All language subtitles for Quiet.on.Set.The.Dark.Side.of.Kids.TV.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY[EZTVx.to]

[retro orchestral music]

I wanted to be an actress
when I was young.

My mom had been
a legal assistant

within the movie industry
for years.

She knew a lot of what went on
behind the scenes.

And decided
she never wanted, uh,

my brother or I
to ever have any involvement
within the movie industry.

So I had some resentment
over that.

Years later...

[people exclaiming]

...my daughter, Brandi,
was very outgoing,
full of life.

Full of personality.

[man] Hi, little hambone.
How you doing?

And she was very enamored
with television.

Disney Channel, Nickelodeon.

She idolized these shows,
and she thought

what a fun life
that looked like.

She had found
what she wanted to do in life.

Brandi absolutely loved
The Amanda Show,

and they were looking for kids
to be in a schoolroom scene.

Class dismissed! Bring in
the dancing lobsters!

[MJ] So, for her
to get booked on a show
that she absolutely loved,

at only 11 years old,

she came out of that
just on cloud nine.

We, as parents,
were not allowed back
on the set.

We were greeted
by a production assistant,
Jason Handy,

who guided all the kids
to where they needed to be.

Jason looked like
the all-American
boy next door.

Very charismatic,
very charming.

When he wasn't on set
with the kids,

Jason would come out
and talk with all the moms.

Wanted to get to know
about us, what our families
were like.

You thought,
"Oh, I could be friends
with this person."

On the drive home,
Brandi was very excited.

She said Jason
started exchanging numbers
with the kids and the parents,

and Jason wants to email.

She thought, "Oh, this is
somebody else on the set
that seemed to be so nice."

And she would have
a friend in the industry.

I thought,
"Oh, this is going well."

I was so happy.

I was the parent
that could give my child
what she wanted in life.

[dial-up modem connecting]

About a week
after she was on that episode,

there was an email from Jason.

She let me read it, and it was
a very innocent email.

It just talked about the shows
that he had been working on.

[dial-up modem sounds]

After that,
they were emailing more.

She would tell me,
"Oh, I got an email
from Jason.

He's doing this.
He's doing that."

I didn't see any harm in it.

[intense instrumental music]

A couple months later,
she was sitting
at the computer,

and all of a sudden, I noticed
she had suddenly shut down
the computer completely,

and got up
and ran into her bedroom,

and slammed
the bedroom door shut.

And I said,
"Brandi, what is wrong?"

She started to cry.

And she said,
"I got an email from Jason."

[voice breaking] It was
a picture of him naked...

masturbating.

And he said
he had sent it to her

because he wanted her
to see...

that he was thinking of her.

I went back and forth with,
"Should I call the police?

They're gonna think
I'm a bad parent

because I allowed her
to talk to this person."

I struggled with this
and I finally told myself,

"I can't call the police.
All I can do...

is make sure
I keep her far away from him."

[somber instrumental music]

She left the business
and never returned.

The public still has
this image of Hollywood

of this glitz and glam,
and the limelight,

and, "Oh, you have
the best career,
and it's all fine and great."

They don't know
what these kids went through.

[opening theme music playing]

This is Amanda.

I sure hope you like my act.

-[man] What is your name?
-Hi, my name's Amanda Bynes.
I'm nine years old.

[woman] How old are you,
by the way? Are you--

-I'm ten.
-[woman] You're 10 years old.

-I'm 12, turning 13
April 3rd. Yay!
-[host] Yay!

-Teenager! [whoops]
-[crowd applauding]

And I'm 14 years old.

And I'm 16.

Amanda Bynes
was very, very famous
by the time she was, like, 16.

And, at the time,
she talked about wanting
to take on more adult roles.

On Nickelodeon, I had to do
a lot of, like, slapstick-y.

I was always wearing wigs
and doing all that.

And I got to a point,
I was growing up,

that I wanted to feel like
my age, and like a girl
and do all that.

