Dan Schneider is sharing his side of the story after being the subject of the Investigation Discovery docuseries, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
“Watching over the past two nights was very difficult, me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret,” he admitted in a new YouTube video with BooG!e on Tuesday. “I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
“It was wrong, it was wrong that I ever put anybody in that position,” Schneider added of requesting massages at work. “It was the wrong thing to do, I’d never do it today. I’m embarrassed that I did it then.”
“I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation,” he continued.
“No writer should ever feel uncomfortable in any writers’ room, ever, period, the end, no excuses,” Schneider added. “Most TV writers, comedy writers have been in writers’ rooms and they are aware that a lot of times there are inappropriate jokes made and inappropriate topics come up. But the fact that I participated in that, especially when I was leading the room, it embarrasses me. I shouldn’t have done it.”
The man behind “The Amanda Show,” “Drake & Josh” and “iCarly” then shared some of his own backstory first getting into Hollywood.
“I remember very clearly my early experiences, my first experiences in the entertainment business. I was green, I was scared, I was excited, it meant the world to me that I was getting those opportunities, and I went in and I got lucky, my first couple of experiences were fantastic,” Schneider recalled. “The fact that I didn’t pay that forward to every employee that walked through my door? It hurts my heart, ’cause I should have and I wish I could go back and fix that.”
“In the writers’ room, there’s no doubt that sometimes those jokes went beyond the pale and I said things that went too far or made practical jokes that went too far,” he reiterated. “That was wrong, and that was because I was an inexperienced producer and I was immature. It wouldn’t happen today, I’m just really sorry it happened.”
“I hate that anybody worked for me and didn’t have a good time,” Schneider said. “Look, I’ve had some employees that worked for me for 10 years, some more than 20 years, that would work for me again. But not everybody, there’s still a significant number that didn’t have a great time working for me; so my batting average isn’t nearly high enough in that area.”
“I would let the pressure of doing 40 or even more episodes per year, I would let that pressure get to me, which a good boss should never do,” he further admitted. “I would snap at people sometimes, I would be snarky when I couldn’t give them a nicer answer. I would not give people the time that they needed, I would be in too big a hurry to get on to the next thing that I had to do.”
“All these jokes that you’re speaking of, that the show covered over the past two nights, every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny and only funny,” Schneider said. “Now, we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens, and they’re looking at them and they’re saying, ‘That’s inappropriate for a kids show,’ and I have no problem with that, if that’s how anyone feels. Let’s cut those jokes out of the show, just like I would’ve done 20 years ago, 25 years ago. Cut it, I want my shows to be popular, I want everyone to like it. The more people that like my shows, the happier I am. So if there’s anything in a show that need to be cut because it’s upsetting somebody, let’s cut it.
A representative for Schneider also described how the interview happened: BooG!e, who played T-Bo on 'iCarly,' saw 'Quiet On Set' and contacted Dan to ask him some questions about it. BooG!e clarified that he is not a journalist and wasn't trying to be. He offered to give Dan a platform to address his past actions. BooG!e believed it was important if Dan was interested, so people could hear from Dan.
You can watch 'Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV' on Max now.
