For most of its history, Nickelodeon has been known as the fun, quirky kids channel full of sitcoms, cartoons and sketch shows.
Thanks to an ongoing docu-series taking the world by storm, that’s changed forever. From now on, the channel will be known for rampant child abuse.
Not only were men behind the scenes committing numerous horrific acts of abuse, but now, a recently released episode of the series maintains the Nickelodeon staff accused a concerned parent of being “homophobic” when he began noticing some inappropriate behavior on set.
The series — Max’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” — has exposed the systemic predatory and abusive behavior that the child actors at Nickelodeon were forced to face, repeatedly.
The main perpetrator purported to be behind much of the abusive behavior is Dan Schneider, the creator and producer of “The Amanda Show,” “iCarly,” “Drake & Josh” and “Zoey 101,” according to Forbes.
But for the worst of crimes revealed by the series, Schneider was not the primary perpetrator.
Instead, it was Brian Peck, a former actor and dialogue coach who worked on many of the channel’s top shows.
In 2004, Peck pleaded no contest to charges related to the sexual abuse of a child, per Forbes.
Thanks to “No Quiet on Set,” the world now knows who that child was — Drake Bell, the star of the wildly popular “Drake & Josh” show.
Did you ever watch or let your kids watch Nickelodeon?
Bell’s father, Joe Bell, used to accompany and watch Drake every single day.
After noticing Peck was a little too touchy with his son, Joe notified the Nickelodeon staff, but was quickly dismissed.
When Drake Bell’s dad was concerned about Brian Peck’s unusual relationship with his son, he was labeled “homophobic”.
Brian Peck was later arrested for raping Drake Bell when he was only 15.
It’s not “homophobic” to protect children from pedophiles.pic.twitter.com/NhuP2PqT1E
— David Leatherwood 🇺🇸 (@brokebackUSA) March 20, 2024
“I went to production and said, ‘I really am very uncomfortable with this guy Brian Peck always being around my son,’” Joe Bell said in the docu-series’s third episode. “I go ‘I don’t see anything abnormal, but it just doesn’t… I don’t have a good feeling.’
“And she goes, ‘Oh, well, I don’t know if you knew it or not, but he’s gay. Maybe you’re just homophobic and you just… don’t understand that he’s a touchy-feely guy.’
“I was ostracized.”
But despite the pushback, Joe Bell kept an eye on his son at all times, never letting him leave his sight.
Unfortunately, a rift began to form between Bell and his son, a rift partially manipulated by Peck himself who insisted — wrongly — that Joe Bell was an incompetent parent-manager and that he was stealing Drake Bell’s money, among other accusations, according to the docu-series.
Joe Bell was eventually removed as Drake Bell’s manager.
Since Joe was divorced from Drake’s mother, she became the one to take Drake to the Nickelodeon set.
Though she was warned by Joe to never leave Drake alone with Peck, eventually, that’s exactly what happened, on numerous occasions, per the docu-series.
As a result, the Nickelodeon star was sexually abused repeatedly.
(In 2004, Peck was specifically convicted for “a lewd act against a child and oral copulation of a person under 16,” per Forbes.)
Eventually, after Bell told police about the abuse, Peck was convicted of child abuse and sentenced to 16 months in prison, according to People Magazine.
After his release, Peck re-entered the industry, working a short stint for the Disney Channel show “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” before moving on to various additional projects over the next decade or so of his career.