[Koul] She made a few movies,
What a Girl Wants
and Big Fat Liar.

So she's starting to pivot
into this different space
in her career

that's well beyond Nickelodeon
and well beyond being a figure
of child entertainment.

♪ What I like about you ♪

[Koul] Dan Schneider
created a show called
What I Like About You

on the WB with a 16-year-old
Amanda Bynes.

And Dan really wanted
to follow Amanda
into this mainstream success.

But there's already trouble
on set.

[audience laughing]

[Taylor] Dan had a very
specific image

of how he wanted
What I Like About You to go,

but he was constantly fighting
with the co-creator
of What I Like about You,

Wil Calhoun from Friends.

And there was just
this massive amount
of tension there,

where the network
didn't really trust Dan.

And they stepped in.

He got pushed out
from the writer's room.

[somber instrumental music]

But Dan is still able
to remain on set with Amanda
in his role as producer.

[Fabian] Amanda's relationship
with Dan was very close.

[people clamoring]

He thought that he should be
the one to, kind of,
usher Amanda into adulthood.

[people clamoring]

It's a very
delicate transition

to make from child star
to adult person,

never mind adult actor.

-[reporter] What's the cost
of fame, in your opinion?
-Um...

People like
having to be involved
in your personal lives.

Oh, enough
out of you. [laughs]

[Fabian] She wanted
to be a grown-up.

She still lived at home,
you know? So there were
some rules.

[Taylor] Amanda
and her parents
were not getting along.

Amanda was dating someone.

[Fabian] He was older.

You know, you're 16 years old,
and you think you're an adult
and you know everything.

But her parents,
being good parents,

said, "Miss. Can't do that."

And I think
she didn't like hearing,
"I can't."

Amanda tries to run away
from home

and, in this moment,
she turns to Dan for help.

The details
are a little bit murky,

but we know from sources
that the police were involved.

And we also know
that Amanda's parents

are really, really upset
with Dan's actions
through this.

But around this time,
Amanda turns to Dan
and other representatives

to come up with a plan
to get her emancipated

and get her a new level
of independence.

This plan takes her parents
completely by surprise.

They didn't say, "I do."

So what rights do kids have
when they want a divorce
from their mom and dad?

Two teenage sisters
went to court
to get a divorce,

not from their husbands,
but from their parents.

[woman] My child
wants to be emancipated.
What does this mean?

That's a really good question.

What your child wants
is to be called a legal adult.

In order to do that,
your child needs to petition
the court.

[Koul] There's a pretty
lengthy history of teen stars

getting emancipated
from their parents.

It lets them work
a little more freely.

They don't have to work
reduced hours.

It would have made everybody
a lot more money

and they could have worked her
even harder
than they already were.

[ominous instrumental music]

And she really felt pulled
in a couple
of different directions.

You know, parents,
Dan Schneider...

Dan Schneider is the guy
responsible for my career.

She's a teenager
and that's a lot
to put on somebody.

Knowing that no matter
what decision you make,

you're gonna hurt someone
who means something to you
is difficult.

Dan inserting himself
into Amanda's life like this
is really ethically fraught.

I think
that there is an argument
that can be made

that he was trying
to help Amanda.

But, unfortunately for Dan,

this goes to court,
and it entirely fails.

[indistinct chatter]

Because of Dan's involvement
in this plan
to emancipate Amanda,

this creates this huge split
in between Amanda's parents
and Dan Schneider.

-[reporters clamoring]
-[cameras flashing]

This is really the end
of Dan's relationship
with Amanda.

But her transition
into adulthood
in the public eye

will be incredibly fraught.

Pretty soon after this,
Dan parts ways
with What I Like About You.

He stays on with the show
in name only.

Dan has basically
lost his ticket
out of children's programming.

It's a huge blow.

So, now,
he has to turn his attention
back to Nickelodeon.

And Nickelodeon
obviously wanted him

because here's a guy,
he's responsible
for a couple of

really successful shows
for them.

