when I was 9-years-old. I began ‘Growing Pains’ at 14-years-old. And I was suspicious that that stuff was going on behind the curtains even when I was working on ‘Growing Pains.’”
“And there were several young boys like us [Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio] that he [Peck] interacted with on a regular basis,” Cameron said. “So, it’s shocking. It’s sickening.
In one of the episodes of the shocking documentary — which alleges abuse and a toxic work environment behind the scenes at Nickelodeon — a clip played from “Growing Pains” showing a young DiCaprio with Peck constantly rubbing the young star’s arms and touching him. Cameron said that’s exactly how he recalled Peck behaving and just remembered “that’s the kind of thing you would see and make you pause and go ‘there’s a little flag on the field,’ but not enough to prove something worse.”
<div id="attachment_720367" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-720367" class="size-large wp-image-720367" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-93765382-866x576.jpg" alt="UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 28: GROWING PAINS - &quot;In vino veritas&quot; - Season Seven - 9/28/91, Jason (Alan Thicke) and Maggie (Joanna Kerns) grew worried when their wine started missing and all signs pointed to Mike's (Kirk Cameron) pupil, Luke Brower (Leonardo DiCaprio)., (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-93765382-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-93765382-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-93765382-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-93765382.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images</div>
The Hollywood star shared that at the same time he worked on “Growing Pains” (1985 &#8211; 1992) with Peck, the executive producer and showrunner was Steven Marshall. In 2010, Marshall was arrested and convicted for possession and distribution of child pornography, the <a href="https://nypost.com/2010/03/16/growing-pains-producer-sentenced-for-child-porn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a> reported.
He served 7½ years in federal prison after he was <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/mar/17/child-porn-gets-ex-tv-exec-prison-20100317/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> by an undercover federal agent who was posing as a pedophile. In Marshall’s chats with the agent, the former TV producer would <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/mar/17/child-porn-gets-ex-tv-exec-prison-20100317/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">brag</a> about “child abduction, bondage, rapes and murders,” the outlet noted. It came out later in court that the exec. producer never actually had “physical contact” with any of the kids he bragged about doing vile things to, Cameron noted.
“Thank God I got out of there unscathed in the 1980s,” Cameron said. “Those people who did this stuff to these kids are the same kind of people in the industry today. Still making twisted, sick, perverted material that’s hurting children today. And they need to be completely rooted out and replaced.”
“But it’s too late,” Cameron continued. “These children, like Drake Bell &#8230; they have scars that they will carry with them permanently throughout their life.”
Cameron also mentioned he recently spoke with former producers and writers of the show about working with Peck and Marshall, recalling their behavior on set.
“And the consensus was these individuals were charming, they ingratiated themselves into their victims’ lives and were generally likable people when they were putting the ‘nice guy’ face on,” Cameron said.
“But there was … always something smarmy about them,” he added. “You know it was like your ‘Spidey-senses’ told you something’s not right. They were handsy and physical in a smarmy kind of way. But not so overt that you could totally detect what was happening.”
Cameron said he “absolutely” credited his parents with keeping him safe in the predatory environment, adding, “My mom was on the set every day when I was a minor on ‘Growing Pains.’” He also credited his former “cast and crew” who served as additional sets of “guardians.”
<div id="attachment_720403" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-720403" class="size-large wp-image-720403" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1243176806-copy-384x576.jpeg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 07: Kirk Cameron attends the Premiere of LIFEMARK at Museum of the Bible on September 07, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for LIFEMARK Movie)" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1243176806-copy-384x576.jpeg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1243176806-copy-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1243176806-copy.jpeg 680w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Paul Morigi/Getty Images for LIFEMARK Movie</div>
When asked if he thinks Hollywood protects the predator instead of the survivor, the longtime actor said what we are seeing now “ … is an industry that tries to indemnify, exonerate the very pedophiles that we say we want to get rid of, because they are the pedophiles.”
When asked about the letters of support written in defense of Peck by his former on-screen parents, Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns, Cameron noted, “Nobody wants to believe that the fun, charming, dialogue coach who’s ingratiated himself into the lives of others — almost to the point of being a trusted family friend — would do something so wicked and evil.”
The letters were used by Peck’s attorneys before he was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. Kearns has since walked back her letter of support. Thicke, however, passed away in 2016.
Following the documentary’s release, former child star Bell came forward and said he was the John Doe from a sexual abuse case from 2004 involving former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to the charges, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, and ordered to register as a sex offender, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Docuseries contributors also spoke frequently about former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, who they said perpetrated abuse by acting in a controlling manner and making sexually suggestive jokes, some of which were used in children’s programming. They also alleged that Schneider was filmed in a hot tub with then-16-year-old actress Amanda Bynes.
“I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said in a statement following the release of “Quiet on Set.”
<div id="attachment_720375" style="width: 1010px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-720375" class="size-full wp-image-720375" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/QUIET-Picture1.jpg" alt="Sony Pictures Television/Maxine Productions. IMDB." width="1000" height="563" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/QUIET-Picture1.jpg 1000w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/QUIET-Picture1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/QUIET-Picture1-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />Sony Pictures Television/Maxine Productions. IMDB.</div>
The “Lifemark” star talked about the massive increase in LGBTQ programming targeting children from places like Disney, Cartoon Network and Netflix, and said they are no longer hiding their agenda.
“Openly sharing their agenda &#8230; giddy with excitement trying to add as much ‘queerness’ to their content as they can over time,” the actor said. “Before it was sort of hidden, under the radar. But now it’s wide open. They’ve gotten themselves intoxicated with their own perversion and they are so drunk on it that they don’t even know what’s wrong.”
Cameron said he “one hundred percent” thinks the lack of faith in Hollywood led to the darkness.
“The problem is when you take God out of Hollywood or politics they become corrupted.”
It is those experiences the actor went through and the things he’s learned since about the people he worked with that he said motivates him to be part of the solution, to create a safe working environment for kids and children’s programming like he had when he was growing up.
That’s why I’m working with Brave Americans saying ‘we’re not waiting for Hollywood to get it right,’” the “Fireproof” actor said. “We need to make this stuff ourselves.”
“God has exposed them,” he added. “He’s drug the evil out into the middle of the street in broad daylight and this is the time for brave Americans to take charge of their children’s entertainment and their education and start doing something about it.”
The longtime actor said he wants this to “&#8230; be a wakeup call, an incredible opportunity for parents and grandparents &#8230; to be the executive producer of our children’s future. Our generation&#8217;s version of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood&#8221; with his current project. More information can be found <a href="https://bravebooks.us/pages/the-adventures-with-iggy-and-mr-kirk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
“I want to give them something to remind them what good wholesome family entertainment is like and what parents are looking for and children need.”

