(RETRO ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) I wanted to be an actress when I was young. My mom had been a legal assistant within the movie industry for years. She knew a lot of what went on behind the scenes. And decided she never wanted my brother or I to ever have any involvement within the movie industry. So I had some resentment over that. Years later... (PEOPLE EXCLAIM) ...my daughter, Brandi, was very outgoing, full of life. Full of personality. - MAN: Hi, little hambone. How you doing? And she was very enamoured with television. Disney Channel, Nickelodeon. She idolized these shows, and she thought what a fun life that looked like. She had found what she wanted to do in life. Brandi absolutely loved The Amanda Show, and they were looking for kids to be in a schoolroom scene. Class dismissed! Bring in the dancing lobsters! - MJ: So, for her to get booked on a show that she absolutely loved, at only 11 years old, she came out of that just on cloud nine. We, as parents, were not allowed back on the set. We were greeted by a production assistant, Jason Handy, who guided all the kids to where they needed to be. Jason looked like the all-American boy next door. Very charismatic, very charming. When he wasn't on set with the kids, Jason would come out and talk with all the moms. Wanted to get to know about us, what our families were like. You thought, "Oh, I could be friends with this person." On the drive home, Brandi was very excited. She said Jason started exchanging numbers with the kids and parents, and Jason wants to email. She thought, 'Oh, this is somebody else on the set that seemed to be so nice.' And she would have a friend in the industry. I thought, "Oh, this is going well." I was so happy. I was the parent that could give my child what she wanted in life. (DIAL-UP MODEM CONNECTS) About a week after she was on that episode, there was an email from Jason. She let me read it, and it was a very innocent email. It just talked about the shows that he had been working on. (DIAL-UP MODEM SOUNDS) After that, they were emailing more. She would tell me, "Oh, I got an email from Jason. "He's doing this. He's doing that." I didn't see any harm in it. (INTENSE MUSIC) A couple months later, she was sitting at the computer, and all of a sudden, I noticed she had suddenly shut down the computer completely, and got up and ran into her bedroom, and slammed the bedroom door shut. And I said, "Brandi, what is wrong?" She started to cry. And she said, "I got an email from Jason." (VOICE BREAKS) It was a picture of him naked... masturbating. And he said he had sent it to her because he wanted her to see... that he was thinking of her. I went back and forth with, "Should I call the police? "They're gonna think I'm a bad parent because I allowed her to talk to this person." I struggled with this and I finally told myself, "I can't call the police. All I can do... is make sure I keep her far away from him." (SOMBRE MUSIC) She left the business and never returned. The public still has this image of Hollywood of this glitz and glam, and the limelight, and, "Oh, you have the best career, and it's all fine and great." They don't know what these kids went through. Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Able 2024 - This is Amanda. I sure hope you like my act. - MAN: What is your name? - Hi, my name's Amanda Bynes. I'm nine years old. - WOMAN: How old are you, by the way? Are you-- - I'm 10. - You're 10 years old. - I'm 12, turning 13 April 3rd. Yay! - HOST: Yay! - Teenager! (CHEERS) (CROWD CHEERS) And I'm 14 years old. And I'm 16, so... Amanda Bynes was very, very famous by the time she was, like, 16. And, at the time, she talked about wanting to take on more adult roles. On Nickelodeon, I had to do a lot of, like, slapstick-y. I was always wearing wigs and doing all that. And I got to a point, I was growing up, that I wanted to feel like my age, and like a girl and do all that. - KOUL: She made a few movies, What a Girl Wants and Big Fat Liar. So she's starting to pivot into this different space in her career that's well beyond Nickelodeon and well beyond being a figure of child entertainment. # What I like about you # - KOUL: Dan Schneider created a show called What I Like About You on the WB with a 16-year-old Amanda Bynes. And Dan really wanted to follow Amanda into this mainstream success. But there's already trouble on set. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS) - TAYLOR: Dan had a very specific image of how he wanted What I Like About You to go, but he was constantly fighting with the co-creator of What I Like about You, Wil Calhoun from Friends. And there was just this massive amount of tension there, where the network didn't really trust Dan. And they stepped in. He got pushed out from the writer's room. (SOMBRE MUSIC) But Dan is still able to remain on set with Amanda in his role as producer. - FABIAN: Amanda's relationship with Dan was very close. (PEOPLE CLAMOUR) He thought that he should be the one to, kind of, usher Amanda into adulthood. (PEOPLE CLAMOUR) It's a very delicate transition to make from child star to adult person, never mind adult actor. - REPORTER: What's the cost of fame, in your opinion? - Um... People like having to be involved in your personal lives. Oh, enough out of you. (LAUGHS) - FABIAN: She wanted to be a grown-up. She still lived at home, you know? So there were some rules. - TAYLOR: Amanda and her parents were not getting along. Amanda was dating someone. - FABIAN: He was older. You know, you're 16 years old, and you think you're an adult and you know everything. But her parents, being good parents, said, "Miss. Can't do that." And I think she didn't like hearing, "I can't." Amanda tries to run away from home and, in this moment, she turns to Dan for help. The details are a little bit murky, but we know from sources that the police were involved. And we also know that Amanda's parents are really, really upset with Dan's actions through this. But around this time, Amanda turns to Dan and other representatives to come up with a plan to get her emancipated and get her a new level of independence. This plan takes her parents completely by surprise. They didn't say, "I do." So what rights do kids have when they want a divorce from their mom and dad? Two teenage sisters went to court to get a divorce, not from their husbands, but from their parents. - WOMAN: My child wants to be emancipated. What does this mean? That's a really good question. What your child wants is to be called a legal adult. In order to do that, your child needs to petition the court. - KOUL: There's a pretty lengthy history of teen stars getting emancipated from their parents. It lets them work a little more freely. They don't have to work reduced hours. It would have made everybody a lot more money and they could have worked her even harder than they already were. (OMINOUS MUSIC) And she really felt pulled in a couple of different directions. You know, parents, Dan Schneider... Dan Schneider is the guy responsible for my career. She's a teenager and that's a lot to put on somebody. Knowing that no matter what decision you make, you're gonna hurt someone who means something to you is difficult. Dan inserting himself into Amanda's life like this is really ethically fraught. I think that there is an argument that can be made that he was trying to help Amanda. But, unfortunately for Dan, this goes to court, and it entirely fails. (INDISTINCT CHATTER) Because of Dan's involvement in this plan to emancipate Amanda, this creates this huge split in between Amanda's parents and Dan Schneider. (REPORTERS CLAMOUR) This is really the end of Dan's relationship with Amanda. But her transition into adulthood in the public eye will be incredibly fraught. Pretty soon after this, Dan parts ways with What I Like About You. He stays on with the show in name only. Dan has basically lost his ticket out of children's programming. It's a huge blow. So, now, he has to turn his attention back to Nickelodeon. And Nickelodeon obviously wanted him because here's a guy, he's responsible for a couple of really successful shows for them. The dark side of that is that it came at a cost to a lot of people. - KOUL: Over at Nickelodeon, Dan had been growing what would become an empire, reviving All That with a whole new cast. - PRESENTER: The all-new cast of all-new All That! - ALL: It's All That! - KOUL: All That made Dan's career. He was able to capture this really lively energy where it just looked like everybody was just having a good time. What makes it really fun for me, working with young people, is that it's fresh and new to them. This is often their first or second job. Fame is new, the whole process is new, and they're excited to be a part of it. Dan was a writer and executive producer on All That, and he was the primary person in charge on set. There is a deference on a television set. It's very hierarchical. Dan is someone who holds economic power and emotional power over these kids. He had so much power and he threw it around. (SOLEMN MUSIC) I grew up watching All That, and I remember the way they talked about Dan. (PHONE RINGS) - It's the Dan Phone! There's a very telling scene where Dan calls the cast, and it's like Charlie calling his Angels. - SCHNEIDER ON PHONE: Hello, cast! - ALL: Hi, Dan! He's parodying himself as a big-shot producer. - We lost him. - Lost 'em. - How about a shrimp? - OK. - KOUL: He's being hand-fed