The dark side of that
is that it came at a cost
to a lot of people.

[Koul] Over at Nickelodeon,
Dan had been growing
what would become an empire,

reviving All That
with a whole new cast.

[presenter] The all-new cast
of all-new All That!

[all] It's All That!

[Koul] All That
made Dan's career.

He was able to capture
this really lively energy

where it just looked like
everybody was just having
a good time.

What makes it
really fun for me,

working with young people,
is that it's fresh and new
to them.

This is often
their first or second job.

Fame is new, the whole process
is new, and they're excited
to be a part of it.

Dan was a writer
and executive producer
on All That,

and he was the primary person
in charge on set.

There is a deference
on a television set.

It's very hierarchical.

Dan is someone
who holds economic power

and emotional power
over these kids.

He had so much power
and he threw it around.

[solemn instrumental music]

I grew up watching All That,
and I remember the way
they talked about Dan.

-[phone ringing]
-It's the Dan Phone!

There's a very telling scene
where Dan calls the cast,

and it's like Charlie
calling his Angels.

-[Schneider on call]
Hello, cast!
-[all] Hi, Dan!

He's parodying himself
as a big-shot producer.

We lost him.

Lost 'em.

-How about a shrimp?
-Okay.

[Koul] He's being hand-fed
shrimp tails,

and then, the kids
are literally referring to him
as God.

Look, it is not our place
to question Dan.

-Yeah. Dan's a god.
-True.

[boy] I can't argue that.

To me, it looks like a moment
that really reflects

what's happening
behind the scenes.

-Let's go make Dan proud!
-Come on!

I was so excited,
but I had no idea

what kind of wild ride
I was getting into.

You guys know Gail.

Heidi heidi heidi hi!

I am Giovonnie,
Giovonnie Samuels.

I started on All That
for season seven through nine.

I understood the magnitude
of being the token Black girl,

but I didn't realize
how significant that was
until years later.

My name is Kyle Sullivan.

I was a guest star
on The Amanda Show.

You people
ripped us off! [gasps]

I was apparently, like,
funny enough that Dan
took a liking to me,

and was like, "Oh, wow. Okay."

-[gasping]
-Inhale!

I was on All That
for, like, four years.

[hollering]

My name
is Bryan Christopher Hearne.

I was a cast member
on season seven and eight
of All That.

Every time I booked a role,

I felt like I was one step
closer to getting my family
out the hood.

And, so, it was freeing
to get the role on All That.

But that wasn't the reality.

[Sullivan] The set on All That
was dysfunctional.

You could just
kind of get away with more.

Like going overtime in ways
that were sort of pushing
the envelope.

They would be like,
"Hey, can you stay an extra
however-long?"

"I guess. Sure."

You kind of
look at your mom like,

"We're ignoring child
labor laws again,
do you know that?

All right.

Let's... let's shoot."

I remember we did this
sketch "Sugar and Coffee."

It involved me and Lisa
running around this set,

and basically, like,
swallow a bunch of sugar
and swallow a bunch of coffee.

That sketch required, like,
a ton of, like, physical work.

-Welcome, Mrs. Nut-Hurst!
-Yeah!

[Samuels] They had me come in
dressed as an old lady

that gets drowned
in the sugar and coffee.

I mean, you're pouring, like,
pounds and pounds of literal
sugar in your mouth.

And it's hitting you
like sand.

And, sometimes,
we would choke.

It was taxing and it...

And, frankly, like,
if you look at the sketch,

it's gross.

Oh!

[Sullivan] Like, it would
congeal into this gross,
viscous goo.

It was weird.

The show was full of, like,
these uncomfortable sketches.

I think that Dan got a kick
out of walking a line
with that.

But, generally,
I had a good relationship
with Dan.

Dan was very professional
and nice to me.

Dan had a nicer
relationship with...

some of the other white kids.

I didn't feel close to him
at all.

