So I'm three episodes deep into a new documentary series called
Quiet On Set, which focuses on the abusive and toxic and abusive work environment prevalent at the network in the nineties and early 2000's. Clips from
All That, The Amanda Show, iCarly, and a number of others are shown; one clip showed a young boy in a superhero costume and sporting a large, rather...
um...
phallic nose, sneezing a glob of snot in a woman's face. This particular moment is described in a manner I can't say here, but it was deemed pretty suggestive. Dan Schneider' penchant for slipping adult jokes in scripts and putting young actors in compromising positions for their art is well-documented as soon as the first episode, but the real crux of the series is Drake Bell's revelation that he was sexually abused by
a trusted friend and producer. (Looking back, you probably should'a known you can't trust a grown man calling himself "
Pickle Boy"). I tell you what, it's hard to watch those
Drake and Josh reruns knowing all through filming the first season, secretly, what a mess Bell was: he suffered panic attacks, his hair was falling out in clumps, and his skin broke out in terrible hives. And this was the
second incident of a pedophile rousted out at Nick. The real question is, did Schneider know, or have some inkling, what was really going on? I mean, he
hired these a-holes. Was there no vetting process
at all going on there?