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Anyone who has seen Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV—a documentary chronicling the abusive, exploitive and egregiously dangerous conditions under which employees and child actors at Nickelodeon worked under the leadership of showrunner Dan Schneider—knows that during a period that began in the late ’90s, Nickelodeon Studios was portrayed as a cesspool of abusive behavior, sexism, child endangerment and child sexualization that allowed multiple convicted pedophiles run wild on and off set.
To say the absolute least, the docuseries served as a cautionary tale to any parents who are thinking of introducing their children to the world of child acting.
Well, accomplished actor and comedian Kenan Thompson, who started in ’90s Nick shows All That and Kenan & Kel, doesn’t appear to think the investigations into what went on at Nickelonean have gone far enough, and he believes authorities should “investigate more” in order to ensure the kids we watch on TV are being kept safe behind the scenes.
“It’s tough. It’s a tough subject, you know?” the Saturday Night Live cast member said during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It’s tough for me because I can’t really speak on things that I never witnessed, you know what I’m saying? Because all these things happened after I left, basically.”
In the Docuseries, Schneider is accused of deplorable and abusive behavior towards the people who worked under him, especially the female writers, two of whom he’s accused of illegally making share a single-employee salary, and child actors who starred in shows he ran, and whom he was accused portraying in sexually suggestive ways—and somehow, his offenses weren’t nearly the most horrific.
“Dan wasn’t really on Kenan & Kel like that,” Thomsaon explained while distancing himself from the disgraced producer. “I mean, he got a ‘created by’ credit, but it was a different showrunner, so our worlds wasn’t really overly overlapping like that outside of All That, necessarily. And then all of that negativity kinda started happening outside of our tenure there, you know what I mean? So I wasn’t really aware of a lot of it.”
But regardless of whether or not Thompson was around when Nick Studios ironically proved to be the last place one would want to leave their child unattended, the Good Burger actor said he supports the victims and wants to see more investigating done to ensure their aren’t more out there whose stories have gone ignored.
From EW:
Thompson, who was 15 when All That premiered, also extended sympathy to his fellow former Nickelodeon stars who discussed the toxic work environment they endured in Quiet on Set. “My heart goes out to anybody that’s been victimized, or their families,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing that the doc is out and it’s putting things on display, stories that need to be told for accountability’s sake. But it’s definitely tough to watch because I have fond memories of that place and I have fond memories of my costars and stuff like that. So to hear that they’ve gone through terrible things like that is really tough.”
Later in the interview, Thompson reiterated his support for the doc. “Investigate more,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a safe place for kids. And to hear all about that is just like, ‘How dare you?’”
Exactly.