My time on Nickelodeon
played a big part in how I...

dealt, and still deal,
with racial issues.

We got impressions
on what the climate
was like immediately,

first day filming.

You wanna buy
some girlie cookies?

-[canned laughter]
-You're not a girl.

-[shushes]
-[canned laughter]

They set up the scene
like he was selling drugs.

-[shushes]
-[canned laughter]

And I was like, "Oh,
the Black kid gets to be
the crack dealer?"

And then, we were at the end
of the scene,

and there's a man
sitting there
who was the producer.

Behind him was a young lady
massaging him.

That was certainly pulled
from Dan getting massages
on set,

which was weird.

Why are we having adult jokes?

Are you showing the kids
that Hollywood
is a casting couch?

And, "Oh, Tracey." [shushes]
"Go do it."

I was complaining too much.
I became the oddball.

There was a sketch
where I played

the youngest rapper
of all time,

Lil' Fetus.

Yo, yo, yo!

Lil' Fetus in the womb, yeah!

They were fitting me
for the Lil' Fetus role.

And, essentially,
you're a fetus,
so you're naked.

But, you know,
they had to put
a body suit on you.

And, obviously,
it has to be skin tone.

Someone said the skin tone
should be charcoal.

I started to get teary-eyed.

Whoever was doing my makeup
at the time was kind of, like,

hand on my shoulder, like,
"It's gonna be okay."

Like, "Don't worry about that
[bleep] he just said."

That was a moment
where I felt like,

"Oh, I could go
get my mom about this."

But also, I know my mom,

and I know
that she would have rose hell.

I saw things differently
than everybody else.

Now, ultimately,
I did try to tell his agent,

'cause she called me.

She's like, "Tracey, come on.

Do it for Bryan.
Just shut up."

And I was like, "Yeah,
but things are weird here."

[Koul] The person at the top
sets the tone
for the entire production.

If you run a show
dealing overwhelmingly
with children,

then you are responsible
for creating an environment
where those kids feel

beyond comfortable to tell you
that they're not comfortable.

It needs to be so safe
that your most vulnerable
person on set

is able to say to you,
the most powerful
person there,

"I don't wanna do this."

[presenter] From
Nickelodeon Studios
in Hollywood,

-welcome to this week's
Snick On-Air Dare!
-[crowd cheering]

The On Air Dares
were the Fear Factor
of Nickelodeon.

We would be standing
in these tube chambers.

It was, like,
this ominous thing
that was deciding,

"Who is it gonna be?"

[child] Will it be Bryan,
Kyle, or Chelsea?

[Hearne] And then,
it would be lights.

And then, it would shine on,

you know,
all the cast members,
and it would stop.

[all] Bryan Hearne!

Those were
particularly traumatic,

and they were, sort of,
designed to be.

The whole idea was that
you would have to do
something scary on camera.

And they got pretty scary.

I did the peanut butter one.

So, I had to be submerged
in peanut butter.

All right, lay him down
on the floor!

That was weird.

-[child] Release the hounds!
-[Hearne] But then,
the dogs come.

I'm laying on the ground
and, then, the dogs,

they gotta lick peanut butter
off my body.

That sounds like some kind of
awkward fantasy

from some freaky dude.

It was really uncomfortable.
I didn't like that.

And when you question it,
it's like,

"But it's normal, isn't it?"

Right? They begin to teach
the parents, "This is normal."

I didn't need to have dogs
lick the peanut butter off.

Jack didn't need
to be submerged
in a pool of worms.

I don't think that any of that
was necessary.

There was, sort of,
this weird dynamic with it,

where they were taking
something that,

you know, exists
in an adult context,
like Fear Factor.

[screaming]

And, like, transmogrifying it
into kids.

When you do that,
it's actually, like,

an inappropriate thing to do.

[Hearne] There was
a scorpion there!

The thing that was
most uncomfortable
is having to watch

your fellow castmates...

be, essentially, tortured.

