INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn — Through his website AllYourScreens.com, Rick Ellis writes about all things TV.
Ellis, who lives in Inver Grove Heights, has been doing some version of this since the late '90s but it became his full-time job about seven or eight years ago.
In 2018, after producer Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon severed ties, Ellis started asking questions. It led to Ellis writing many articles on the subject. Years later, Ellis received an unexpected email.
"They [directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz] had apparently decided to do some sort of a documentary about Dan Schneider and the whole Nickelodeon team TV era, and they were looking around and really there were only a couple of people who had written anything about it," Ellis recalled.
More than 16 million people have watched Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, according to Investigation Discovery and Max/discovery+. It's the largest audience of an unscripted series since the launch of Max.
The docuseries is described as uncovering the toxic culture behind some of the most iconic children's shows on Nickelodeon from the late '90s to early 2000s.
Ellis is one of the journalists featured in the documentary which may come as a surprise to some people, considering he's based out of Minnesota.
"I think they really have a hard time wrapping their brains around it," Ellis said. "I'm able to do it for a couple of reasons because I've been around a long time. So I know a lot of people in the industry and I don't necessarily have to be there to beat down people's doors. And just the way things are now... there's Zoom calls and it's so easy to be close to things."
The series heavily features Schneider and his time with Nickelodeon.
"He produced a lot of these shows that people remember from that era. Sam & Cat, Victorious, iCarly. All these different shows he created, he was a showrunner on. He was not an easy person to work for," Ellis said.
Quiet on Set accuses Schneider of everything from inappropriate to abusive behavior. He responded to the docuseries in a YouTube video.
"There's a lot of incentive if you're 10 years old, and you're on a show, and you're making more money than your entire family. You're going to take a lot of abuse. You're going to do a lot of things, which probably you wouldn't do if you thought about it or you were a little older," Ellis said.
In the documentary, former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell said he was sexually abused as a child by Brian Peck. The former Nickelodeon dialogue coach pleaded no contest in 2004 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
"I talked to the one of the producers, Emma, who did the Drake Bell interview and she said that was the hardest interview she's ever done. Because it's just so heartfelt and so you can just tell the pain in the guy. Just watching it, it's really difficult," Ellis said. "It was just a really horrible experience for a lot of people. It's amazing talking to to someone... it happened 20 years ago and they still basically have a PTSD response to it. It's just so horrible; they just don't really want to talk about it."
Ellis said he's glad the documentary got made but as far as its larger impact?
"I guess there will be some things put into place so that this doesn't happen again and that will protect some of the kids. But as far as the people who are involved in this getting any sort of impact on their lives? I don't think there's going to be much, unfortunately," Ellis said.
In a statement to KARE 11, a Nickelodeon spokesperson said, "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. 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."
Ellis said he plans to keep on writing about the topic to his 80,000 newsletter subscribers.
A bonus fifth episode of Quiet on Set will be released April 7, digging deeper into the topics explored in the previous episodes. It will launch on Investigation Discovery and then stream on Max.
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