WATCH: Nickelodeon stars focus on sexual misconduct allegations in new doc
Drake Bell’s TV relations are rallying across the actor on social media after he revealed within the docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV” that he had been sexually abused by former dialogue coach Brian Peck when he was a younger Nickelodeon star.
Josh Peck, who performed Bell’s stepbrother on the hit tv present “Drake & Josh,” shared a press release on Instagram on Thursday saying that he reached out to Bell privately and that he was giving his assist to others who have been on Nickelodeon who additionally mentioned they skilled sexual abuse and different forms of abuse.
“I completed the Quiet on Set documentary and took just a few days to course of it,” mentioned Josh Peck, who will not be associated to Brian Peck. “I reached out to Drake privately, however wish to give my assist for the survivors who have been courageous sufficient to share their tales of emotional and bodily abuse on Nickelodeon units with the world.”
“Youngsters ought to be protected,” he continued. “Reliving this publicly is extremely tough, however I hope it may possibly convey therapeutic for the victims and their households in addition to needed change to our business.”
On Wednesday, Bell took to TikTok to substantiate that Josh Peck had reached out to him.
“I simply wished to clear one thing up,” Bell wrote. “I’ve seen quite a lot of feedback on a few of Josh’s TikToks and a few of his posts and I simply wish to allow you to guys know that that is actually — processing this and going by this can be a actually emotional time and quite a lot of it is rather very tough.”
“So not the whole lot is put out to the general public, however I simply need you guys to know that he has reached out to me and it has been very delicate however he has reached out to speak to me and assist me work by this and it has been actually actually nice so I simply wish to allow you to guys know that and to take it a bit of straightforward on him,” he added.
One other “Drake & Josh” co-star who’s responding to the “Quiet on Set” docuseries is Nancy Sullivan, who performed Bell’s mom Audrey Parker-Nichols on the present.
“They weren’t my actual children, however I am going to at all times love them,” she wrote in an Instagram put up. “It broke my coronary heart into one million items to listen to simply how a lot Drake was holding inside whereas we have been working collectively. I used to be each devastated and proud seeing the person he is grown into sit down on digital camera and bravely inform his reality.”
“Previous abuse does not outline us, and it has no proper to rule our lives, I do know that placing this burden down will free him in so some ways,” Sullivan continued. “I hope reminiscences of the enjoyment he had on our exhibits will sometime vastly overshadow the ache. Sending like to Drake for a deep therapeutic and for a wealthy and exquisite life forward.”
“Quiet on Set,” a four-part docuseries from Investigation Discovery, was launched on Max earlier this week (the 2 networks share the identical guardian firm, Warner Bros. Discovery). The sequence focuses on what some declare went on behind the scenes at among the hottest Nickelodeon youngsters’s exhibits of the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s.
It contains interviews with former little one stars on exhibits reminiscent of “All That” and “The Amanda Present” and explores claims about tv creator Dan Schneider fostering a poisonous work setting.
Schneider responded to most of the allegations within the docuseries earlier this week throughout an interview with former “iCarly” actor BooG!e, which was shared on Schneider’s YouTube web page. In it, Schneider apologized for making any writers really feel “uncomfortable” within the writers room and mentioned in response to alleged pay discrepancy claims that he had “nothing to do with paying writers.” He additionally claimed the jokes known as out within the docuseries have been “written for a child viewers” and mentioned among the dares in “SNICK On Air Dares,” a phase he created with the “All That” solid, “went too far.”
Along with the alleged pay discrepancy that was addressed on the present between some women and men writers, in addition to Schneider’s use of inappropriate jokes within the writers room and in scenes on some Nickelodeon exhibits, one of many greatest revelations that got here to mild within the docuseries was that Bell, who additionally appeared on “All That” and “The Amanda Present” earlier than starring on “Drake & Josh” from 2004 to 2007, mentioned that he was the “John Doe” minor within the 2003 little one sexual abuse case towards Brian Peck.
Brian Peck was arrested in 2003 and charged with 11 counts together with “lewd acts with a baby” and sexual abuse of a minor. He pleaded responsible to 2 of the counts and was sentenced to 16 months in jail. He was additionally ordered to register as a intercourse offender.
Bell mentioned the abuse he skilled put him on a path of self-destruction, together with ingesting and substance abuse. Lately, Bell has had two convictions for driving below the affect and a baby endangerment conviction in 2021 for inappropriate on-line exercise with a minor.
Schneider mentioned in his interview with BooG!e that he spoke to Bell and known as the incident “the darkest a part of my profession.”
“I informed him, ‘I am right here for you. What do you want?’ Which Drake talked about within the present,” Schneider mentioned.
He added that he was “devastated by that, greater than something that ever occurred to me in my profession up to now.”
In a press release final week, Nickelodeon mentioned it was “dismayed and saddened to study of the trauma [Bell] has endured, and we commend and assist the power required to return ahead.”
In response to claims of hostile office environments, Nickelodeon informed ABC Information that whereas it “can not corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions a long time in the past, Nickelodeon as a matter of coverage investigates all formal complaints as half our dedication to fostering a protected {and professional} office setting freed from harassment or different kinds of inappropriate conduct,” including that it has “adopted quite a few safeguards through the years to assist guarantee we live as much as personal excessive requirements and the expectations of our viewers.”
“GMA” has reached out to Josh Peck, Bell and Sullivan for extra remark.