Keke Palmer’s mother has shared her impressions of the unsettling work environment on Dan Schneider’s sets at Nickelodeon.
Several former Nickelodeon stars and other personnel who worked closely with Dan Schneider shared their harrowing experiences on the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. The series premiered in March on the network, providing the now-adults a safe space to discuss their experiences on set with the former television producer.
Schneider was known for creating classic ’90s and early 2000s shows like All That, Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, and more. He was also behind the creative direction for Palmer’s show, True Jackson, VP, which lasted for three seasons on Nick. The 30-year-old discussed her experience on the latest episode of her podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, revealing that her mother, Sharon Palmer, felt uneasy about her working with Schneider.
“I remember you feeling a way about Nickelodeon and how they kind of — no shade, no tea, but I do wanna hear what you have to say,” Keke said to her mother, as Entertainment Weekly reported.
Though Keke was never on a Schneider show, True Jackson, VP was on Nickelodeon during the same time as several of his hit shows and filmed on the same studio lot.
Sharon responded openly: “My honest opinion is I thought the whole atmosphere of the Dan Schneider set was very weird, it was very cultish,” she explained. “The parents were very secretive, and I honestly thought they all took themselves way too seriously. The whole conversation was ‘Oh my God, what’s happening next? Did you hear they’re gonna cancel this show? What’s coming next?’ It was always so frantic about what was being canceled.”
Sharon said she always viewed her daughter’s time at Nickelodeon as a stepping stone to set her up for larger roles and projects in the future.
“I always looked at you at Nickelodeon as just a stopping station,” Sharon said. “‘Cause you didn’t get your start on Nickelodeon or Disney. You were blessed and fortunate enough to work in adult situations and kid situations. So my mentality about the entertainment business wasn’t that Disney Channel or Nickelodeon was the end-all be-all, but a lot of the parents did.”
Sharon wasn’t the only person to comment on the negative work environment. On a May episode of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, former All That and Kenan & Kel star Kel Mitchell candidly discussed what it was like working with Schneider, Blavity reported.
“I remember there was a point [with] one of the execs and one of the head writers. [The] show started to change a little bit. You know, the writing of the show started to change, and I didn’t like the direction it was going in,” Mitchell said on the podcast, noting that he “started butting heads” with the head writer, leading Schneider to have a one-on-one conversation with him.
“[H]e said some real derogatory things and went off,” Mitchell said. “I mean, me being from the South Side of Chicago, in that thought process, it was like, OK, either I could put hands on him or we could go argue. This [was] not going to end well.”
Former All That cast members Giovannie Samuels and Bryan Hearne, who appear in Quiet On Set, also chatted with Palmer during this episode of her podcast that featured her mother. They provided insight on their experiences as well.
Blavity’s Shadow and Act also chatted Samuels and Hearne when Quiet on Set first dropped.
“The biggest takeaway is the changes that need to take place within the industry as far as how children and parents are treated on set,” Hearne told us. “I just hope that parents wise up. I hope that people who are in charge become either afraid or just courageous and say, ‘The way that we’ve been handling things is not the way, so let’s do something different. Let’s make people safe.’