[clamoring]

If there's anything on set
that I wish
I could have yelled,

"Stop! Let's not do this.
I'm out,"

it's still On-Air Dares.

[camera shutter clicking]

I think that people
just kinda look at us and go,

"You made some money.
So what are you
complaining about?"

And, yeah, we collect
our money, sure.

But at what cost?

The environment on set
really matters
when we're talking about kids

because, if they aren't
protected, then they're
vulnerable to much worse.

-Hey, Anthony.
-[Anthony] Yes.

-Do me a favor.
-[Anthony] Yes.

[Taylor] As Dan grew
more powerful,

he became
more verbally abusive,

more aggressive,
more demanding of people.

[Hearne] Dan's presence
in the room can change
the vibe of the room.

Everybody would kind of
just be like, "Okay, shut up.
Shut up."

Dan would come down
and yell and scream.

There was many times
where I had to go,

"Okay, you're creating
an atmosphere on this set
that is not healthy."

I worked with Dan on All That.

And then came The Amanda Show.

And then came Drake and Josh.

When I worked with Dan,
I felt like the bar
was always being risen,

and I had to reach that bar.

You had to be
as good, or better,
or put more hours in,

or do longer things
than Dan did.

And we all did it...

or you got fired.

The edit bay was like
a Starship Enterprise.

Dan Schneider would sit
in the very back row

and make comments
the whole time.

And they were sometimes
very degrading.

He would not
talk to me directly.

He would say
to his associate producer,

"Tell her to make
this certain edit."
Or, "Tell her to trim this."

Or, "Tell her to, you know,
start over," or "Better take."

Dan was a golden child
at the time,

and there was always
the next show, the next show.

He would run to the mailbox
on Monday mornings
and get the Nielsen ratings.

I think it put
a lot of pressure on Dan

to maintain
some kind of number.

[Thompson] I would be editing
from 8:00 a.m. to midnight.

You didn't eat,
you didn't go to the bathroom.

Dan would be like,

"Wait. Wait a minute."
You know? "Can you hold it?
Can you wait a minute?"

So, every day
was constant pressure
to get things done

faster, faster, faster.

One day, I keeled over,

and I ended up
having to go to the hospital.

And, as I'm leaving
and curled over,

I could hear someone say...

"How is the show
going to get finished?"

And I just remember saying,
"I'll be right back!" [laughs]

"I'll be right back."

And then, he promised me a job
and didn't give it to me.

Not only was this job
that Dan promised me
given to someone else,

it was a younger man

who had
no experience. [chuckling]

I was livid.

I got up out of my chair
and I never came back.

I had enough of promises
from Dan that didn't
come true.

[Fabian] He was just
an egomaniac.

You know, when everybody
is just kissing your butt,

and the money's crazy,

yeah, how do you avoid that?
I don't know
how you avoid that.

In the end,
I was going through a disaster
in my marriage,

and I was not on my game.

And he never pulled me aside

and said, "Hey, man.
Talk to me. What's going on?"

Instead of giving me the note,
he would play little games
on the set,

almost trying
to get me to quit.

I was doing an episode
of All That.

We were in the middle
of rehearsals,

and Virgil got mad
at something.

I don't know
what the exchange was
or what happened.

The stage manager came to me
and said,

"You can go. We'll shoot it
and it'll be fine."

I was like, "Okay.

If Dan wants me to go,
then have Dan come over here
and tell me that."

And she said, "Look, man.

You can go."

I really considered Dan
a friend.

And the way it ended,
and the way
he didn't talk to me,

yeah, bothered me.

A lot.

To this day.

Yeah.

[Samuels] When Virgil left,

you definitely felt
a difference,

'cause Virgil
was always fighting for us,

going to bat for us,
making sure we were okay.

Virgil was very good
about that.

[Hearne] I was excited
to start my third season.

I thought my dream
of being able
to take my family,

quite literally, out the hood
was on its way.

