The documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is doing exactly what it was expected to — exposing the darker side of Nickelodeon, putting the focus on the likes of Dan Schneider and Brian Peck who tyrannically abused their power, as well as the ones who naively or deliberately supported these individuals.
Trigger Warning: This article talks about sexual assault and abuse. Please take care while reading.
In Quiet on Set, Drake Bell gives a heart-wrenching description of what he went through as a teenager when the actor joined The Amanda Show in its second season, because Brian Peck was his dialogue and acting coach, and his abuser. In the third episode, Bell remembers the painful details of the sexual assault that only got worse as time progressed.
“He figured out how to convince my mom and everyone around to, anytime I would have an audition or anytime I needed to work on dialogue or anything, I somehow ended up back at Brian’s house and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. I was just trapped. I had no way out. The abuse was extensive and it got pretty brutal.”
This is not the first time Bell has made the allegations against Peck, but it is certainly the first time he is opening up about it publicly. And just like the documentary, he is making sure to call out the ones who came out to support Peck back in 2003-2004, when Peck was facing a trial for allegedly sexually abusing Bell, whose identity at the time was kept anonymous and it was only known that the individual assaulted was a minor.
Drake Bell shoots down Boy Meets World’s Rider Strong and Will Friedle’s attempts to backtrack their support of Brian Peck
The documentary has unveiled a lot of shocking revelations, including letters of support to the court in support of Brian Peck from Nickelodeon child actors, which include ones penned by Friedle and Strong, one of the “friends” who even appeared in court to support Peck. Before the documentary aired, the duo, in their podcast Pod Meets World, expressed “shame and guilt” for supporting Peck 20 years ago, and stressed that they too were “misled” by the man.
But Bell is not ready to take the delayed apology.
When fellow Nickelodeon alum Alexa Nikolas called out Strong and Friedle for supporting Peck, many in the comments rushed to take the actors’ side, claiming that the two are also victims in this case, as they were minors when they wrote the letters of support and were “manipulated” by the older man.
But Bell is no longer willing to let someone change the narrative of what happened all those years ago, and slipped into the comments to specify that neither Strong nor Friedle were minors when they penned the letters — they were 27 and 24, respectively — and were allegedly well aware of what Peck did, but they “wrote the letter anyway.”
“Will was not manipulated. Brian admitted it to him and he wrote the letter anyway. Then he worked with me on many many episodes of Spider-Man years later and never said a word to me about it. This is because they were told there letters are going to be made public. Everyone thought the letters would be sealed forever and no one would ever see them. This is their publicist telling them how to get ahead of the story.”
But what concerns Bell the most is that the charges against Peck didn’t offer much of a result. Yes, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison and registered as a sex offender, but he remains in Hollywood. His history only stretches to him being prohibited from having direct contact with child actors, but he is free to work in films that they are a part of.
If you or a loved one are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) or visit its website for confidential support.
