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The television producer Dan Schneider filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against the creators of the documentary series \u201cQuiet on Set,\u201d which aired accounts of sexual abuse and other inappropriate behavior on sets at Nickelodeon, where Schneider was once a star creator of content.<\/p>\n
The five-episode series, \u201cQuiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,\u201d<\/a> included interviews from former employees who denounced Schneider as a boss and objected to sexualized humor in his shows, leading him to release a video in March in which he apologized<\/a> for some of his behavior on the job, such as soliciting massages on set from staff members.<\/p>\n But the show also focused on Nickelodeon employees who had been convicted of child sex crimes \u2014 including Brian Peck, a dialogue coach for Nickelodeon, who was sentenced to prison for sexually abusing the \u201cDrake & Josh\u201d star Jared Drake Bell<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schneider\u2019s lawsuit accuses the documentary of improperly conflating him with those who had been convicted of abusing children and took issue with segments of the series that his lawyers said \u201cfalsely and repeatedly state or imply that Schneider is a child sexual abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSchneider will be the first to admit that some of what they said is true,\u201d the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, said of the filmmakers. \u201cAt times, he was blind to the pain that some of his behavior caused certain colleagues, subordinates and cast members. He will regret and atone for this behavior the rest of his life. But one thing he is not \u2014 and the one thing that will forever mar his reputation and career both past and present \u2014 is a child sexual abuser.\u201d<\/p>\n Schneider declined to be interviewed for the series, instead issuing a statement that was included in the documentary, in which he denied various accusations leveled against him and said that \u201ceverything that happened on the shows I ran was carefully scrutinized by dozens of involved adults.\u201d<\/p>\n The listed defendants in the case include Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Max, where the series was streamed; Maxine Productions and Sony Pictures Television, which produced it; and Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, who directed the series. None of the parties immediately responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Calling the series a \u201chit job,\u201d the lawsuit said that in several instances viewers were led to inaccurately infer that he was a child sexual abuser, including in the trailer, in which a series of photos and video clips of Schneider are followed by the advertisement of a \u201ctrue crime event.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe harm to Schneider\u2019s reputation, career, and business, to say nothing of his own overwhelming emotional distress, cannot be understated,\u201d said the lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of damages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The lawsuit said that Schneider\u2019s legal representatives had sent a letter demanding that the series \u201cnot include any statements that allege or imply that Schneider engaged in any criminal or sexual misconduct,\u201d and that the defendants\u2019 lawyer responded that there were no \u201cstatements\u201d that defamed him.<\/p>\n Starting in the 1990s, Schneider created, scripted and produced a string of hits for Nickelodeon including \u201cAll That,\u201d \u201cThe Amanda Show,\u201d \u201cDrake & Josh\u201d and \u201cZoey 101.\u201d<\/p>\n But in the spring of 2018, Schneider and Nickelodeon suddenly<\/a> issued a joint statement announcing their separation<\/a>. Almost overnight, he largely disappeared from public view.<\/p>\n In 2021, The New York Times reported<\/a> that before that announcement, ViacomCBS, the parent company of Nickelodeon, had investigated Schneider and found that many people he worked with viewed him as verbally abusive. The company\u2019s review found no evidence of sexual misconduct by Schneider.<\/p>\n The recent documentary series included information about how Schneider and Nickelodeon parted ways, and reported that the investigation into his conduct \u201cdid not find any evidence of inappropriate sexual behavior\u201d or \u201cinappropriate relationships with children.\u201d<\/p>\n