- Former writers on "The Amanda Show" accused creator Dan Schneider of misconduct and discrimination.
- In a new ID docuseries, Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen say they had to share a salary.
- Kilgen also alleged that Schneider showed the writers pornography and asked her for massages.
The only two female writers who worked on season one of "The Amanda Show" spoke out for the first time about how their experience with creator Dan Schneider quickly soured as they experienced discrimination and sexual misconduct, and feared retaliation if they spoke up.
In the first episode of Investigation Discovery's four-part docuseries "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV," Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen detail their harrowing time on the writing staff of the Amanda Bynes-starring Nickelodeon show, which ran from 1999 to 2002.
They recall being elated that they landed jobs at Nickelodeon, one of the leading networks for kids programming at the time. But as they started working with Schneider, they became fearful of the creator.
"The Amanda Show" marked the first time Schneider was listed as the creator of a Nickelodeon series, giving him unprecedented power and control. Schneider previously got his big break at the network as the head writer for the sketch comedy series "All That," which premiered in 1994. By the time he was in charge of "The Amanda Show," he built up a reputation as Nickelodeon's "golden boy."
"Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship," Stratton says in the doc.
The first red flag came when Stratton and Kilgen were told that they'd have to split a single salary — a stipulation that didn't apply to the male writers on the staff.
Stratton and Kilgen say that the early days working on "The Amanda Show" were genuinely exciting and enjoyable. But they also remember Schneider telling them that he didn't think women were funny or capable of writing comedy.
Stratton says that Schneider ran the writers' room with a playful demeanor, and "being dirty was part of the silliness." He liked to play jokes and pranks, some of which seemed harmless. But others were degrading, like goading people to shout "slut!" out loud.
"I felt that Dan could be very volatile and could turn any moment," Stratton says. "I was scared."
Kilgen says Schneider's behavior got worse and that she and Stratton did "uncomfortable" things, including giving him on-set massages.
"Dan was showing pornography on his computer screen," Kilgen says. "He'd ask me several times to massage him in the writers' room and in the studio and he would say things sometimes like, 'Can you please give me a massage, I'll put one of your sketches in the show.'"
"And he would always present it like a joke and he would be laughing while he said it," Kilgen continues. "But you always felt like disagreeing with Dan or standing up for yourself could result in you getting fired."
In another instance, Schneider asked Stratton to act out being sodomized while telling a story about high school. Kilgen says Stratton initially declined but was pressured and complied.
"It was probably the wrongest thing I've ever seen happen to a woman in a professional environment, ever," Kilgen says.
A spokesperson for Schneider told Business Insider that Schneider is "extremely sorry for his behavior that contributed to that environment and he has grown a lot since then. That behavior is clearly wrong and not for the workplace, and certainly he would never act that way again."
When Kilgen learned that splitting her salary with Stratton was against WGA rules, word got to Schneider. Kilgen says that Schneider confronted her and threatened her, saying that she wouldn't work for Nickelodeon or Viacom again if she complained.
Kilgen says that Stratton was fired from "The Amanda Show" for doing personal things in her free time, instead of being readily on-call for work. Meanwhile, Kilgen says Schnieder offered her a 16-week contract for season two — but she'd need to work 11 weeks without pay, as he claimed that there wasn't enough money to go around.
Schneider has denied Kilgen's claims and states that he had no control over salaries.
Kilgen lasted four days on season two of the show. She was the only female writer on staff at that point and left after Schneider interrupted one of her pitches to repeatedly ask, "Didn't you used to do phone sex?"
Kilgen filed a gender discrimination and hostile workplace claim in 2000, which hadn't been made public until Business Insider reporter Kate Taylor's 2022 investigation on Schneider.
The production company did an internal investigation and settled the claim out of court for an undisclosed amount, two people with direct knowledge of Kilgen's claim told BI. Kilgen left the TV industry afterward.
Nickelodeon said in a statement to the "Quiet on Set" producers that it "investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace." The network added that it "adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience."
Business Insider's Kate Taylor served as an executive producer for "Quiet on Set." The four-part docuseries is produced by Maxine Productions, a part of Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction, in association with Business Insider. It is directed by Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz.
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