Dan Schneider sues Quiet On Set producers for defamation

Schneider’s attorneys claim that the producers of the series “destroyed [his] reputation and legacy through the false statements” for “the sake of clickbait, ratings, viewers—or put differently, money.”

“They went beyond reporting the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted,” Schneider said in a statement. “I have no objection to anyone highlighting my failures as a boss, but it is wrong to mislead millions of people to the false conclusion that I was in any way involved in heinous acts like those committed by child predators.”

Many of the allegations against Schneider are a bit murky. While he has never been outright accused of sexual abuse, some of the interviewees in Quiet On Set say he “made” his actors “do things that were very weird,” often describing them as overtly sexual. Schneider believes that the show’s “manipulative use of editing and photographs to conflate Schneider” with sexual abusers Brian Peck and Jason Handy. “The only reason to include Schneider’s image in this context was to falsely equate Schneider with Peck; the viewer is left to infer that just as Peck was a child sexual abuser, so was Schneider,” the suit states. But as the series notes, a 2021 investigation into Schneider by ViacomCBS, which owned Nickelodeon at the time, found no evidence directly linking Schneider to inappropriate sexual behavior.

What the investigation did find was Schneider has temper issues, a pattern of verbal abuse, and a penchant for posting feet pics of his young stars. Now, obviously, the latter could be construed as sexually inappropriate behavior, but Schneider maintains this allegation is “ridiculous” and his “comedy was totally innocent.” In 2022, he was also accused of gender discrimination and requesting massages from his adult female colleagues. Schneider agrees that was not appropriate.