Former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider is addressing accusations made against him in a new docuseries.
The creator of sitcoms such as Drake & Josh, All That, iCarly and Victorious is speaking out in response to allegations of inappropriate behavior on the sets of his '90s and '00s shows as detailed in the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV that was released this week.
"Watching over the past two nights was very difficult for me," Schneider told iCarly alum BooG!e in a video interview posted on the producer's YouTube page March 19. "Facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret, and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology."
Schneider, who left Nickelodeon in 2018, continued, "I could be cocky and definitely overambitious and sometimes just straight up rude and obnoxious and I am so sorry that I ever was. When I watched the show, I could see the hurt in some people's eyes and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry."
E! News has reached out to Nickelodeon for comment on the docuseries and Schneider's comments and has not heard back.
In Quiet on Set, several former cast members from Schneider's shows spoke about feeling uncomfortable about some of the outfits they were made to wear as well as various gross-out gags they were made to perform onscreen.
"We have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens and they're looking at them and they're saying, 'Oh, you know, I don't think that's appropriate for a kid show,'" Schneider said in response. "And I have no problem with that if that's how anyone feels. Let's cut those jokes out of the show."
He also said he thinks some of the "on-air dares went too far."
"Nickelodeon wanted to do their version of Fear Factor at the time we were shooting All That, so I was tasked with doing these on-air dares with the All That cast," he said. "I had no indication that any kid ever had a problem with them, but when I was watching the show over the past two nights, I now know that there were kids who did have problems with the on-air dares and it breaks my heart and I'm so sorry."
Schneider also noted that he did not have exclusive power over what ended up airing. "There were many, many levels of scrutiny," he said. "These are my bosses' bosses and then their bosses, and then their bosses, and they're approving all of this stuff. We're also shooting it in front of all sorts of adults and caregivers and set teachers and the families."
Russell Hicks, former president of Content and Production at Nickelodeon, previously told E! News in a statement that "every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinized and approved by executives at Nickelodeon."
Schneider previously denied any inappropriate behavior at work. "I couldn't, and I wouldn't have the long-term friendships and continued loyalty from so many reputable people if I'd mistreated my actors of any age, especially minors," he told The New York Times in 2021, adding that if people saw him as "difficult," it was because of his "high standards."
As he noted, "I'm very willing to defend creative things that I believe in."
The Quiet On Set docuseries included an interview with Drake & Josh alum Drake Bell, who for the first time spoke publicly about being sexually abused by Brian Peck, a dialogue coach who in 2004 was sentenced to 16 months in prison after pleading no contest to a count apiece of lewd act upon a child 14 or 15 by a person 10 years older and oral copulation of a person under 16, according to sentencing documents reviewed by E! News.
Bell, 37, said on Quiet on Set that Schneider was the only person he remembers being there for him after Peck's arrest. In his video, the producer noted, "I did not hire Brian Peck," adding, "When Drake and I talked and he told me what had happened, I was more devastated by that than anything that ever happened to me in my career thus far."
E! News had reached out to Peck for comment but has not heard back.
Read on for details about the most shocking stories from Quiet on Set: