Dan Schneider accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award in the course of the Nickelodeon Children’ Selection Awards in 2014.
Kevin Winter/Getty Pictures
Former youngsters TV producer Dan Schneider says he has no drawback censoring Nickelodeon cult classics he created within the Nineties and 2000s that now could offend viewers.
“All these jokes that you just’re talking of that [Quiet on Set] coated over the previous two nights, each a type of jokes was written for a child viewers, as a result of youngsters thought they had been humorous, and solely humorous,” Schneider stated of strains he wrote for Nickelodeon reveals like The Amanda Present, Victorious and Zoey 101, and which at the moment are being criticized by offended followers on YouTube and social media platforms for having allegedly sexualized younger actors.
His feedback got here as a part of a March 19 apology video he launched following the two-night docuseries, Investigation Discovery’s Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV, which probed poisonous setting claims on units run by Schneider. The previous Nickelodeon producer created hit packages for the community like All That, Drake & Josh, iCarly and Sam & Cat, and helped launch the careers of the likes of Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes, Victoria Justice, Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy.
In an announcement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, a consultant for Schneider says, “Dan completely by no means meant for any of these jokes that at the moment are being seen as sexualized content material to be something aside from humorous for teenagers. Children don’t take a look at issues the identical means as adults. The jokes had been humorous for teenagers, and solely humorous. However now, 20 to 25 years later, adults are a handful of these jokes and them via grownup lenses and it’s making some individuals uncomfortable. So Dan thinks these jokes needs to be minimize from the reruns.”
Representatives for Nickelodeon, which parted methods with Schneider and his manufacturing banner Schneider’s Bakery in 2018, declined remark to The Hollywood Reporter when requested about his name to chop out any offending jokes from traditional sequence.
However after making the general public name within the apology video, Schneider has not contacted Nickelodeon or different Paramount platforms that make traditional Nickelodeon sequence out there for viewing, THR has confirmed. (Paramount World is the proprietor of CBS, Paramount+, Paramount Footage, Nickelodeon and different media manufacturers.)
Quiet on Set highlighted how Schneider’s scripts allegedly sexualized Ariana Grande, Bynes and Jamie Lynn Spears, amongst others, once they had been little one actors. And people claims have lengthy been a part of clips and compilations on YouTube and social media platforms which are denouncing Schneider because the creator and showrunner of these sequence.
THR reached out to representatives for Schneider to see which Nickelodeon episodes name for edits. A rep for the previous Nickelodeon producer cited two episodes of Victorious: “Ice Cream for Ke$ha,” the third episode within the second season; and “Helen Again Once more,” the second season’s seventh episode.
A glance on-line signifies the second season of Victorious will be streamed on Pluto TV, and will be seen with a subscription on Netflix, Paramount+ and Roku, or purchased for obtain on Vudu, Prime Video and Apple TV+. THR has reached out to these digital platforms on the Victorious episodes being out there amid criticism and didn’t hear again.
Networks routinely air reruns of traditional reveals, whether or not dramas or comedies, once they uncover a brand new viewers amongst younger viewers, or discover they are often binged on streaming platforms. And lots of the offending episodes mentioned within the ID docuseries have been resurfacing, as compilations and clips are being shared on YouTube and numerous X threads following the docuseries’ launch.
Representatives for Schneider additionally known as consideration to the tenth episode of the primary season of Zoey 101, titled “Backpack,” which first aired in April 2005. That Zoey 101 episode stays on Paramount platforms, THR has confirmed.
Alexa Nikolas, who co-starred with Jamie Lynn Spears on Zoey 101, has additionally spoken out concerning the wardrobe selections she claims had been hand-picked by Schneider that included miniskirts that had been “so quick” the costume designers needed to give her biker shorts to put on beneath. Nevertheless, the biker shorts had been too lengthy, poking out beneath the tiny skirts, so that they needed to be minimize. “Dan desires these skirts; he’s the one handpicking them and he has all inventive management. It’s fairly scary wanting again at that have,” she informed THR. (A rep for Schneider didn’t reply to THR‘s remark request.)
A number of the Nickelodeon clips in query are additionally out there by way of the web site The Slap. But it surely’s not clear who owns the web site and who has the proper to showcase content material on the location. The Slap as an internet site was shuttered in 2018, on the similar time Nickelodeon minimize ties with Schneider and his manufacturing firm.
Sources at Nickelodeon allege Schneider tried to bypass the networks’ requirements division by placing up content material whose scripts had not been proven to the community for approval on The Slap. “He would simply do them on set or on off-days with the actors and put them up, and we might discover out about them after the very fact. And right here they’re, dwelling in infamy,” a supply informed THR.
A rep for Schneider stated The Slap was an online extension of the Nickelodeon sequence. “They’d put additional content material on that website, and it went via the identical approvals chain. It wasn’t a Dan web site. It was actually a part of the present,” a rep informed THR.
Earlier, a spokesperson for Schneider had stated in an announcement: “The whole lot that occurred on the reveals Dan ran was rigorously scrutinized by dozens of concerned adults, and authorized by the community. Had there been any scenes or outfits that had been inappropriate in any means, they’d have been flagged and blocked by this multilayered scrutiny.”
Former Nickelodeon president of content material Russell Hicks had added in a separate assertion to THR: “There’s a requirements and practices group that reads each script and programming executives each episode. Add to that day by day on each set, had been the mother and father and caregivers and their buddies watching each single body of footage and listening to each joke. Each single factor that Dan ever did on any of his reveals was rigorously scrutinized and authorized by executives at Nickelodeon.”