Dan Schneider Apologizes for Toxic Behavior After ‘Quiet on Set’ Backlash

A week after the premiere of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,”  Dan Schneider, the creator of the popular Nickelodeon shows “All That,” “The Amanda Show,” and “iCarly,” is apologizing for his past behavior.

“Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” put the focus on the toxic and sometimes even dangerous culture behind some of Schneider’s shows.

Now, Schneider is addressing his toxic behavior in an interview with “iCarly” alum BooG!e, who played T-Bo.

In the 20-minute interview, Schneider admitted, “Watching over the past few nights was very difficult. Me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and I regret, I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”

The docuseries featured interviews with some of the stars of his past shows, as well as writers who accused him of creating a toxic environment.

Of some of the pranks he pulled on some female writers, Schneider emphasized, “No writer should ever feel uncomfortable in any writers’ room, ever. Period. No excuses. Most TV writers, comedy writers have been in rooms, and they are aware that a lot of times there are inappropriate jokes made and inappropriate topics come up. But the fact that I participated in that, especially when I was leading the room, embarrasses me. I shouldn’t have done it.”

In the doc, a writer claims Schneider would IM them and force them to scream out degrading things about themselves. He also demanded that employees give him massages.

Schneider was directly accused of gender discrimination by one female writer.

He added, “I hate that anybody who worked with me didn’t have a good time. There were so many times [while watching the docuseries] that I wanted to pick up the phone and call some of those people and say, ‘I’m so sorry and let’s talk about it and I wish you had a better time and I wish I could have shown you a better experience.’”

According to the docuseries, two female writers were forced to share a salary, something that Schneider insisted was not his decision.

He told BooG!e, “I have nothing to do with paying writers. I never have. I’ve never made a writer’s deal and all the writers I’ve been in the writer’s room with, I never even knew how much most of them were getting paid.”

As for how two writers could be under one salary, Schneider explained, “It’s a common practice in television when hiring writers. If you have a spot for a new writer, sometimes you will go to two writers and say, ‘Hey, if you two, new writers… are willing to share a salary, you can both have the job.’”