I kind of knew by this time
I was the real problem.

Dan treated Bryan

with caution.

Like, he side-eyed him.

And so, we're in New York City
expecting to go back.

We get a call from the agent.
She was like, "Come down."

[train rumbling]

[elevator dings]

And she told me

Bryan wasn't being
invited back.

[Hearne] I was crying...

because I'm 13, 14,
and I've built this family,

and now, I'm not a part
of the family anymore?

Like, dang, I didn't even
get to say goodbye
to my people.

Like my Gio, my Jack, my Kyle.

Like, when am I gonna
see them again?

I definitely blamed myself,
but I also kind of
felt like...

the times that my mom was,
you know, raising hell,

that, maybe,
that had a lot to do with

the collective
decision to kick me off.

It was "Get them out of here!"

And that's Hollywood.

But I wasn't prepared
for that.

[Brown sobbing] The day
that we were told...

in that moment, he grew up,
and his body language
showed it.

Just showed this man
protruding out,

and that's a man
that didn't trust
his mom anymore.

It ruined us.

[voice breaking] And you can't
get that...

Like, the moment,
you can't get it back.

[Hearne] Getting kicked
off the show definitely was
the stage-setter

for a lot of issues
that I still face today.

As a Black man in therapy,

a lot of issues
that I'm currently overcoming.

But I feel like everything
happens for a reason.

You know what I mean?

Maybe I wasn't supposed to be
on set anymore.

[Brown] I had no idea
what I was saving my son from.

It was a house of horrors.

No kidding.

House of horrors.

[newscaster] Van Nuys division
officers have arrested
the suspected child predator,

28-year-old
Jason Michael Handy
of Sherman Oaks.

Handy has connections
to the TV industry...

-[phone ringing]
-[MJ] Phone rang and it was
a woman on the other line.

She announced herself
as a detective
from the LA police department.

And she said, "We'd like
to speak with Brandi
about Jason Handy.

Are you familiar
with that name?"

And I said,
"I am very familiar
with that name."

[tense instrumental music]

[Samuels] Jason Handy,

he looked like a goofy
white boy from Nebraska.

[laughs]

"Hey, guys, how you doing?

Okay, We're going to sit now."

Jason was a regular member
of the crew.

He even appeared on screen
at the end of a number
of episodes.

Jason Handy was a PA,
production assistant.

I remember him
being a pretty nice kid.

[Sullivan] He was around a lot

because, as the PA,

like, it was his job

to basically walk the kids
around the set,

often outside of the presence
of their parents.

There's Jason.

Lisa and I would have
Bible study on set,
and Jason would join us.

He appeared to be
this really nice,
genuine person.

I had people
write notes to me,
like a yearbook.

And this is Jason.

"Keep your trust in God
and don't forget me.

You and all the kids
are why I work for free
half the week.

I love you. Jason."

Law enforcement
had been tipped off

about Jason Handy's
inappropriate behavior
towards children.

[police siren wailing]

So, in 2003,
they searched his home.

They find this enormous trove
of child pornography.

"Over 10,000 images
of children,

including 1,768 images
of young girls
in erotic poses,

238 images of young girls
in sexually explicit poses,

and two images
of girls engaged in
"bondage activity".

One of the CDs included
seven video files of minors

engaged in sexually
explicit conduct.

The officer said,
"We found Ziploc bags,

each one
with a girl's name on it,

and each Ziploc bag had...

some kind of token in it."

And she said that, "The reason
I'm calling is we found
a Ziploc bag

with Brandi's name on it.

And there were letters
from her in that Ziploc bag."

She had started describing
some of the other bags
and what were in them.

There was a Ziploc bag...

with a girl's name on it.

She was seven years old
and it was a pair
of her underwear in that bag.

She started telling me
that a lot of parents

did not wanna be involved
in the investigation,

and they said
we would really like to speak
with Brandi.

I didn't want people
to lay the blame on her
in any way.

