Former Nickelodeon series creator Dan Schneider released a 20-minute interview on his YouTube channel conducted by BooG!e, who played T-Bo on “iCarly,” about some of the allegations made against him in the new ID docuseries, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
“Watching over the past two nights was very difficult,” Schneider said. “Facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
One element of the special focused on his asking crew members to massage Schneider on set. Although he had previously admitted to and apologized for that behavior through a statement via his team, he spoke more directly to the massages in this interview.
“It was wrong,” Schneider said. “It was wrong that I ever put anybody in that position. It was the wrong thing to do. I’d never do it today. I’m embarrassed that I did it then. I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation. Additionally, I apologize to the people who were walking around video village, or wherever they happened, because there were lots of people there who witnessed it who also may have felt uncomfortable, so I owe them an apology as well.”
Schneider also says that if people are now offended by some of the jokes in his shows, the network should edit those episodes. This issue came up in “Quiet on Set” when scenes in some of the shows he created — including “The Amanda Show,” “All That,” “iCarly,” “Victorious” and “Sam & Cat” — were criticized for appearing to sexualize the young actors.
“All these jokes that you’re speaking of that the the show covered over the past two nights — every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience, because kids thought they were funny,” Schneider said. “Now we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens, and they’re looking at them and they’re saying ‘You know, I don’t think that’s appropriate for a kids show.’ I have no problem with that. If that’s how anyone feels, let’s cut those jokes out of the show, just like I would have done 20 years ago.
“I want my shows to be popular,” Schneider continued. “The more people who like the shows, the happier I am. So if there’s anything in a show that needs to be cut because it’s upsetting somebody, let’s cut it.”
Just yesterday, a representative for Schneider took a decidedly different tone when talking to Variety, saying, “Everything that happened on the shows Dan ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults, and approved by the network. If there was an actual problem with the scenes that some people, now years later are ‘sexualizing,’ they would be taken down, but they are not, they are aired constantly all over the world today still, enjoyed by both kids and parents.”
Near the end of the YouTube interview, Schneider said that if he could do it all over again, he would have hired a licensed therapist to work with child actors before they became famous, and explain to them what it means to be a young actor, and how it could even change their relationship with family and friends.
“The main thing that I would change is how I treat people, everyone,” he said. “I definitely, at times, didn’t give people the best of me. I didn’t show enough patience. I could be cocky and definitely over-ambitious, and sometimes just straight-up rude and obnoxious. I’m so sorry that I ever was. When I watch the show, I can see the hurt in some people’s eyes, and it made me feel awful and regretful and sorry. I wish I could go back to the earlier years of my career and bring the growth and experience that I have now, and just do a better job.”
Watch the full interview below.
From Variety US