Although I was a Disney kid growing up, I was always down to watch Nickelodeon. It had the classics: “ iCarly”, “ Drake and Josh”, “Victorious”, “Zoey101,” and more. These shows made our childhood, whether we watched them religiously or not. But what happened behind the scenes?

On March 17, a docuseries came out called “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” that revealed how haunting it was while on the set of the shows we know and love. Going into it, I thought it would focus on Dan Schneider, the mastermind behind the hit shows, but as I continued to watch it, I soon realized that it was talking about other issues and employees who worked with the child actors.

From the adult-like jokes on the screen to the inappropriate outfits, the list of incidents goes on and on. Through extensive interviews with a lot of actors that were on “All That,” viewers were able to get an inside look to what it was like being a child actor on the Nickelodeon sets, and how bad the mistreatment got. I won’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say, it was very disturbing and unsettling hearing what happened.

What caught my attention was hit TV star Drake Bell coming on the fourth episode to give his account. The case he was involved in remained anonymous until this show was released, and it was heartbreaking to hear what he had to endure. Since then, a fifth episode, titled “Breaking the Silence,” has been released and contains interviews with more child actors.

I thought the show was very interesting, eye-opening, and an overall good watch. I wanted to know what other students had to say, and here is what I heard:

“I thought the documentary handled the topic very well. Even though I wasn’t the biggest Nickelodeon fan, I did watch iCarly religiously, and that was mentioned briefly. The show provided me with a new perspective on how dangerous it was to work for them, especially for the victims being at such a young age. The most significant thing that stuck with me was the normalization of all the things that happened on set.”
– Taylor Richardson, Freshman

“I loved Victorious growing up, and it was mentioned a good bit in the docuseries. The docuseries changed my perspective on Victorious because it tried to portray the older sister as ‘ugly’ and ‘not a good sister’ which of course, isn’t the case. The most eye-opening part was when Drake Bell came on and talked about his experience, it was emotional.”
– Chloe Fuller, Freshman