Former Child Star Recalls ‘Weird,’ ‘Cultish’ Nickelodeon Set Culture
By Movieguide® Contributor
Former Nickelodeon star Keke Palmer and her mother are sharing their recollections of former showrunner Dan Schneider.
“I honestly do remember you having a lot to say about the Dan Schneider sets,” Palmer said on an episode of the “Baby, This is Keke Palmer” podcast. “I remember you feeling a way about Nickelodeon.”
Palmer’s mother, Sharon, replied, “My honest opinion is I thought the whole atmosphere of the Dan Schneider set was very weird, very cultish. The parents were very secretive, and I honestly thought they all took themselves way too seriously.”
While Palmer was a Nickelodeon star, playing the titular role in TRUE JACKSON VP, she never worked directly with Schneider, whose credits include ICARLY, DRAKE AND JOSH, VICTORIOUS and THE AMANDA SHOW.
Schneider has faced allegations of abuse from former child stars and other employees on the sets of his shows, many of which are detailed in the recent miniseries QUIET ON SET. Movieguide®’s review reads:
QUIET ON SET: THE DARK SIDE OF KIDS TV is an important five-part documentary exposé streaming on Max. The documentary miniseries discusses the abuse occurring on several Nickelodeon programs produced by Dan Schneider, who got his start starring on ABC-TV’s popular sitcom HEAD OF THE CLASS in the late 1980s. As he succeeded in producing hit after hit for Nickelodeon, Schneider allegedly became more volatile and abusive with the increase of his power. Episodes Three and Four focus on a case involving the dialogue and acting coach, Brian Peck, for the program DRAKE & JOSH, who was convicted of abusing the program’s star, Drake Bell.
QUIET ON SET makes clear that children between 8 and 15 are extremely vulnerable and need to be protected from exploitation. Every aspect of this series is important for exposing the underside of Hollywood. QUIET ON SET has a very clear, strong moral worldview, with a few brief mentions of prayer. Although there’s very little visual sex or violence and practically no foul language in QUIET ON SET, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution because of the subject matter.
“I always looked at you being at Nickelodeon as being a stopping station. You didn’t get your start on Nickelodeon or Disney,” Palmer’s mom explained. “You were blessed and fortunate enough to work in adult situations and kid situations. My mentality about the entertainment business wasn’t that Disney Channel or Nickelodeon was the end all to be all, but a lot of the parents did.”
Palmer agreed and praised her mother for standing up for her during tough moments in her career.
“In my experiences with you in this industry, I had moments where people tried to push us away from each other or try to come in between us,” the actress shared. “You never would allow that kind of thing to go down. It created tension in our relationship — I definitely felt overly controlled and confined and almost like I was in a prison sometimes. But when I look back, I feel like you were really just being protective of me.”
Palmer also touched on other parts of QUIET ON SET, specifically, its depiction of the life of a working child actor.
“QUIET ON SET also did a good job at showcasing the stress outside of these assaulting situations, but also just the mentality of being a child that works, that’s making money, that’s supporting their family,” she shared. “That’s also a stressful kind of thing that you don’t expect to experience as a child.”
She continued, “[Adults on set] want to be able to have this inappropriate dynamic with children, where they’re speaking to you like you’re an adult and want you to feel like you have this very equal relationship. At the same time, they’re absolutely being controlling of you and saying, ‘stay in a child’s place.’”
