“The things that were happening to me were so — it’s a big word — but gruesome,” Bell says. “Not only is it really difficult to speak about and to put into words, but I’m also not really in an environment where I think (the documentary producers) would want to put that on national television.”
“It’s too graphic,” he summarizes.
Bell then references a portion of “Quiet on Set” when former “All That” cast member Kyle Sullivan described a painting of a clown he saw in Peck’s home during a cast party. The painting was from John Wayne Gacy, known as the “Killer Clown,” who raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in the 1970s. Sullivan said the painting was signed, “From your good friend, John Wayne Gacy,” which Bell corroborates to Snow.
“Things were happening to me in a room, where there’s a painting by one of the most prolific serial killers who preyed on young boys, staring at me,” Bell tells Snow. “So that puts into my mind, ‘How far is this really going to go? How far can this go?’”
He adds, “The fear goes into, ‘Am I going to make it out of this room?’”
“You were worried for your life,” Snow says.
“Of course. That’s the only way to put it,” Bell responds.
AS A HOUSEHOLD NAME thanks to Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show” and “All That,” and later as one of the two leads in the comedy “Drake & Josh,” Bell’s story received significant attention. The five episodes of “Quiet on Set” broke a record for streaming giant Max when more than 1.25 billion viewing minutes were logged between March 18-24, according to Nielsen. But the documentary also included interviews with other former performers on the channel, and renewed conversations about the treatment of child stars in film and television.
Dan Schneider, a Nickelodeon executive behind some of the network’s biggest shows from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, is a central figure discussed in “Quiet on Set.” Some cast and crew members who worked on Schneider’s shows alleged in the documentary he created hostile work environments on his sets, and purposefully added sexual innuendos into children’s TV shows.
In 2018, Nickelodeon said it was parting ways with Schneider. The network’s parent company, ViacomCBS, had investigated Schneider’s behavior in 2017 and found many employees viewed him as verbally abusive, The New York Times reported in 2021. The Times said the review found no evidence of sexual misconduct by Schneider. Schneider declined to comment on the investigation in an interview with the Times but denied he left Nickelodeon on bad terms. “I took a break to take care of a lot of stuff that I’d let go by the wayside for decades,” he told the Times.
Shortly after the documentary debuted, Schneider released a lengthy statement addressing the allegations made in the series.
“Dan has said himself that he was a tough boss to work for and if he could do things over again he would act differently,” a representative for Schneider said in a statement to NBC News on March 18. “But let’s be clear, when Dan departed Nickelodeon a full investigation was done and again, what was found is that he was a challenging, tough, and at times inappropriate and demanding person to work for and with, nothing else.”
Schneider apologized for his decades-long behavior on his sets in an interview on his YouTube channel one day later on March 19, and said he could “see the hurt in some people’s eyes” while watching “Quiet on Set,” which made him feel “awful and regretful and sorry.”
Bell and Schneider worked together on shows like “Drake & Josh” and “The Amanda Show.” Bell tells Snow he has spoken to Schneider and that he didn’t personally have any problems with the producer when he worked with him.
“It’s really hard to see all of these stories coming out and reading all of this. It’s a difficult situation,” Bell says. “I don’t know if it was what I was going through at the time — maybe, a lot of times, I was not seeing other things around me. But the set, for me, when I wasn’t experiencing things with (Peck), was my escape. And I felt at home.”
On May 1, less than two months after the release of “Quiet on Set,” Schneider sued the creators of the documentary for defamation, alleging its episodes “repeatedly state or imply that Schneider is a child sexual abuser.” The doc’s creators did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
In a statement to NBC News, Schneider apologized for his behavior during his early career as a producer, but said the documentary “went beyond reporting the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes.”
His relationship with Schneider aside, Bell tells Snow that he doesn’t believe, even today, that there are enough protections for working children on film and TV sets. He suggests productions hire a trained professional to work with and advocate for child actors, like a social worker or mental health expert with no ties to the production, in addition to a set teacher.
Knowing what he knows about working as a child in Hollywood, Snow asks Bell if he’d let his child pursue a career in TV as he did. He takes his time responding.
“It’s so hard to just immediately say no, because even though I endured unspeakable things, there were such amazing moments, there were such amazing experiences,” he says.
“I struggle with the bad. But then, the good that I’ve experienced and the way that entertainment touches lives, and how we’re moved by the stories that we tell and that we hear and that we watch,” he adds. “It’s a very fine line.”
BELL HIMSELF IS NOT without his own legal troubles. In December 2015, he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Los Angeles, police said. Bell pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 96 hours in jail and four years of probation, according to the Los Angeles Times. (Bell was also convicted in 2010 for another DUI arrest in San Diego, E! News reported.)
Bell’s ex-girlfriend Melissa Lingafelt accused Bell of physical and verbal abuse during their relationship in the 2000s in a TikTok she posted in August 2020. (The TikTok has since been deleted.) Bell denied Lingafelt’s accusations in a statement at the time to NBC News.
And in July 2021, Bell was sentenced to two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, stemming from accusations from a minor who alleged Bell had sent her graphic photos and had “groomed” her since she was 12.
“My life hasn’t been the same since I was 15,” the woman, then 19, said during Bell’s sentencing hearing. “I think about these crimes every single day. I feel like I’m in a constant dark place.”
The judge had said at the hearing that while Bell’s guilty plea involved “serious allegations,” “they do not involve sexual relations.” He added, “However, a grown man does not engage in inappropriate text messages to a teenager.”
Bell addresses that plea deal when speaking with Snow. He says he was at first not aware of her age.
“Nothing happened in person or anything like that,” he says. “But I had been, in the past, exchanging messages from somebody.”
“It got to a place, where there were some messages that shouldn’t have been exchanged,” he adds. “And that’s why I (pleaded) guilty. But once the age was revealed, that’s when I stopped communication — I blocked her on everything.”