But my decision
in allowing Brandi
to talk with the detectives

was that we would find justice
for her,

and that we would get closure.

[Taylor] One of the most
disturbing things
that law enforcement found

when they searched
Jason Handy's home
was Handy's own journals,

where he spells out
how he feels
about these young children.

"I am a pedophile, full blown.

I really have been giving in
to my desire for little girls
these past few weeks."

And, "I even struggle
on a day to day basis

of how I can find a victim
to rape if I have to."

[MJ] Eventually, Brandi
had to go to court
and testify against him.

There was
another family there.

Their daughter was there
to testify against Jason.

They fell into his trap also.

It went a little bit further
on their end.

Jason Handy meets another girl
on a different
Nickelodeon show,

Cousin Skeeter.

She was just a guest star
on the show.

They became friendly and...

on one day in the spring
or summer of 2000,

when the girl
was nine years old,

she and Jason Handy
were playing video games
in her bedroom.

He kissed her twice
and, on the second kiss,

he tried to force his tongue
inside her mouth.

She backed away,
feeling uncomfortable
about the kisses.

He told her
not to tell her mother
about the kisses.

He had also told
this young girl,

"I can get you
on other shows."

So, there was
that promise of...

he's going to take her far
in this business.

[Taylor] Ultimately, Jason
was sentenced to six years

on two felony counts
and one misdemeanor
involving two girls,

one of whom was Brandi.

-[man] Brandi!
-[woman] Hi!

-[cooing]
-Hello, Brandi!

I no longer trusted
anybody with children
in this industry.

I felt abandoned.

There was never any apology

to Brandi herself
for what happened.

[solemn instrumental music]

Everything got swept
under the rug.

[Sullivan] He was gone.
He was disappeared.

And folks talked about it
a little bit.

But there's this sort of,
like, steamroller effect

of the pressure
of the environment...

that the show must go on.

[Taylor] Jason was arrested
in April of 2003.

Just four months later,
another member of the crew
was arrested.

Wait! Two pedophiles?
What is that?

What is that?

Look, there's Brian Peck,

AKA Pickle Boy.

[presenter] Pickle Boy
likes to hurt
and tease pickles.

[canned laughter]

Pickle Boy was this,
like, character

that returned again
and again and again

throughout the seasons
of All That.

Pickle Boy appeared
in every episode,

and he's often
interacting with a celebrity.

-[Ray Romano] Hello!
-[canned laughter]

Anyone?

I gotta get something to eat!

[canned laughter]

A pickle.

[Samuels] We just
went with it.

Pickles? Look, this is
the mind of Dan Schneider.
You gotta ask him.

There was this referencing
to like,

"Oh, yeah! Dan just has
a weird sense of humor."

That was like...

"The pickles don't look
like penises to you?"

[canned laughter]

[moans]

[Sullivan] This is
a children's television show.

Wait, why is this in the show?
What is...

What is the joke here exactly?

There's this weird element
of, like,

they all were able to, like,
pull a fast one
and get away with it.

And that's, like,
a part of the joke.

[Taylor] Brian Peck
worked closely with Dan
as this dialogue coach.

And Brian is seen as this guy
on set who's just helping
with the kids.

He's very much one of the cogs
in the Dan Schneider machine.

I'll see you in hell!

Brian first connected
with Dan's World

playing small roles
in Good Burger
and Kenan and Kel.

Let's get these balls
a bouncin'.

And there are these
behind-the-scenes clips

where you see Brian Peck
joking around on set.

I... I'm not just Pickle Boy,
but I'm also
a trained professional

who works here
on the set of All That.

You can tell by my very
important-looking headset.

I'm sorry. Hang on.

Yeah, do you want fries
with that?

Everybody loved Brian.

He was charming,
he was clever,

and he was around
all the time.

We played foosball with Brian.

We played Nintendo with Brian.

He was funny.

It's also important to note,
like, all the parents
loved him, too.

