Kel Mitchell is telling everything about his time at All That with Dan Schneider on the latest episode of the podcast Baby, this is Keke Palmer. Many child actors are talking about their experiences on Schneider’s shows following the release of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
Mitchell, who recently started talking about his experiences with Schneider on Club Shay Shay, told Palmer that at first, Brian Robbins was leading the production of the show. But when Schneider took control after the original production crew left, things started changing.
“The vibe of the show started to change a little bit. Brian Robbins started to do Varsity Blues and all these different movies and the production team started to blow up, so they left. And they left us with the head writer, Dan Schneider,” he said. “So he’s writing, and me and him kind of bump heads a little bit, and I remember me and Dan had a big argument on set. He was like, let’s go over here to this closet. He closed the door and he just took off, you know, just yelling all this wild stuff.”
Mitchell confirmed he was between 18 and 19 years old at the time.
“And so being from the Chi [and] an adult at this point, I had a decision to make, you know what I mean? I was just like, okay, either we going to fight or either I’m going to leave. And so that’s what I did. I left this situation,” he added.”
He also talked about his relationship with his partner-in-crime Kenan Thompson and the other cast members of All That, saying how his early success affected how he viewed his friendships.
“It was deep. Like, even when I hear him say that now, even on his podcast, I remember him saying that when he got the show Kenan, he was excited because he felt like Kenan and Kel was my show,” Mitchell said. “And when I first heard it, I was kind of hurt by it. Cause I was just like, no bro. I’ve never thought of it in that way. You know what I mean? I’ve always thought it was both of us. I never looked at it like, Oh, this is my show. I’m like, this is us together. But then, being in this business some friends and things get lost so I ended up being the type of person where it was like, all right, I’m gonna do me. And that’s a real Virgo thing. But when I was getting that popularity some things happened with other cast members that weren’t on the show anymore that were trying to sabotage me on certain types of things and it was wild.”
Check out the interview below. You can also listen to the full episode at Wondery.
