'Quiet on the Set'

 

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is a 2024 American five-part documentary television series that details some of the behind-the-scenes world at children's television programs from the 1990s to the 2000s, with a special focus on Dan Schneider's tenure as a producer and showrunner at Nickelodeon. 

When something is as popular as Quiet on Set is, there’s bound to be some negative reaction,” filmmaker Mary Robertson recently told Vanity Fair. “But we’ve been overwhelmed by the extent of the positive impact that the film has had on the people who participated.” Weeks after its release, however, Robertson and Emma Schwartz’s blockbuster Investigation Discovery docuseries about racism and abuse behind-the-scenes of the kids’ network Nickelodeon is facing claims of perpetuating the same type of exploitation that it chronicles.

Former child actors Raquel Lee Bolleau and Alexa Nikolas told IndieWire they did not know Investigation Discovery would be involved in "Quiet on Set" until close to airtime and said they would not have agreed to interviews if they did.

“I’m not too familiar with ID, but for the interview I sat down for, it was not an appropriate network for the show,” former “The Amanda Show” actress Raquel Lee Bolleau told IndieWire. “I had no clue it was on [ID] until one or two weeks before it aired.”

“I didn’t even know what ID was honestly,” ex-“Zoey 101” cast member Alexa Nikolas told IndieWire. “When I looked it up, my first thought was our stories and the conversation that deserves to be had around them are way bigger than ID and deserve a more credible platform. A more serious one.”

As far as exposure to a wider audience, the first four episodes aired March 17-18, 2024, on Investigation Discovery, and the fifth episode aired on April 7, but the series was simultaneously released on Max and Discovery+ which are more "prestigious" networks. Journalist Soledad O'Brien served as the fifth episode's moderator.