The explosive documentary about Nickelodeon called Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV has caused a firestorm.
But it turns out that the problems are much deeper than those reported in the documentary.
Big Bang Theory Star Mayim Bialik just made one disturbing claim that shows Nickelodeon wasn’t alone.
Former Big Bang Theory star and Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik is a big name in Hollywood.
But she’s also seen the dark side of the industry.
A thoroughly toxic environment
During a recent conversation with two of her former co-stars from the hit NBC series Blossom, Mayim Bialik spoke about the thoroughly toxic culture of the Hollywood and television industry.
Bialik, now 48, shared her thoughts after watching the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
She opened up about her past experiences in tinsel town, especially after the shocking and explosive allegations against TV producer and screenwriter Dan Schneider.
Schneider was once considered Nickelodeon’s “golden boy,” but now faces allegations of misconduct and abusive behavior while producing some of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows from 1994 to 2019.
Schneider’s Nickelodeon hits included wildly popular shows like iCarly, Victorious, The Amanda Show, Drake and Josh, and All That.
“I hate to admit it,” Bialik said on her podcast while speaking with her two former colleagues Jenna von Oÿ and Christy Carlson Romano.
“Women being berated in the writers’ room is something that was just like — I’m sorry — it was considered in — I mean, I hate to say it — it was considered par for the course. I will say I do not believe that happened in our writers’ room.”
Bialik, whose acting career began when she was 12, said that. “There were things that we all thought were OK to even joke about which now, we’d be mortified. I think that was one of the most devastating parts of this.”
Detailing abuse through song
In Quiet on the Set, former child star Drake Bell, now 37, spoke out about how he was a victim of severe and repeated sexual abuse by former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck during the second season of The Amanda Show.
In 2004, Peck plead guilty and was sentenced to a mere 16 months in prison for his sexual abuse against Drake.
Since his release from prison, Peck has been required to register as a sex offender, but also landed a job at Disney working with children.
After the documentary aired, Bell went on TikTok and shared that he wrote his song In the End, from his 2005 album Telegraph, about the sexual abuse he endured at the hands of Peck.
“Wrote this song when I was 15 about what happened before I said anything to anyone,” he wrote in a caption on the TikTok video.
@kenz_today Wrote this song when I was 15 #song #memories #foryou #fyp ♬ original sound – kenz..
Bialik, who most recently appeared as a host for the game show Jeopardy, said she was relieved that she never experienced the kind of abuse others in the industry have.
But then she went on to make a disturbing comment about how prevalent such activity is in the industry.
“To have been spared that kind of trauma, and to know that it was going on, and that it was going on right under our noses,” Bialik said. “And not only was it going on, it was going on with people being hired on other shows after being convicted. Like, this was so much a part of an acceptable way to run a business.”
“That felt like the most devastating thing, and it wasn’t just happening at Nickelodeon,” she added.
Not the first time
She also said, “The real shock was that this type of behavior was not only happening, but was accepted in the industry and involved people who continued to find work even after convictions.”
Of course, this incident wasn’t the first case of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry to arise.
Sadly, Hollywood is full of cases of sexual abuse, many of which have been covered up.
And some people who are trying to rise through the ranks in the industry even volunteer to engage in such activities, hoping doing so will enhance their chances to become stars.
For example, in 2019, filmmaker Bryan Singer was accused by four men of sexual misconduct with them in the 1990s.
The men said they met Singer when they were in their teens.
And that same year, Singer settled a lawsuit for $150,000 with Cesar Sanchez-Guzman, who accused him of raping him in 2003 when Sanchez-Guzman was only 17.
And, of course, former film producer and co-founder of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020.
Weinstein’s actions were allegedly well-known throughout the industry, but he was left to continue his actions almost unchecked for years.
Patriot Political will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