Kirk Cameron

Kirk Cameron On ‘Quiet On Set’ Revelations: ‘Been Going On For A Long Time’

Kirk Cameron On 'Quiet On Set' Revelations: 'Been Going On For A Long Time'

Child Abuse

Documentaries

Readers Pass

Sexual Abuse

Former Nickelodeon star Allie DiMeco said she was forced to kiss a 30-year-old man as a teen on her show in light of the new docuseries &#8220;Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,&#8221; which alleges abuse and a toxic work environment behind the scenes at the network.
The DiMeco, who was part of &#8220;The Naked Brothers Band&#8221; show from 2007-2009, took to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@missalliedimeco?referer_url=www.hollywoodreporter.com%2Ftv%2Ftv-news%2Fthe-naked-brothers-band-allie-dimeco-forced-kiss-nickelodeon-1235859603%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2HDOxvPG7Dvn1poNgpeWbe9QfckoxLadsNeZwbUHgXMOzFA9khi1kLOEM_aem_AUptBRN4q8PMfPpCsb-a7S97WmPkl2K0o8YRbw_9CSOqSWOBVIxVrcTvjPebbtL2q2s&amp;refer=embed&amp;embed_source=121374463%2C121404359%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_masking&amp;referer_video_id=7348679855938014507">TikTok</a> over the weekend and shared her experience at the network after watching the new — and by many accounts, disturbing — documentary, the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/the-naked-brothers-band-allie-dimeco-forced-kiss-nickelodeon-1235859603/?fbclid=IwAR2HDOxvPG7Dvn1poNgpeWbe9QfckoxLadsNeZwbUHgXMOzFA9khi1kLOEM_aem_AUptBRN4q8PMfPpCsb-a7S97WmPkl2K0o8YRbw_9CSOqSWOBVIxVrcTvjPebbtL2q2s">Hollywood Reporter</a> noted.
DiMeco said she was &#8220;stressed&#8221; while watching the series, revealing that she &#8220;went through trauma&#8221; on the show after her teenage character Rosalina had a brief romance with a French character named Michel (played by Jake Hertzog).
&#8220;There was an episode where Rosalina &#8216;cheated&#8217; on Nat and kind of kissed a French guy,&#8221; DiMeco said, noting that she didn&#8217;t want to kiss this &#8220;greasy a**&#8221; man. 
&#8220;He&#8217;s a 30-year-old man,&#8221; she added. &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry, I couldn&#8217;t even watch it. It gave me f***ing the ick and it honestly gives me PTSD.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Nickelodeon Star Allie DiMeco Says She Was Forced To Kiss Much Older Man On ‘Naked Brothers Band’ &amp; Felt “I Might Be Fired If I Didn’t Do It” <a href="https://t.co/xmMpJdRf4J">https://t.co/xmMpJdRf4J</a>
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) <a href="https://twitter.com/DEADLINE/status/1772753180537008512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;I&#8217;m watching this &#8216;Quiet on Set&#8217; documentary and it&#8217;s talking about how integral and vital it is to create — especially when it&#8217;s a kids cast — to create an environment where kids feel comfortable to say &#8216;No&#8217; or &#8216;I don&#8217;t feel comfortable with this,'&#8221; DiMeco continued. &#8220;And I&#8217;m like, &#8216;Yeah, maybe they do express that though, it&#8217;s also more important to create an environment that listens to the kids and actually does not make them do things when they don&#8217;t want to do them.'&#8221;
DiMeco went on to talk about how they made her kiss &#8220;this 30 plus-year-old man when I was like 14, 15&#8221; — not once, she said, but &#8220;multiple times.&#8221;
&#8220;I told them many times I didn&#8217;t want to do it,&#8221; the former child star said. &#8220;My mom was very against it. And they just pretty much made me feel like I was going to lose my job and be fired if I didn&#8217;t do it.&#8221;
Following the documentary’s release, former child star Drake Bell came forward and said he was the John Doe from a sexual abuse case from 2004 involving former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal">reported</a>.
Docuseries contributors spoke frequently about former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, who they said perpetrated abuse by acting in a controlling manner and making sexually suggestive jokes, some of which were used in children&#8217;s programming. They also alleged that Schneider was filmed in a hot tub with then 16-year-old actress Amanda Bynes. 
&#8220;I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,&#8221; Schneider said in a statement following the release of &#8220;Quiet on Set.&#8221;
Amanda Harding contributed to this piece.

