Biggest Takeaways from Quiet on Set Bonus Episode: Drake Bell, Apologies, Tokenism, Racism and More

Drake Bell returned to talk about the public reaction to the initial two-night run after his shocking revelations about Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck, as well as to defend his former co-star Josh Peck and mom from online backlash.

The episode also featured new interviews with additional Nickelodeon stars, including All That cast members Giovonnie Samuels, Bryan Christopher Hearne, and Shane Lyons, about their experiences with Nick show creator Dan Schneider, among other things. The latter opened up for the first time with allegations of his own that Brian Peck had solicited him on set.

The former pair spoke about their experiences as minorities on the set of their show, while The Amanda Show star Raquel Lee Bolleau spoke about a never-before-seen scene with Amanda Bynes from her show, an experience she now looks back on and sees as racist.

You can check out all the biggest revelations and new details in Quiet on Set: Breaking the Silence below.

While talking about how he'd still not heard from any of those individuals who'd written letters of support for Brian Peck ahead of his sentencing for sexually abusing him, Drake Bell said that Boy Meets World star Will Friedle's publicly-expressed remorse doesn't change how he feels. Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison back in 2004 after Bell accused him of sexual abuse.

"I worked with Will on Spider-Man," Bell said on the bonus episode. "There was a lot of opportunity to apologize or talk about and never did." He did acknowledge, though, that "it's a very difficult subject to bring up, especially in a work environment."

"That's the thing that's hard about this, is because everybody deals with their trauma in different ways," said Bell. "Everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in our lives."

For his part, Friedle opened up about the letter he wrote on the February 19 episode of his Pod Meets World podcast, alongside co-host Rider Strong, with both expressing remorse.

"We're sitting in that courtroom, on the wrong side of everything -- of course, having no idea of this -- filled with child actors," Friedle said (he not only wrote a letter, but testified on Peck's behalf), "to the point where the victim's mother turned and said, 'Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn't change what you did to my kid.'"

"I just sat there wanting to die, where it was like, 'What the hell am I doing here?'"

Following the new episode, Bell jumped on his X/Twitter page to offer an even fresher update, noting that he and Strong "had the most amazing conversation, and that "we're all healing together. I have nothing but love and forgiveness for him."

He had previously called out Strong by emphasizing that he was 24 years old when he wrote his letter of support for Brian Peck. He also called out both Strong and Friedle for not coming forward with their remorse about their letters until they found out they were "going to be made public" in the docuseries.

Bell made sure to express his appreciation for the love and support he got from his Drake & Josh co-star Josh Peck (no relation to Brian Peck) in the aftermath of the docuseries release. Fans started tearing into Peck online over their perception of his silence because he'd not spoken out publicly.

The former child star finally came out and told them that Peck had reached out to him privately and been very supportive. "I know what it's like to have the Internet attack you for, really, nothing," said Bell. "He had reached out to me and we'd been talking."

"This is a really difficult thing to process," he added. "But, at the end of the day, we have such a close connection and unique bond that's so rare in this industry that, I don’t know, it’s really special, and he's a really great person."

He also tried to defend his mother, Robin Dodson, from online attacks from people asking why she didn't do more to protect her son. "If you were in that situation at that time, he was so good at what he was doing. He was so calculated," Bell said.

"He knew exactly what to say, how to say it, what to do, the image to portray, everything," he continued. "I completely understand how he just pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. It's tragic."

All That alum Shane Lyons revealed for the first time in the bonus episode that he, too, had allegedly been propositioned by Brian Peck while on set. "There were certainly some passes, you know," he said.

He also shared that Peck had brought up the awkward topic of "blue balls" with him, which he, of course, had no idea about. "I thought they were racquet balls," he said.

"I'm a kid -- 13, 14 -- and, as I think back now, as an adult, a 36 year old, would I have ever had a conversation with a 13-year-old boy like he had with me? No!" said Lyons. "It makes zero sense… They’re kids, why are you talking like that?"

He also said he feels "very blessed and lucky that nothing like that happened to me," referring to Bell, whom he described as "very brave," endured. "The specificity of what Brian did no one knew and it is absolutely gut wrenching," he added.

While much of the original docuseries painted a pretty negative picture of prolific creator Dan Schneider, Bell had to admit that he mostly had a pretty positive relationship and experience with Schneider. He reiterated that in this new installment, while calling out Nickelodeon.

Schneider was the first to reach out from the network after Brian Peck was first accused, suspecting that it was Bell who'd anonymously done so. Bell confessed and said Schneider was very supportive at the time. He was also alone in reaching out, with Bell saying no one from Nickelodeon reached out to him during the trial.

In response to the docuseries, Nickelodeon released a statement saying, "Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct."

"Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience."

Schneider did come under additional fire, though, with All That alum Giovonnie Samuels claiming that Schneider had reached out to her seeking a "quote of support" ahead of the release of the docuseries, but she shut him down.

She suspects he thought of her because she'd returned "sometime later" to work with him again on one of his later shows, Henry Danger.

"He's like, 'You had a good time on set, right? Right?'" she recalled.

"I told him I was terrified of him," she said. "I told him, 'You had the power to make people stars, and I was intimidated by you.'"

Following the release of the original docuseries episodes, Dan Schneider released a nearly-20-minute apology video, but All That alum Bryan Christopher Hearne confessed that he's not sure he bought it.

He said of the video, "I just thought it was funny. If I could be candid, Dan was an actor before all this and so I think that he brushed off some chops and gave us a nice performance."

