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Nickelodeon’s #MeToo Moment: Producer Dan Schneider Fired Amid Rumors

Posted on | March 27, 2018 | 2 Comments

Dan Schneider, alleged pervert.

Monday afternoon, Nickelodeon children’s TV network dumped producer Dan Schneider and, as Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva writes, “for years Schneider had been under a cloud of suspicion over the treatment of some younger stars of his shows”:

Among the things that have raised eyebrows are his tweeted photos of the toes of his young female stars. Additionally, there have been issues with bloated budgets and long production days on Schneider’s shows.
Schneider has had well documented temper issues for years. . . .

Schneider’s “temper issues” may be the least of his problems:

For 20 years, Dan Schneider was Nickelodeon’s golden goose. Their top showrunner and creator, Schneider launched the careers of Amanda Bynes, Ariana Grande, Jamie Lynn Spears, and many others. Despite his involvement in their early careers these young women seem to remain curiously silent on Mr. Schneider. When accepting his 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from Nickelodeon, the stage was devoid of any of his former female stars, save for Victoria Justice who was still under contract at the time. . . .
[I]t was alleged by an anonymous source that Dan Schneider was known for hosting pool parties at his home. The guest lists for these parties frequently featured his young stars, who would attend without their parents according to the source. . . . Stories and rumors about regarding Dan Schneider and his lack of boundaries with his young stars, particularly Amanda Bynes and Jamie Lynn Spears. His foot fetish was also well-documented, with tons of feet references in his show and sexualizing of teens. He was also caught at one point using the official “Sam & Cat” Twitter account to solicit foot pictures from child fans. . . .
While covering Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon, ROTC Media was contacted by Gabe Hoffman, producer of Hollywood pedophile documentary “An Open Secret” with an on-the-record statement on Schneider.

“Schneider was choice number 2 to base “An Open Secret” on. Investigations had many named people who wanted to be off record….who were on sets for years and saw big changes in kid’s demeanor & body language.”
— Gabe Hoffman, Producer of An Open Secret

Amanda Bynes, during the heyday of her Nickelodeon career.

So, there was a “blind item” about Schneider at the blog Crazy Days and Nights that included an email that the blogger had received from “an actress ALL of you know who knows the producer as well as anyone”:

thank you for all of your ongoing support. i Don’t know how Any of these meN sleep at night, but if there’s one thing that i Do know Is that what’s Done In the dark, always comes to lighT! xoxo
Sorry, I thought it was clever 😀 unfortch I will obviously not be making any comment whatsoever (for obvious reasons) and unfortch I feel as though the only way that legitimate stories can make the headlines regarding ____ is if others publicly speak on his behavior. _____ was truly like a 2nd father to me. But things changed. After the 2nd incident, i don’t know if I will ever be able to have children or have the family of my dreams.

I’ve bolded the unusual capitalizations which spell out “DAN DID IT.”

The commenters immediately guessed that this is from Amanda Bynes, and they’ve got a pretty good track record at Crazy Days and Nights. Some commenters speculated that the “incident” which allegedly impaired the actress’s reproductive system was an abortion. In 2013, when she was 27, Amanda Bynes had a mental breakdown, and a judge ordered her committed to a psychiatric ward. A gossip site at the time quoted a source: “There are no drug problems involved, it’s all mental. She has deep anger and PTSD, which tripped a psychotic episode.”

PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder. Hmmm.

@JohnDoe78359022 has compiled a series of items about Schneider from Crazy Days and Nights going back as far as 2008, and it’s devastating. In one 2012 comment, the sometime contributor known as “Himmmm” describes a “predator PoS who ruined the [teenage actress], knocked her up, paid for her abortion, and turned her into a disaster.”

That was before Amanda Bynes’ mental illness became a public scandal, and it’s taken more than five years for Nickelodeon to cut Schneider loose, for a very simple reason: Money. Schneider’s shows were among the most successful programming at Nickelodeon and, it has been alleged, Schneider was protected by Sumner Redstone, the elderly billionaire who controls the network’s parent company Viacom.

If we are to believe everything at Crazy Days and Nights — and I repeat, he’s got an impressive record of accuracy — we’re talking about pool parties for underage kids where a teenage Amanda Bynes was allegedly snorting coke. We’re talking about persistent rumors that Schneider is the father of Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby, millions of dollars for lawyers and hush money to keep it quiet, decadence and depravity to rival ancient Rome during the reign of the Emperor Commodus!

So far, however, these are merely allegations, rumors and speculation which mainstream journalists say they can’t report because sources in Hollywood are afraid to go on the record. This is reminiscent of the way rumors had dogged Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey for years before the #MeToo tsunami finally came crashing down on them. Now that Nickelodeon has parted ways with Schneider, however, it’s possible that some of these sources will start talking openly and, we might guess, fear of forthcoming revelations might have been the most significant factor in Nickelodeon’s decision to cut Schneider loose.

Permit me to quote myself:

Years ago, when I’d complain to Andrew Breitbart about the corruption in Washington, he’d always say, “No, Stacy — Hollywood is worse.” The people who produce America’s entertainment, Andrew would assure me, are very bad people. Obviously, Andrew was right.

Andrew had a habit of being right. Damn, I miss him.



 

 

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2 Responses to “Nickelodeon’s #MeToo Moment: Producer Dan Schneider Fired Amid Rumors”

  1. News of the Week (March 31st, 2018) | The Political Hat
    March 31st, 2018 @ 1:55 pm

    […] Nickelodeon’s #MeToo Moment: Producer Dan Schneider Fired Amid Rumors Monday afternoon, Nickelodeon children’s TV network dumped producer Dan Schneider and, as Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva writes, “for years Schneider had been under a cloud of suspicion over the treatment of some younger stars of his shows” […]

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    […] Nickelodeon’s #MeToo Moment: Producer Dan Schneider Fired Amid Rumors The Political Hat A View From The Beach EBL […]