Allie DiMeco

Former Nickelodeon Star Says She Was Forced To Kiss 30-Year-Old Man As A Teen On Show

Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/television">child star</a> Melissa Joan Hart publicly responded to allegations of abuse and a toxic work environment at Nickelodeon that were brought forth in the new docuseries, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
Hart, 47, became a national sensation on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nickelodeon">Nickelodeon</a> series “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">Clarissa Explains it All</a>” beginning in 1991. She said her on-set experience was vastly different than some of the docuseries&#8217; participants, however, in part because she filmed the show in Florida instead of Hollywood.
“I don’t know other people’s experiences and I’m not negating anything anybody else says,” Hart said, per <a href="https://deadline.com/2024/03/melissa-joan-hart-on-quiet-on-set-allegations-1235871403/">Deadline</a>. “I’ve never been told these people’s stories that are in the [documentary]. And I have to say, I’ve never heard a story from a Nickelodeon star personally, nobody’s come to me and talked to me about any of these situations.&#8221;
However, she also said, &#8220;I absolutely trust them, believe them, one hundred percent.”
The actress went on to assert that her experience was good, but that it shouldn’t discount what the accusers are saying.
“In Orlando, I had nothing but a wonderful experience,” Hart added. “They did work the kids a lot harder than they probably legally should. We had a ton of fun, it was just long hours, that’s all – because I had to do school and the show.”
“I was surrounded by an amazing crew, an incredible cast that took such good care of me. I mean, these people were protective of me,” she continued. “I have to say, not every egg in the Nickelodeon basket is rotten. There were some good eggs – there were some people that really took care of me.”
Following the documentary’s release, former child star Drake Bell came forward and said he was the John Doe from a sexual abuse case from 2004 involving former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal">reported</a>.
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Docuseries contributors spoke frequently about former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider, who they said perpetrated abuse by acting in a controlling manner and making sexually suggestive jokes, some of which were used in children’s programming. They also alleged that Schneider was filmed in a hot tub with 16-year-old actress Amanda Bynes. 
“I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said in a statement following the release of “Quiet on Set.”

Melissa Joan Hart

Nickelodeon Star Melissa Joan Hart Responds To ‘Quiet On Set’ Allegations: ‘Believe Them 100 Percent’

Nickelodeon Star Melissa Joan Hart Responds To 'Quiet On Set' Allegations: 'Believe Them 100 Percent'

Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nickelodeon">Nickelodeon</a> producer Dan Schneider is speaking out following the premiere of the Investigation Discovery <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment">documentary,</a> “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” a four-part series alleging child abuse and a toxic workplace environment at the network.
Schneider is named in the doc as an instigator of many uncomfortable situations, including making crude jokes and forcing employees to embarrass themselves. While Brian Peck, a dialogue coach for Nickelodeon&#8217;s &#8220;The Amanda Show,&#8221; was arrested and charged with sexual abuse crimes, Schneider was not.
The producer was let go from the network in 2018 amid allegations of abuse but was never formally charged with any crimes. Schneider was once called “the Norman Lear of children’s children” by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/arts/television/07icar.html?_r=1">The New York Times</a>. He’s known for creating popular kids shows such as “The Amanda Show,” “Drake &amp; Josh,” “Zoey 101,” “iCarly,” “Victorious,” and “Sam &amp; Cat.”
Now Schneider is commenting on the documentary that&#8217;s making headlines. “Watching over the past two nights was very difficult — me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider told BooG!E, who played T-Bo on the series “iCarly,” per <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/dan-schneider-quiet-on-set-video-interview-1235855562/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Dan Schneider talks about Quiet on Set" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MX9pLTuGX_M?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
“When I watched the show, I could see the hurt in some people’s eyes, and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry. I wish I could go back, especially to those earlier years of my career, and bring the growth and the experience that I have now and just do a better job and never, ever feel like it was OK to be an a**hole to anyone, ever,” the former Nickelodeon producer added.
As for the allegations of sexually inappropriate content inserted into children’s programming, Schneider’s rep said, “Everything that happened on the shows Dan ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults, and approved by the network.”
Schneider also addressed former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">child star</a> Drake Bell coming forward and telling the public that he was the John Doe in the 2004 sexual assault case against former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal">reported</a>. 
“When Drake and I talked and he told me about what happened, I was more devastated by that than anything that ever happened to me in my career thus far. And I told him, ‘I’m here for you,&#8217;” Schneider claimed.
Schneider went on to discuss the jokes he made that documentary participants deemed inappropriate. For example, a clip of a young Ariana Grande sucking on her own toes, squeezing a potato while moaning, and dousing herself in water while lying on a bed were mentioned in the documentary.
Another incident from &#8220;Quiet on Set&#8221; mentioned a fully clothed Schneider in a hot tub with then-16-year-old Amanda Bynes, who was wearing a bikini. She was forced to read a script he wrote, and then later, they ate spaghetti.
There was also an allegation about how Schneider came up with an alter ego for Bynes named &#8220;Penelope Taynt.&#8221; Former employees <a href="https://youtu.be/-x6Q0-FIT-w">said</a> they were instructed to pretend not to know the definition of the word, which references the area of skin between the penis and anus. &#8220;Dan had said to us in the writers room: don&#8217;t tell what this word really means,&#8221; a former employee stated.
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“All those jokes … the show covered over the past two nights, every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny and only funny,” he said. At another point during the lengthy apology, Schneider said, “Let me just say, no writer should ever feel uncomfortable in any writers room, ever. Period. The end. No excuses.”
Ultimately, the former Nickelodeon producer says he should have had a different attitude at work. 
“There are definitely things that I would do differently,” he said. “The main thing that I would change is how I treat people and everyone. I definitely at times didn’t give people the best of me. I didn’t show enough patience. I could be cocky and definitely over-ambitious, and sometimes just straight up rude and obnoxious, and I’m sorry that I ever was.”

