CONTENT WARNING: This post contains references to child abuse and workplace abuse.
Hello, this post is a bit different as it is not about books and manga. As you can tell from the post title, this post will be about my reaction to Quiet on Set, Episode 1.
If you couldn't tell from my previous postings, I'm a millineal. Just like other people in the same generation, I spent a lot of time watching Nickelodeon. And wow, Nickelodeon was huge when I grew up during the '90s and early 2000s. I was a big fan of Rugrats (I remember the FOMO I had with the All Grown Up special). I also enjoyed watching many of the shows, including All That and The Amanda Show. All of those shows were everywhere, including grocery stores. I even wished that I could be part of those shows, even as an audience member. My wish was similar to most kids today wish to be content creators and YouTube creators (which sadly has similar issues to the stuff discussed in Quiet on Set).
It wasn't until I was an adult that I learned about some f**ked up stuff that happened behind the scenes of some of my childhood Nickelodeon shows, such as John K. sexually abusing two underage female staff members. I also heard about Dan Schneider's behavior as well and felt gross reading about his actions.
But actually watching the former staff members and former actors that worked with Dan Schneider was even more upsetting. It is chilling to rewatch the clips from All That and The Amanda Show in this episode with the knowledge of what was happening behind the scenes. As a child, many of the sexual innuendo went over my head, such as the noses on the costume (from an All That) resembling a penis and the shot of snot landing on the actress's face being similar to a cum shot in porn. The disturbing part is the clip of a young Amanda Bynes, in a bathing suit, sitting in a hot tub with a fully clothed Dan Schneider. As a kid, I didn't see anything wrong with it, as it looked like Dan and Amanda had a father-daughter familial relationship. But now, it is a lot more sinister, with Dan talking about how he wrote the hot tub scene and lines in the clip. He was admitting to the TV viewers the amount of power he has over young actors like Amanda Bynes and the power imbalance of that relationship.
The Amanda Show section was difficult to watch, hearing the awful treatment the two women writers, Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton, received from Dan. It was maddening to hear how both writers share one salary with each other. I can't imagine living in LA on the small amount of money received from that split salary. In addition to Dan forcing them to do degrading stuff such as eating two pints of ice cream within 30 minutes. What worsens this is that all of this was occurring on the set of a show that stars an actress in the leading role. Sadly, that type of hypocrisy is common with some female-lead or so-called progressive shows and movies from media conglomerates and some big name creators. It is a painful reminder that these big media companies don't often practice what they preach in their shows and movies and care only about the money.
I wish to see a day when all workers in the entertainment industry receive better treatment and hold awful people in the industry accountable for their actions. But that will take a long time.
It was difficult to watch the staff and the actors detail their awful experiences. Especially, the actors who were children at the time. The fact that Dan broke the trust of those former child actors and used their naïveté to manipulate them to do uncomfortable acts was heartbreaking. It is even more maddening that Dan is walking around free and never faced any serious consequences for what he did to those actors and staff members.
So that concludes this post for now. Obviously, this was not an upbeat post. However, it is important to discuss issues like workplace abuse. I will be writing more of my reactions in the future. I considered covering the entire series in this post, but this first episode was a rough experience.
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Thank you for reading, and see you again.
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