Christy Carlson Romano, who played Renee ‘Ren’ Stevens on the popular show Even Stevens, has commented on the controversial documentary Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV. The series focused on the production of various Nickelodeon kids’ television shows, featuring interviews with former child stars on the network’s programmes. It explores the reported incidences of abuse that allegedly occurred at the time, with a particular focus on Dan Schneider, who was a show producer and runner.
Romano joined Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast to share her reaction to the documentary and said that the heavy subject matter was “extremely triggering”. During the interview, Romano shared with Bialik how she was approached by Investigation Discovery, the network that produced the documentary, to make a similar documentary. However, she declined to participate.
Romano explained that she has no desire to feed “echo chambers” of misinformation and chooses not to contribute to them by complaining about the bad experiences she has had. Instead, she wants to facilitate a conversation focussed on practical solutions. She suggested that documentary makers should focus more on ways to fix such issues in the industry.
Meanwhile, Drake Bell, a former child star who appeared on Nickelodeon shows, disclosed in the documentary an alleged incident of sexual abuse at age fifteen by a dialogue coach named Brian Peck. He thinks Nickelodeon’s response to the documentary was not enough and said that if they truly cared about the issues raised, they would have taken more action than just releasing “quotes on a page by obviously a legal representative telling them exactly how to tailor a response”.
The series showed how many child stars depended on their roles in the television industry to make a living and how that made them vulnerable to these types of situations. With the help of the documentary’s exposé, the hope is that this will change in the future as more people come forward to report improper behaviour
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