Former Nickelodeon Producer Reacts To Child Abuse Doc: ‘Owe Some People A Pretty Strong Apology’

Former Nickelodeon Producer Reacts To Child Abuse Doc

You can tell someone has real power when they do something that&#8217;s obviously wrong, maybe even illegal, for a very long time — and yet they make no effort to hide it whatsoever. In the entertainment industry, Harvey Weinstein is of course one of the most prominent examples. His behavior was an open secret in Hollywood for three decades, to the point they were <a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/3796515/seth-macfarlane-jokes-about-weinstein-alleged-sexual-abuses-during-2013-oscar-nominations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">making jokes</a> about it during the Oscars. But nothing was done about it until just a few years ago.
Unfortunately, the process of taking down Harvey Weinstein involved a much larger, extraordinarily destructive movement called &#8220;Me Too,&#8221; which did far more harm than good. I won&#8217;t recount all of the problems of that particular movement; I&#8217;ve discussed all of that before.
But one major issue with &#8220;Me Too&#8221; is coming to light very plainly now, which is that the movement conspicuously left pedophiles pretty much unscathed. And you know that because, to this day, you still aren&#8217;t allowed to talk about the pedophilia that&#8217;s rampant in elite circles. You can complain about so-called “toxic masculinity” and misogyny all you want. But if you bring up the topic of pedophilia, the Left treats you as a &#8220;Q-Anon&#8221; conspiracy theorist. Using words like &#8220;groomer&#8221; is prohibited on many social media platforms. How dare you suggest that pedophiles have infested Hollywood, the education system, and the media? You must be crazy. That&#8217;s hate speech.
They&#8217;ll make that claim despite the fact that the sexualization and mistreatment of children has been on display, for decades, in mainstream children&#8217;s entertainment. And now it&#8217;s getting a lot of new exposure. 
The first episodes of a new documentary series exposing the inner workings of Nickelodeon — the children’s network that most people my age grew up watching in the 90s and early 2000s — called &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31193442/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV</a>,&#8221; just premiered. It&#8217;s worth watching because it&#8217;s one of the few well-researched, effectively produced looks into how the entertainment industry abuses children. 
But the incredible thing is that Nickelodeon wasn&#8217;t really hiding what they were doing. Some of the most perverse parts of this documentary are scenes that Nickelodeon aired publicly, or <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11113297/Disturbing-video-shows-Ariana-Grande-sexualized-teen-Nickelodeons-Victorious.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uploaded</a> to the internet, many years ago. For example, take a look at these sequences from a show called &#8220;Victorious,&#8221; featuring a young Ariana Grande. It&#8217;s a teen sitcom created by former Nickelodeon bigwig Dan Schneider that premiered more than a decade ago on Nickelodeon. 
The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl0OuXw_mTM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">videos</a> received a lot of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-16/ariana-grande-nickelodeon-the-slap-sexualized-jennette-mccurdy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attention</a> when they resurfaced in 2019, but it&#8217;s important to see them again to understand the new accusations against Schneider — who also created many other hit shows like &#8220;iCarly.&#8221; Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Ariana Grande Victorious" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/38M0uc-Ed-k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
To be clear, these videos were posted online by Nickelodeon, which has a core audience of young children. They created this content to promote their show on the internet. And these videos are unambiguously, deliberately intended to be as suggestive as possible. They&#8217;re well past any pretense of plausible deniability. That&#8217;s how brazen this operation was.
But even after the uproar a few years ago, there still wasn&#8217;t a whole lot of in-depth reporting about what exactly Dan Schneider was doing at Nickelodeon. One of Grande&#8217;s co-stars, Jennette McCurdy, wrote a memoir titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Im-Glad-My-Mom-Died/dp/1982185821" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I&#8217;m Glad My Mom Died</a>,&#8221; describing her abuse at Nickelodeon, but generally speaking, Schneider himself escaped in-depth scrutiny.
That was a big oversight because anyone who&#8217;s willing to produce this kind of content for young children is obviously someone who needs to be investigated very thoroughly. Firing him should not have been the end of it. But for a while, it was. Now, though, we have a better idea of what was going on. 
One of the sequences that &#8220;Quiet on Set&#8221; has highlighted is this behind-the-scenes footage from 2002, in which Schneider sits in a jacuzzi with Amanda Bynes, who was 16-years-old at the time. In the footage, Schneider is fully clothed, while Bynes is in a bathing suit. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Dan Schneider In Jacuzzi" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pqEPQJS6AR0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
As they talk about in the documentary at some length, this is a very twisted kind of power play. There&#8217;s no legitimate reason for the executive producer of this show to be in a jacuzzi with an underage actress, having her explain to the camera that he controls everything she says. There&#8217;s certainly no reason for him to eat spaghetti with her, even if he does happen to be obese. 
