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Anyone who has seen Quiet on set: The Dark Side of Kids TV—a documentary documenting the abusive, exploitative and extremely dangerous conditions under which employees and child actors worked at Nickelodeon under the leadership of showrunner Dan Schneider—knows that during a period beginning in the late '90s, Nickelodeon Studios was portrayed as a cesspool of abusive behavior, sexism, child endangerment, and child sexualization that allowed many convicted pedophiles to run wild on and off set.
At the very least, the documentaries served as a cautionary tale for parents considering introducing their children to the world of child acting.
Well, acclaimed actor and comedian Kenan Thompson, who got his start on Nick's '90s shows All these and Kenan & Keldoesn't seem to think the investigations into what happened at Nickelonean have gone far enough and believes the authorities need to “investigate more” in order to ensure the children we watch on TV are kept safe behind the scenes.
“It's hard. It's a hard thing, you know?” said the Saturday Night Live cast member during an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It's hard for me because I can't really talk about things I've never seen, you know what I'm saying? Because all this happened after I left, basically.”
In the docuseries, Schneider is accused of deplorable and abusive behavior toward the people who worked under him, especially female writers, two of whom he is accused of illegally taking a share of a single employee's salary, and child actors who starred in shows he ran. and whom he was accused of portraying in sexually suggestive ways— and somehow, his insults weren't nearly the most horrific.
“Dan wasn't really Kenan & Kel so,” 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 weren't really overly overlapping like he except All these, necessarily. And then all this negativity started happening outside of our tenure there, you know what I mean? So I didn't know much about it.”
But regardless of whether or not Thompson was around when Nick Studios ironically turned out to be the last place anyone would want to leave their child unattended, Good Burger The actor said he supports the victims and wants to see more research done to ensure there aren't more out there whose stories have been ignored.
From EW:
Thompson, who was 15 when All these premiered, he also expressed sympathy for his fellow former Nickelodeon stars who discussed the toxic work environment they endured Quiet on set. “My heart goes out to anyone who has been victimized, or their families,” he said. “I think it's good that the Doctor is out there presenting things, stories that need to be told for accountability. But it's definitely hard to watch because I have fond memories of this place and I have fond memories of my colleagues and stuff like that. So to hear that such terrible things have happened is very difficult.”
Later in the interview, Thompson reiterated his support for the document. “Do more research,” he said. “It's supposed to be a safe place for kids. And hearing all about it is just like, 'How dare you?'”
Exactly.