Like, everybody trusted Brian.

[Samuels] I would walk
on Brian's back.

I guess, looking at it now
as an adult,

that was kind of weird.

"Hey, Giovonnie, thank you
for walking on my back.

It really cut down
on my chiropractic
bills." [laughing]

[Taylor] But there are moments
where Brian joking around
on set

feels a little bit off.

Later, Kyle.

[Samuels] But we were there
for so many hours,

you'd get comfortable
with people...

until you're not.

[Sullivan] I remember,
at the time,

I think it was about, like,
two and a half years in,

everyone went to Brian's house
for a barbecue.

And his house
was a little off.

He had a room
that was just dedicated
to, like,

vintage toys and comic books,

and he converted his garage
into, like, a Planet
of the Apes shrine.

I noticed a painting
in the room
that stuck out to me

because it had nothing to do
with Planet of the Apes.

It was of a birthday clown
holding balloons.

And Brian got very excited
when I asked him about it.

He flipped the thing around
and, on the back, it said,

"To Brian, I hope you enjoy
the painting.

Best wishes.
Your friend, John Wayne Gacy."

[ominous instrumental music]

It was a self-portrait
of serial killer
John Wayne Gacy.

[camera shutter clicking]

At this point, I'm, like, 14.

I didn't know, like,
the details,

but I knew, like, this guy
is a [bleep] serial killer

who, like, killed
a lot of young men and boys.

My instinct was, like,
everyone has to see this.

And so, like, all the parents
and the kids
come into the room.

And, then, Brian presents
the painting again.

And Brian actually developed
a pen pal relationship
with John.

He kept, like, this pile
of letters and photos
from John Wayne Gacy

in his nightstand
next to his bed.

And he, like, pulls them out
and starts showing them to me.

Your instinct
is to give someone
the benefit of the doubt

if you've known them
for that long,

even in the face of, like,
this really bad sign.

It was one of those,
like, classic failures
of group psychology,

this man who is, like, trusted

as basically a supervisor
of kids...

is not safe.

It was probably just, like,
several months after this.

One Monday morning,
we have the table read.

That table read was so weird.

The energy was really off.

[Sullivan] There were people
that I had not seen before.

And after we, like,
do the table read, Dan says,

"Would it be possible
for the parents to leave
the room for a moment

so that our friends
can talk to the kids?"

We thought
it was an announcement.

Like, "Hey, we're gonna
go over some stuff."

[Sullivan] And this happens
just after Brian Peck
is arrested

on 11 charges
of child sexual abuse.

[tense instrumental music]

And these charges
are related to a child actor.

[Samuels] We were like, "What?

Are you sure? Brian Peck?"

[Sullivan] And, then,
these guys

said something to the effect
of, like, "Brian isn't gonna
be here anymore.

Does anyone have anything
they'd like to say?"

That was one of the most
awkward silences of my life.

Everyone was, like,
looking at everyone else.

Basically wondering, like,
is someone gonna admit

that, like, they were abused
by Brian?

Thinking about it now,
as an adult,

and having the parents
leave the room...

that was a little sus.

[Sullivan] At the time,
that experience
was really disillusioning.

It left a lasting impact on me
in terms of how
the world works.

[Samuels] We go through enough
as child actors,

and for us to not feel like
we have a voice,

that's worse...

'Cause you don't know
who you're supposed to trust.

After this, like,
very awkward pregnant pause,

the lawyerly fellows
were like, "Okay,
thank you very much."

And, then, Dan was like,
"All right!"

And then, everyone got up,
and that was that.

[Hearne] To hear
that Brian Peck
was a sexual predator,

it made me wonder
immediately about...

who was being hurt.

Who it is, when it happened,
where it happened,

I have no idea.

It wasn't dealing with anybody
on the shows
or anything, right?

[producer] It was
a child actor.

On one of our shows?

[producer] Yes.

[sighs]

[somber instrumental music]