But as you watch the documentary, it becomes clear that this kind of behavior was open and notorious on Nickelodeon&#8217;s sets. There are extensive interviews with cast members and staff of shows like &#8220;All That&#8221; and &#8220;The Amanda Show,&#8221; which go into extensive detail about how pervasive this problem was. At one point in the film, former Nickelodeon employees describe how Schneider thought it would be funny to have a young actress use the name &#8220;Taynt&#8221; on-air. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Taiont Joke" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-x6Q0-FIT-w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is Schneider&#8217;s M.O. If you watch just the first episode of this documentary series, that will become very clear. For example, employees also discuss how he instructed his subordinates to describe themselves in demeaning terms — including as &#8220;sluts&#8221; — for his personal amusement. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 SLUT Cards" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RIZ_9v4Aj74?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
As that segment goes on, the employees claim that Schneider would often offer money to induce his subordinates to do degrading tasks — like gorging themselves on gallons of ice cream — only to refuse payment when they tried to collect.
For his part, not surprisingly, Schneider denies all of these accusations. He hasn&#8217;t been charged or convicted of any crime. But even so, there is clear evidence that serious child abuse did occur at the company. And the documentary covers that abuse, too. 
For example, in later episodes of the documentary, former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-nickelodeon-star-drake-bell-details-alleged-sexual-abuse-by-dialogue-coach-it-was-extensive-and-brutal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comes forward</a> on-camera to say that he was sexually assaulted when he was 15-years-old by Brian Peck, a.k.a. &#8220;Pickle Boy,&#8221; who worked on the &#8220;Amanda Show&#8221; (the same show as the jacuzzi scene). Peck was arrested back in 2003 on 11 charges relating to this abuse, including sodomy and committing a lewd act upon a child aged 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older. There was also a charge for &#8220;oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance.&#8221; Peck pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to only 16 months in prison at the time. I&#8217;ll say that again. He spent less than two years in prison. Bell&#8217;s name was concealed during the trial, but now, many years later, he&#8217;s come forward to identify himself.
In the second episode of the documentary, Brian Peck is described as doing something similar to what Schneider did — trying to get profane jokes on-air, at the expense of children:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 Pickle Boy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hLYkxtZ-O2Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The final episodes of the documentary aren&#8217;t available yet, so we don&#8217;t have the full details of what Peck did. We don&#8217;t have the interview with his alleged victim yet. But it is suggested in that episode that, after Peck was arrested, Nickelodeon higher-ups (not including Schneider apparently) called a meeting with the child actors. They didn&#8217;t let their parents participate. They got the children alone, and told them that Peck wasn&#8217;t going to be around anymore. They asked if anyone had anything to say — almost as if they wanted to get the jump on any misconduct allegations.
There was reason for those executives to be worried, because Peck wasn&#8217;t the wasn&#8217;t the only sexual abuser at Nickelodeon during this period. 
The documentary also goes into some detail about the disturbing case of Jason Handy, who worked as a production assistant on both &#8220;The Amanda Show&#8221; and &#8220;All That.&#8221; Handy allegedly sent a picture of himself masturbating to an 11-year-old girl he was working with, who was working on &#8220;The Amanda Show&#8221; at the time. Handy, like Peck, was arrested in 2003. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 Police Investigate Jason Handy" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vTtLcu2fg4Y?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
These are accusations that are far more serious than what Dan Schneider is accused of. But they&#8217;re part of the same general pattern of behavior that involves demeaning and sexualizing children. This is what was going on internally at the most popular children&#8217;s channel on the planet.
It&#8217;s still an extremely popular network, of course. And that leaves reasonable people to wonder whether sexual perverts are still trying to pollute the minds of children. Previously, I&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/paw-patrol-indoctrinates-pre-schoolers-with-radical-lgbt-propaganda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">covered</a> Nickelodeon&#8217;s &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; spin-off, which recently hired a radical leftist writer who likes to teach children about abortions, among other things. Maybe in 20 years, we&#8217;ll learn the inside story as to why exactly that woman was hired.
But really, we don&#8217;t need to wait that long. Simply put, there&#8217;s no way a man like Dan Schneider could operate so openly, for so long, if he wasn&#8217;t part of a much larger systemic problem. This is a problem that can&#8217;t be solved by arresting a couple of production assistants and firing Dan Schneider, although that’s a good place to start. The only way to solve it is to do what the parents of these child actors should have done a long time ago, which is to keep your children as far away from corporate children’s programming as possible.

