Nickelodeon, created in 1979, is home to shows and movies that many kids grew up on, from All That to ICarly, but during the time you spent watching these shows, did you ever think about what went on behind the scenes? Probably not because you were just a little kid enjoying a funny show, but as you look back at an older age, what do you notice now?

Recently a four episode docuseries titled Quiet On Set was released, unmasking many of the hidden secrets of Nickelodeon and the people that worked on it. The series brought up controversial topics and talked about many of the inappropriate jokes written for the shows.

Dan Schneider, the primary producer for many of the shows from 1994 to 2019, was the main topic of the documentary because of the prominent role he played in the many problems mentioned.

Many of the other people that worked on the shows he was a part of, mainly the women, have brought up many of the inappropriate things he did and said to them because of the authority he thought he had over them.

Along with that, he was in charge of many of the inappropriate jokes that made it onto the shows, including but not limited to foot jokes, pervert jokes, and many, many more.

I asked Chaislynn Hauck if there were any shows that she was not allowed to watch when she was younger and she said, “I wasn’t allowed to watch Spongebob because my mom thought it was bad for me.” This statement is true for a lot of kids who grew up in the Spongebob era because many parents either thought it was annoying or it was too inappropriate.

There is much more inppropriate behavior besides the jokes and innuendos, specifically the things that some of the crew did behind the scenes.

In the documentary, some of the former writers and staff had come forward expressing the inappropriate behaviors that Dan had towards them including verbally harassing them, threatening their jobs, and making them massage his shoulders constantly. They stated that at the time they never wanted to fight back because they believed that he truly could get them fired if they didn’t comply.

Hearing these cast and crew members open up about these difficult things that they went through so many years ago without anybody even batting an eye is heartbreaking, there are ways that these things could have been prevented, but no one wants to do anything about it because they are getting good content out of it.

Nickelodeon was not the only network that had issues with inappropriate behaviors from adults to the underage actors, many actors from other movies and shows have opened up about the things that they faced when they were younger, but usually nobody believed them.

One of the former Nickelodeon stars, Drake Bell, used the opportunity of the documentary to share his story from when he was a child actor being groomed by Brian Peck, the former dialogue coach on many of the Nick shows.

Bell was one of the child actors that people actually believed and who did eventually open up about it which resulted in the trial of Peck who only received 16 months of jail time, but that is significantly more than most people, not only these child actors, can say about their assaulters.

These topics are not for others to talk about, only the people these things happened to and it is only fair to treat them with respect as they work their way through these issues, the same respect anybody would want if they had a similar thing happen to them.

The film and television industries are known by their audiences as an escape and a happy place where they can enjoy a show or movie and forget about the bad things going on around them which is good for the audience, but audiences aren’t aware of what goes into making these things and what may be happening behind the scenes that they don’t have to worry about because they are only watching through a screen.

No one deserves to be treated badly in any industry, and it’s good that people are finally agreeing.