He Silence on set doc has stirred up a lot of complicated feelings in several former child stars on and off Nickelodeon.
During a recent episode of his podcast The collapse of Mayim Bialikhost Mayim Bialik and her former child actresses Jenna von Oÿ and Christy Carlson Romano reflected on the shocking Investigation Discovery documentary, which raised several toxic workplace allegations and revealed that several registered sex offenders worked at Nickelodeon in the late ’90s and 2000.
Although Bialik has previously said that he had an overall positive time working as a teenager on the NBC comedy. To flourishconfessed that he Silence on set The documentary reflected “things I heard about other sets during our time.”
“Women being berated in the writers’ room is something that was like, I’m sorry, it was considered, I mean, I hate to say it, it’s considered par for the course,” Bialik said on the podcast. “I will say that I don’t think that ever happened in our writers’ room… and there were things that we all thought were okay to even joke about, and now we’d be mortified.”
Dan Schneider, the creator and writer behind several popular Nickelodeon series at the time, was accused of verbally abusing and harassing several former employees. They also claimed that he regularly requested massages and that he was known for writing material that some considered inappropriate for children.
The documentary also explored the sexism and racism that was prevalent at the network, as revealed by several former Nickelodeon employees and former child actors.
“You’re seeing what the whole culture was like,” Bialik said. “This is not what happened because ‘Nickelodeon this-that.’ Of course, I was personally moved by it. Of course”.
He added that the doctor also revealed how much they have progressed since then. “She also reminded me of how far we had to go to get to a place where people like Christy can advocate and we know what she means when she says that the mental health of children on set is important and there are things we can do. . do to make sure there are no exceptions. ‘You can’t pressure that kid,’” she said.
Romano revealed during the discussion that Investigation Discovery had also approached her about participating in a documentary about child actors, although she did not clarify whether it was about Silence on set. He claimed that she did not watch the documentary because he found it “extremely triggering.”
“These are people who don’t belong in our community,” he said of the filmmakers. “These are outsiders. And maybe they, maybe if they knew where to invest the money [fixing] A problem, they would, but again, a lot of this has been perceived in a way that is outside of baseball. It’s not inside baseball, it’s outside baseball. “These are traumatized tourists.”
He later said that the rights of child actors should be taken more seriously in the industry.
“I’m really sorry, and this may cause a bit of backlash, but I think, personally, they’re not being served enough as union workers,” he said.