Nickelodeon’s 28th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards – Show

New Documentary Uncovers Child Abuse At Nickelodeon

Child Sex Abuse

Children

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Former child star <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/celebrities">Drake Bell</a> is speaking candidly about the alleged <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sexual-abuse">sexual abuse</a> he endured as a teenager while working in Hollywood.
The 37-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">actor</a> discussed his experience as part of the upcoming ID documentary “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” which premieres on March 17. Bell said he was assaulted at the age of 15 by Brian Peck, who was a dialogue coach for “The Amanda Show” on Nickelodeon.
Peck was arrested on 11 charges in 2003, including sodomy, lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older, and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance. The minor’s name was not released at the time, but Bell is now saying he was the plaintiff in the case. Peck pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender, per <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/drake-bell-sexual-assault-brian-peck-documentary-1235934302/">Variety</a>.
Bell described the alleged assault in detail. He said it occurred after a sleepover at Peck’s house, which he did occasionally because Peck lived closer to auditions than his mom or dad did.
“I was sleeping on the couch where I would usually sleep. I woke up to him — I opened my eyes, I woke up and he was sexually assaulting me. I froze and was in complete shock and had no idea what to do or how to react, and I have no idea how to get out of this situation,” Bell said. 
The actor said it “became this secret” because he didn’t want to be questioned by friends and colleagues. He remembers Peck acting “so apologetic” following the abuse and promising it wouldn’t happen again.
“He figured out how to convince my mom and everyone around to, anytime I would have an audition or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. I was just trapped. I had no way out,” the former child star continued.
“The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal. I don’t know how to elaborate on that on camera, really… Why don’t you think of the worst stuff that someone could do to somebody as a sexual assault, and then I’ll answer your question. I don’t know how else to put it.”
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Bell’s father, who was his manager at the time, said he felt uncomfortable with Peck being around his young son, but was told by show execs that he was acting “homophobic” because Peck was gay.
“I go, ‘I don’t see anything abnormal but it just doesn’t — I don’t have a good feeling,'&#8221; Bell’s dad Joe said. He was allegedly told that Peck was just a “touchy-feely guy” so he “backed off” after being “ostracized” for voicing his concerns, the outlet noted.
“The Amanda Show” guest star Kyle Sullivan said Peck had an autographed clown poster hanging in his garage, which he said was given to him by convicted sex offender and serial killer John Wayne Gacy. He allegedly showed some of the child actors letters he received from Gacy after becoming pen pals with him in prison.
“Your instinct is to give someone the benefit of the doubt if you’ve known them for that long, even in the face of this really bad sign,” Sullivan said of the incident. “This man, who is like trusted as basically a supervisor of kids, is not safe.”
Bell said his girlfriend’s mother realized something was amiss when Peck repeatedly called for him one night when he was at her house. She didn’t call the police, but rather took him to a therapist.
“I was just so scared to say anything, I didn’t know how to explain [it]. I still don’t. … I’ve never talked about this outside of therapy. I just said, ‘No, everything’s normal, things are getting a little weird but nothing’s happened. Good thing we caught it when we did.'&#8221;
Bell said Peck used intimidation and fear to keep him from telling anyone about the abuse. But when Peck tried to get cast as the father in the Nickelodeon sitcom “Drake &amp; Josh,” the then-teen finally revealed to his mother that he’d been abused. She called the police, which led to an investigation into Peck, and eventually his arrest and trial.
During the documentary, Bell also discussed his subsequent struggles with drug and alcohol abuse.
A spokesperson for Nickelodeon provided the following statement to Variety: “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct.&#8221;
It continued, &#8220;Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”
The statement concluded, “Now that Drake Bell has disclosed his identity as the plaintiff in the 2004 case, we are dismayed and saddened to learn of the trauma he has endured, and we commend and support the strength required to come forward.”