He followed it up by asking, "Where was all of this apologizing when Jennette McCurdy’s book came out?" in her brutal memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, the iCarly star wrote scathingly about an unnamed individual on her various childhood sets she dubbed "The Creator," which most have assumed was Schneider.

In his video, Schneider said it was "very difficult ... facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret, and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology."

Hearne asked, "What's an apology without accountability? Realistically, if you take the inappropriate jokes away, do you have a show anymore? If you take all the foot jokes, take all the face shots, all that inappropriateness, is it just commercials then?"

Noting the lack of color in every aspect of their experience, All That alums Bryan Christopher Hearne and Giovonnie Samuels said they felt very much like the "token Black" presence for the show.

"It was very evident from the first day that it was just the two of us," said Samuels in the new episode. "That's usually the first thing you do in a Black space, or as a Black person, or person of color, you count who's in the room, in front and behind the camera, and there were two people."

She felt that the lack of representation behind the camera led to uncertainty in what to do with her as a performer, which led her to coming up with sketch ideas of her own to try and help out.

The pair laughed off Schneider's apology claim that he was a champion of diversity, too, noting that he hadn't even mentioned either of them by name, despite them being the only two Black performers on the show.

They also pushed back at his comments that the more mature jokes on the show were what kids thought was funny, with Samuels saying she never thought the jokes were funny, and that many of the more adult ones went right over the heads of the young cast.

Nevertheless, she admitted that she would laugh along because the adults in the room were laughing and she didn't want to risk losing her job.

One positive out of the experience for All That alum Bryan Christopher Hearne was that it opened his eyes a little more about those days. Coming at it with an adult perspective and understanding went a long way to heal the rift that had formed between him and his mother.

Hearne wound up leaving All That at 13 years old, with the former child star saying it was in part because his mother, Tracey Brown, was relentless in advocating for his safety and on his behalf on the set.

"I wasn't looking for my son to be this great star, and that's my dependency. My dependency is raising a healthy child," said Brown. She said that when they got the news he'd been let go, "He was just 13, he slunched over and I saw a different soul come through and in that moment I said, 'I lost him.'"

Brown said that things broke between her and her son after that. "He didn't trust me anymore. He was resentful. He ran away from home." It was this docuseries that turned things around for them.

"The documentary, it was a lightbulb moment to go back in time and discover, as a mom, that moment ruined us," Brown told her son. "I still had hope that you and I would talk. And then didn't know that he'd already seen the documentary. Valentine's Day rolled around, and I said, 'Happy Valentine's Day' and he responded, 'Happy Valentine's Day, Mom.'"

Speaking in front of his tearful mother, Hearne said, "I can talk to 14-year-old Bryan and say, 'This wasn’t your fault. This wasn’t her fault. These people had it out for you.'"

Recalling a scene that had never before been seen, until now, The Amanda Show star Raquel Lee Bolleau, talked about how it felt when Amanda Bynes kept spitting in her face.

Bolleau said that her line was to tell Bynes to "spit it out," and every time she did, "she would spit what was in her mouth -- whether it was the water, whatever, like, directly in my face."

While everyone on set apparently thought it was "so funny," Bolleau was not amused, and it quickly became very clear.

"I was so mad that the director hurried and put me on the side of the set and was like, 'Listen, Raquel: breathe in, breathe out. She's the star of the show. Don't make too much of a problem. I'm going to ask her not to spit in your face, but you have to keep your cool,'" Bolleau recalled.

"That's racist, period," she said of the footage. It was a moment that hit All That alum Bryan Christopher Hearne, as he'd no idea she'd experienced such a thing.

"To just be told, 'You don't matter' in that moment you're being spit on," he said. "You're saying, 'This person matters more than you; take it.'"

Brown replied that as Black people, they are "culturally trained to 'take it," while white people "are not." She also spoke about feeling like a token representative for all minorities, which impacted her enjoyment of the experience.

"I was disappointed there wasn’t another Black boy on set," she said. "That's important. The camaraderie is important, let alone the likeness. It's not even just Black, it's Indigenous, it's Hispanic; you can’t just have the one representing the whole world. It doesn’t make sense to me."

With a bonus episode detailing more fallout from those years for the child stars, as well as early reactions to the initial run of Quiet on Set, the question quickly moves to what's next? Brian Peck was convicted of his crimes, but can more be done to protect child actors?

"We're hearing calls for federal legislation," docuseries co-director Mary Robertson told The Hollywood Reporter. "At the moment there is no federal legislation that governs children who work in entertainment, or that regulates children working in entertainment."

All That star Shane Lyons called for "updating the law so no individual who is a convicted child molester can ever get on a Hollywood set again. Currently there is a loophole in the law that as long as there is a guardian or a parent present on set, they don’t have to hire people who go through a background check."

Robertson also hinted that there might be more in the works from her team. Robertson and her co-director Emma Schwartz said that many stars were nervous about how their stories would be received, but are feeling more confident in the wake of all the support coming out since the series premiered.

Some of the biggest voices not yet heard on this issue are iCarly star Jennette McCurdy, who said a lot in her memoir, and Amanda Bynes. "We don’t want to exert pressure on anyone who’s not ready to participate or to share their private experiences with the world," Robertson insisted.

"There are many people who worked on these sets who we haven’t heard from yet," she continued. "When they’re ready to share their stories, if they would like to share them with us, we would be so honored and we would take incredibly good care of them."

Already, that openness led to the inclusion of Shane Lyon on this bonus episode, and there are likely more stories yet to come.

"We're devoted to telling this story," Robertson told THR. "We're passionate about telling this story. We don't think we're done telling this story."

All five episodes of Quiet on Set are currently streaming on Max.