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Quiet on set review

So, discovery plus released a new documentary called Quiet on Set: the dark side of children's television. This documentary was hard for me to watch but I did it. I had to watch it. It outlines all the behind-the-scenes issues on nickelodeon television shows from the 90's and 2000's. During that time period I was a kid growing up and I loved watching nickelodeon. I loved shows like All that, Keenan and Kel, the Amanda show, Drake and Josh, Neds declassified school survival guide. They were really instrumental in me learning about absurdist humor and they crafted a sense of humor for me. They taught me from a young age that this world can be a funny place. That having a sense of humor is important and healthy. Even though I was young I can have a sense of value and agency. Most importantly they taught me that it's okay for me to be myself. I had a hard time making friends as a kid, so I had these shows instead. They were something that really helped me. As I got older and started doing stand-up comedy the influence of these shows was apparent in my jokes. So, watching this documentary series was devastating. Just hearing these people who brought so much joy into my life talk about all the abuse, it was horrific. Right now I just don't know what to do. I'm a man in crisis right now. How do I keep being funny when the foundational genus of my humor was built on this horror? I don't know what I'm going to do, but for now let's get into it. This series is focused on a man named Dan Schneider. He was the executive producer of most of the shows that I listed earlier. He was the mastermind behind it all and he was a giant asshole. His career started in the early 90's and ended in the late 2010's when the me too movement happened and he was ousted from Nickelodeon. In that time he created a dozen shows, committed acts of gender discrimination, harassed a fair majority of the people working under him, made his employees give him inappropriate massages at work, and a million other things. So he is a grade A, all American asshole. Now while he might be an asshole it was responsible for creating a lot of television. He made Nickelodeon a lot of money. Some would say he even achieved greatness. So, we have a correlation between large amounts of success and large amounts of shitty behavior. I've asked this question quite a lot and now I have to ask it again. Was Dan always an asshole or did he become a greater asshole as he accumulated more power? At one point in his life he probably wanted to make shows that made people laugh and it ended with him being a giant asshole. All I've ever wanted to do in life is make people laugh. If I travel on this path will I end up being a giant asshole too. Could it happen to anybody given that much power? Does power corrupt absolutely or do only corrupted people seek out power? That's what we all have to ask ourselves. Now there's a few more things this documentary deals with. It talks about shows like Zoey 101, I Carly, and Victorious where the shows sexualize underage girls. I never watched any of these shows back in the day. No particular reason I just saw that there were girls in those shows so I thought they would be all girly and I wouldn't like them because I'm a boy. So not a sophisticated behind that but it is what it is. Now while we're on the subject this documentary feels incomplete. There are a lot of people that this documentary talks about, but they don't interview to let them tell their side of the story. To name a few, they don't talk to Jennette McCurdy who wrote a tell all book detailing extensive behind the scenes abuse while she worked for nickelodeon. They don't interview Jamie Lynn Spears who got pregnant as a teenager while in the employment of nickelodeon. I guess that really cements the argument for sexualizing the young girls on their shows. They don't talk to Amanda Bynes because the last I heard she retreated from public life to focus on her mental health. I also heard she has a conservatorship so it might be like Britney Spears, and we might need to start a social media campaign to free Amanda. They don't talk to Miranda Cosgrove, they don't talk to Kenan Thompson, they don't talk to Kel Mitchel, they don't talk to Josh Peck, they don't talk to Victoria Justice. All of these people might have stories to tell that could shed some light on the situation. 

Now to be my most cynical and criticize this documentary, it's not perfect. You see this documentary didn't get made because it was the right thing to do. It was made by discovery plus and their parent company Warner Brothers discovery. They are a multibillion-dollar corporation and to make money they have to keep eyeballs on their streaming platform. They're also in competition with other corporations for those eyeballs. One of those corporations is Paramount. This documentary is extremely critical of brands and IP that paramount is still trying to make money from. They talk about shows that are available to stream on Paramount plus. So it's pretty safe to say that this documentary got made because Warner Brothers discovery wanted to make a hit piece against their streaming competition rival Paramount. They think that documentaries like this could drive eyes away from Paramount plus and on to Max. Therefore, making them more money and taking a bite out of their competition. How dare they exploit this tragedy to make profit. That's me at my most cynical.

Now here's me at my least cynical. All the worst parts of this documentary have the possibility to get worse. You see the way content creation has changed since the events of this documentary have made it less safe. All the problems in this documentary are with a television network. When working in the television industry there's unions, standards, oversight, and laws. All focused on regulating the industry. Now these days shit tons of content is on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, instagram and more. A fair amount of it involves child actors. There is far less accountability for online social video platforms. Less regulation and less oversight for these productions. All these problems of abuse and exploitation can multiply exponentially without systems in place to stop them from happening. It could be happening right now and we might not hear about it until they make another documentary in a decade.

I guess another reason that this documentary was very triggering for me was because a lot of that stuff happened to me. I've worked on TV shows, I've had bosses who were assholes, I've delt with workplace harassment and it pains me to admit it but I've even delt with sexual abuse. I've delt with other funny people who are just assholes. Just remarkable pieces of shit. Maybe they shouldn't be given the power that an executive producer at a television network has. So, this documentary was a kick in the teeth for me. I might have to take some time to recover. I do know one day I'll wake up and this documentary will be a distant memory. The question is. How many things will I create between this day and that day? Thank you for reading, stay safe.