Drake Bell

Former Nickelodeon Star Drake Bell Details Alleged Sexual Abuse By Dialogue Coach: ‘It Was Extensive and Brutal’

Former Nickelodeon Star Drake Bell Details Alleged Sexual Abuse By Dialogue Coach: 'It Was Extensive and Brutal'

One of the biggest distinctions between shows that are made for adults, and shows that are made for children, is that you rarely hear much about the people who make shows for children. Studios go out of their way to promote the latest &#8220;Christopher Nolan film,&#8221; or the latest action movie directed by Michael Bay or James Cameron. Adults are expected to buy tickets to see these films primarily on the basis of the famous people who worked on them. But when it comes to productions that are intended for children, you&#8217;re left in the dark. You&#8217;re really not supposed to know anything about the people producing those shows. Instead those productions are marketed directly towards children, usually with the help of cutting-edge animation and CGI. Parents aren&#8217;t told anything about who&#8217;s putting this stuff together behind the curtain.
That&#8217;s why, the other day, I decided to take a close look at someone named Lindz Amer. Lindz Amer is not a household name. Very few people have ever heard of this person. But recently, Lindz was hired by Nickelodeon to help write for a spin-off of the hugely popular children&#8217;s show &#8220;Paw Patrol.&#8221; If you&#8217;re not familiar with &#8220;Paw Patrol,&#8221; chances are you don&#8217;t have kids. Every child under the age of seven has seen this show, sadly, for the most part. That&#8217;s not an exaggeration, by the way. According to Paramount, worldwide, more than 350 million households tune into this show.
For the record, I&#8217;ve already banned &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; in my house simply because it&#8217;s an incredibly annoying, obnoxious children&#8217;s show with dull, lifeless animation. Before we even get to the wokeness, it is already everything that’s wrong with children’s entertainment. There is no heart to this show. It has no soul. There is no creativity, no art, nothing at all. It is at best mindless amusement for pre-schoolers. Just lights and sounds and stimulation. It&#8217;s not the kind of thing that I want to hear in the background, and it&#8217;s not the kind of content that any child benefits from consuming.
But most families do allow &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; into their homes, along with its spinoff, which is called &#8220;Rubble &amp; Crew.&#8221; As a result, with every episode, tens of millions of children are being exposed to content written and produced not just by soulless automatons but also soulless automatons who happen to be hyper Left-wing, like Lindz Amer. So it&#8217;s important to ask a basic question, which Nickelodeon and Paramount desperately don&#8217;t want you to ask. That question is simple: Who is this person?
Before I go into what I learned by reading Lindz Amer&#8217;s book, here&#8217;s a video that Amer uploaded recently to the Internet, for everyone to see. This is footage from a key writer in one of the most popular children&#8217;s television shows on the planet. To be clear, this is totally unedited. Here it is:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="What&#039;s An Abortion, Anyway? - RAINBOW STORYTIME" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IRKKV89suP4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The reading level for this book, which is called &#8220;What&#8217;s an Abortion Anyway,&#8221; is for children ages seven and up. So the point, of course, is to indoctrinate children who can&#8217;t possibly understand the ramifications of abortion, as early as possible, before they know what they&#8217;re talking about. And if you read this book, of course, it&#8217;s the most overt pro-abortion propaganda you can possibly imagine. It includes lines like this for example: &#8220;Some people have abortions because their doctors say pregnancy could make them sick.&#8221; Another page contains this line: &#8220;Some people have abortions because they can&#8217;t take care of a new baby right now.&#8221;
Imagine actually saying this to a seven-year-old. “Mommy loves you, but sometimes Mommies don’t love their children, so they kill them! Isn’t that wonderful?” This is depraved on the deepest possible level. It’s serial killer-level crazy. As for the arguments presented for abortion in the book, if you&#8217;re seven-years-old, they might seem compelling, if not also extremely disconcerting. After all, you&#8217;re not told anything about what abortion actually is. You&#8217;re not informed that abortion means dismembering a child. Instead, you&#8217;re told that abortion makes life easier for the cartoon women in the pages you&#8217;re reading. This is the kind of book that Lindz Amer, the new Nickelodeon writer, is pushing.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1226-paw-patrol-indoctrinates-pre-schoolers-with-radical-lgbt-propaganda-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
And that made me wonder: What does Lindz Amer write about in her own book? That book is called &#8220;Rainbow Parenting: Your Guide to Raising Queer Kids and Their Allies.&#8221; Here&#8217;s a paragraph from the first chapter: 
<blockquote>&#8220;We&#8217;ll start at the very beginning: infancy. I know it might seem silly to start so early; babies can barely say &#8216;baba&#8217; let alone tell you their pronouns. But I encourage you to think of infancy as a practice round! You can create a queer and gender-affirming environment in their nursery, babble to them about consent while you&#8217;re changing their diaper, and start up your well-rounded book collection.&#8221;</blockquote>
So this is a person who wants you to &#8220;babble&#8221; about sex and transgenderism with children who are in a nursery. This is not some fleeting thought that Lindz Amer had, she wrote it in her book and it was published. And it goes on from there: 
<blockquote>&#8220;You can introduce [toddlers] to big abstract concepts like queerness and difference, and develop healthy skills like body kindness and consent. &#8230; Maybe infancy and toddlerhood seem a little early to introduce ideas around consent and body kindness, but it will help you build a strong and confident foundation.&#8221;</blockquote>
