Prior to “Drake & Josh,” Bell was a cast member in “The Amanda Show,” starring Amanda Bynes. In the third episode of “Quiet on Set,” Bell revealed that Peck sexually abused and assaulted him for a period of time while Bell was 15 and that it was for those crimes that Peck was convicted as a sex offender.
Many in the entertainment industry supported Peck in court at the time. Notably, Bell said that Schneider was the only person from Nickelodeon who supported him throughout his ordeal with Peck.
Another disturbing detail about Peck from the series came from former “All That” cast member Kyle Sullivan. He told “Quiet on Set” producers that one time, Peck revealed to Sullivan that he (Peck) regularly corresponded with John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer and sex offender who committed brutal acts against men and boys.
In the docuseries, Drake Bell’s father described seeing Peck relate to Bell and to actor Leonardo DiCaprio with odd, excessive touching (Bell’s father took steps to protect Bell from Peck). Cameron confirmed that Peck did indeed behave that way toward DiCaprio, who was a recurring cast member on “Growing Pains.”
“I began ‘Growing Pains’ at 14 years old. And I was suspicious that that stuff was going on behind the curtains even when I was working on ‘Growing Pains,’” Cameron told The Daily Wire. “And there were several young boys like us [Cameron and Leonardo DiCaprio] that he [Peck] interacted with on a regular basis,” he said. “So, it’s shocking. It’s sickening.”
Among its other claims, the docuseries alleges that Nickelodeon allowed a toxic workplace culture to thrive and that Schneider frequently included crass jokes, including some borrowed from pornography, in his hit shows starring children and created for children.
Nickelodeon told “Quiet on Set” producers that it “investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace…[W]e have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”
Schneider has published a video apologizing to anyone he ever made uncomfortable and said that all of his jokes were written for children, not adults. He has denied some of the allegations about his behavior reported in the docuseries.
In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, Kirk Cameron alluded to the docuseries and implied that such problems “didn’t start in the 1990s. I’m very sad to say that some of those same people that were working on those shows were also working on ‘Growing Pains.’”
“Are we going to continue to let these things happen in the world of children’s programming, only to be discovered and outed decades later when the scars on these children are going to be with them for a lifetime?” he asked. “Or do we uproot the evil and reverse the curse? Do we replace the wickedness with the wonder and the goodness and the truth of the kind of shows that we used to watch?”
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