iExpose Nickelodeon

“iCan’t Believe They Did Those Things to Children,” the reader said after reading this newsletter. (Photo: Philip Cheung for The Washington Post via Getty Images/Amazon)

If you’re a twenty-something who grew up enjoying the halcyon days of Nickelodeon—Nick, for short—sitcoms, then many years later tumbled down a YouTube rabbit hole of videos exposing everything wrong about these shows, thus ruining a good chunk of your childhood, then you’re not alone. Such is life. 

Jennette McCurdy, famous for her role as the loud and abrasive Sam Puckett on “iCarly” and “Sam & Cat,” recently returned to the spotlight after retiring from it almost a decade ago—not to reprise the role that made her a star, but to tell the world just how sh*tty the entire thing was in her new memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died.”

In her book published last Tuesday, August 9, McCurdy talks about her relationship with her mother, the one directly responsible for the trauma she experienced as a child actor all the way up to her death from cancer in 2013. I haven’t read the book myself yet (though I am planning to, because McCurdy is as hilarious in real life as she is on-screen), but based on the excerpts posted ahead of the book’s release,  the presence of another troubling figure called “The Creator” is a major theme in the book.  

Now, I wasn’t born yesterday (really, I wasn’t—I was old enough to have caught these shows as a teen when they aired), so my money’s on “The Creator” referring to their creator and executive producer Dan Schneider for several reasons.

Behind "The Creator"

Anyone who grew up glued to their TVs from ‘90s to 2010s would never be able to forget the joy of being able to catch a Schneider’s Bakery show after a long day at school. From working on “All That” in 1993, Schneider went on to create a string of Nick’s most successful shows: “The Amanda Show,” “Kenan & Kel,” “Drake & Josh,” “Victorious”—to name a few besides the ones McCurdy starred in.

Then in 2018, Nick announced it was cutting ties with Schneider. This put a halt to the two shows he was producing at the time. Among the reasons cited for his sudden exit were alleged verbal and emotional abuse towards his co-workers.

Arthur Gradstein, a producer and writer who worked with Schneider on four shows said that though he “will always be grateful to Dan for taking a chance on [him] as a rash young writer,” he found Schneider difficult to work with. 

“He was also unreasonably demanding, controlling, belittling, and vindictive,” Gradstein said, “with a willful disregard for boundaries or workplace appropriateness.”

Judging by the receipts of just about anyone who worked with him, we can’t say they’re wrong. 

Prior to her book, and even right before her show with Nick got cancelled, McCurdy was already vocal against the treatment she experienced at the network. In 2014, she tweeted why she skipped out on the Kid’s Choice Awards—coincidentally the same time Schneider was awarded his first Lifetime Achievement Award. Then in a podcast in 2020, she confirmed that Schneider had indeed abused her. 

“I’m Glad My Mom Died” details the instances “The Creator” “pressured McCurdy to wear bikinis, drink alcohol before she was of legal drinking age, and massaged her without consent,” according to a review by Rolling Stone.

Angelique Bates, a regular on “All That” from 1992 to 1996, shared in a 2017 interview that “she was pressured by all the adults that were set to protect [her] to stay silent.” We’re guessing the fact that Nick told McCurdy to do the same—and with $300,000 as hush money to top it off—almost 20 years later wasn’t a coincidence.

No growing pains, no gains

Even with talents like McCurdy and Bates sharing their stories behind the cameras, we know we’re only just scratching the surface of child star abuse and its debilitating effects on them as adults. We’ve witnessed enough lows from the most successful child stars like Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes, another Schneider show alumna. No matter how many exposé videos or articles we consume, it will only give us an idea of just how hard the industry was on them.

But there’s good reason why McCurdy’s startling book title and at one point, sour grape attitude towards co-star Ariana Grande, have droves of millennials and Gen Z rallying behind her. It’s the same reason why the #FreeBritney and #FreeAmanda movements took off the way they did.

Because once upon a time, we saw them on our TV screens and wished our lives were more like theirs. It’s sad—almost guilt-inducing, even—to find out the roles were reversed all along.

While there are still stars that grew to be well-adjusted adults, it usually takes the right balance of humane working conditions and a happy, healthy home life to get that result. Realizing just how many things flew over our heads as kids, and just how much we needed the guidance and protection of loving adults around us to make sense of it all, is part of growing up after all.