Let&#8217;s pause here for one second, to make one thing absolutely clear: If you&#8217;re talking about topics like &#8220;queerness&#8221; with a toddler, you belong in a straight jacket or in a prison or both. There&#8217;s no way to spin that to be healthy, or remotely appropriate. But that&#8217;s what the Nickelodeon writer is doing. She&#8217;s talking about the idea that toddlers — who don&#8217;t know anything about the world — can benefit from a conversation about queerness. It&#8217;s incredible that this was edited and published, but it was. And this author was not banished from civilization, she got a promotion, writing for one of the top kids’ cartoon franchises in the country.
Lindz Amer will deny that there’s anything radical about what she&#8217;s doing of course. But if you look at her YouTube channel, which is called &#8220;Queer Kid Stuff,&#8221; you&#8217;ll quickly notice a pattern, which is that Lindz Amer is bent on sexualizing kids. She even sings a whole song about kids being drag queens. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="If You&#039;re A Drag Queen And You Know It - RAINBOW STORYTIME" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxd12NDt82A?start=71&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Lindz Amer has a bunch of videos like this. And instead of being denounced and condemned for this insanity, now she&#8217;s writing for the &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; spinoff. In that capacity, Amer has <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/19/paw-patrol-nonbinary-character-queer-mister-rogers-rubble-crew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">created</a> the first &#8220;non-binary&#8221; character in Paw Patrol history. This character is called River, and he/him/they/them/whatever &#8220;rides a skateboard in the episode and wears socks and shoes that are the colors of the transgender flag.&#8221;
On X, Robby Starbuck spotted this. Here&#8217;s what he noticed about the character:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I regret to inform you that Paw Patrol has gone woke. Their new spinoff series &quot;Rubble and Crew&quot; added a trans character. They also hired <a href="https://twitter.com/lindzamer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lindzamer</a> as a writer. Lindz runs the Queer Kids Stuff YouTube channel that indoctrinates kids into the trans ideology. Hollywood is working… <a href="https://t.co/d4OGP58FeH">pic.twitter.com/d4OGP58FeH</a>
&mdash; Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) <a href="https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1703828767687180692?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
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A couple things to note here. First, this is not the first time that &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; has pushed this kind of propaganda on children. Even back in 2020 they were, as you can see here, displaying the so-called &#8220;non-binary&#8221; flag by adorning a boat in its colors. It’s not subtle at all, unless you’re in pre-school. For that audience, the idea is to get them used to seeing these colors and associating it with something good and fun and welcoming, so that when they encounter the “non-binary” flag in real life, they will draw that association. Subliminal messaging is a big part of kids&#8217; cartoons these days. As Robby noted, it&#8217;s a part of virtually all children&#8217;s entertainment now.
Now, if you’ve ever had a conversation with a proponent of this “non-binary” concept, you will quickly notice that they struggle mightily to explain it or defend it. They cannot answer any skeptical questions about it. They claim that some people are not on the sex binary, that they exist in a state beyond male or female. But if you ask them, for example, to name the third and fourth and fifth sexes, if you ask them to give you more information about these people who possess this “transcendent” identity, they can’t do it. So how do you get people to buy into this concept — one that you can’t defend or even answer any questions about? The only way to do it is to indoctrinate them at a young age, before they can think for themselves or ask these kinds of questions. And that&#8217;s exactly what&#8217;s happening. It&#8217;s why Nickelodeon and Paramount have enlisted Lindz to write for them.
They think they can get away with this because many people on social media (some of them conservatives) still like to claim that it&#8217;s somehow frivolous or silly to complain about something like an LGBT character in a children&#8217;s show. This very segment that I’m doing right now is sure to be mocked later today on social media by leftists scoffing that I opened my show by complaining about “Paw Patrol.” But the truth — the truth that the people scoffing know very well — is that this is far more important than most of the topics that will make the top of a Fox News broadcast. This is an explicit campaign to brainwash children when they are the most susceptible to it. Under the guise of harmless entertainment — using shows with innocuous names like &#8220;Paw Patrol&#8221; — adults are trying to brainwash children into a radical and sexualized ideology that those children cannot possibly understand or question.
There’s a reason why the Left, following their usual paradoxical routine, will mock conservatives who object to including a “non-binary” character in a show for pre-schoolers but then also, in the very next breath, tearfully celebrate the inclusion of that character. This is what they always do. They insist that we should care about something and then mock us for caring about it. They say “look at this non-binary character in &#8220;Paw Patrol!&#8221; Isn’t this amazing! This is a historic moment!” And then when we object they respond, “Why do you care anyway? It’s just a kid’s show you weirdo.” This is the game they constantly play, and they expect us not to notice. 
What they expect most of all — what they demand — is that we put our children in front of the television and then get out of the way. Once your kid is sitting there, the entertainment industry says, “Okay, we’ll take it from here. Go sit in the other room and stare at your phone or something.” They want us to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, or even what’s happening in front of the curtain. Just let them decide what our kids are exposed to, what ideas are presented to them, what values are inculcated. That’s what they demand. If you step in as a parent and say, “No, I’m not going to let you expose my children to this. I’m not going to give you unfettered access to my child’s brain and soul,” then they will kick and scream and mock and belittle you. And so be it. They can kick and scream away. They aren’t getting anywhere near my kids. I will protect them from this madness at all costs. And that’s the attitude that all parents need to have. 
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