shrimp tails, and then, the kids are literally referring to him as God. - Look, it is not our place to question Dan. - Yeah. Dan's a god. - True. - BOY: I can't argue that. - To me, it looks like a moment that really reflects what's happening behind the scenes. - Let's go make Dan proud! - Come on! I was so excited, but I had no idea what kind of wild ride I was getting into. You guys know Gail. Heidi-heidi-heidi-hi! I am Giovonnie, Giovonnie Samuels. I started on All That for season seven through nine. I understood the magnitude of being the token Black girl, but I didn't realize how significant that was until years later. My name is Kyle Sullivan. I was a guest star on The Amanda Show. You people ripped us off! (GASPS) I was apparently, like, funny enough that Dan took a liking to me, and was like, "Oh, wow. OK." - (GASPS) - Inhale! I was on All That for, like, four years. (HOLLERS) My name is Bryan Christopher Hearne. I was a cast member on season seven and eight of All That. Every time I booked a role, I felt like I was one step closer to getting my family out the hood. And, so, it was freeing to get the role on All That. But that wasn't the reality. - SULLIVAN: The set on All That was dysfunctional. You could just kind of get away with more. Like going overtime in ways that were sort of pushing the envelope. They would be like, "Hey, can you stay an extra however-long?" "I guess. Sure." You kind of look at your mom like, "We're ignoring child labour laws again, do you know that? "All right. "Let's... let's shoot." I remember we did this sketch "Sugar and Coffee." It involved me and Lisa running around this set, and basically swallow a bunch of sugar and swallow a bunch of coffee. That sketch required, like, a ton of, like, physical work. - Welcome, Mrs. Nut-Hurst! - Yeah! - SAMUELS: They had me come in dressed as an old lady that gets drowned in the sugar and coffee. I mean, you're pouring, like, pounds and pounds of literal sugar in your mouth. And it's hitting you like sand. And, sometimes, we would choke. It was taxing and it... And, frankly, like, if you look at the sketch, it's gross. Oh! - SULLIVAN: Like, it would congeal into this gross, viscous goo. It was weird. The show was full of, like, these uncomfortable sketches. I think that Dan got a kick out of walking a line with that. But, generally, I had a good relationship with Dan. Dan was very professional and nice to me. Dan had a nicer relationship with... some of the other white kids. I didn't feel close to him at all. My time on Nickelodeon played a big part in how I... dealt, and still deal, with racial issues. - We got impressions on what the climate was like immediately, first day filming. - You wanna buy some girlie cookies? (CANNED LAUGHTER) - You're not a girl. - (SHUSHES) (CANNED LAUGHTER) They set up the scene like he was selling drugs. - (SHUSHES) (CANNED LAUGHTER) And I was like, "Oh, the Black kid gets to be the crack dealer?" And then, we were at the end of the scene, and there's a man sitting there who was the producer. Behind him was a young lady massaging him. That was certainly pulled from Dan getting massages on set, which was weird. Why are we having adult jokes? Are you showing the kids that Hollywood is a casting couch? And, "Oh, Tracey..." (SHUSHES) I was complaining too much. I became the oddball. There was a sketch where I played the youngest rapper of all time, Lil' Fetus. Yo, yo, yo! Lil' Fetus in the womb, yeah! They were fitting me for the Lil' Fetus role. And, essentially, you're a foetus, so you're naked. But, you know, they had to put a body suit on you. And, obviously, it has to be skin tone. Someone said the skin tone should be charcoal. I started to get teary-eyed. Whoever was doing my makeup at the time was kind of, like, hand on my shoulder, like, "It's gonna be OK." Like, "Don't worry about that (BLEEP) he just said." That was a moment where I felt like, "Oh, I could go get my mom about this." But also, I know my mom, and I know that she would have rose hell. I saw things differently than everybody else. Now, ultimately, I did try to tell his agent, 'cause she called me. She's like, "Tracey, come on. Do it for Bryan. Just shut up." And I was like, "Yeah, but things are weird here." - KOUL: The person at the top sets the tone for the entire production. If you run a show dealing overwhelmingly with children, then you are responsible for creating an environment where those kids feel beyond comfortable to tell you that they're not comfortable. It needs to be so safe that your most vulnerable person on set is able to say to you, the most powerful person there, "I don't wanna do this." - PRESENTER: From Nickelodeon Studios in Hollywood, welcome to this week's Snick On-Air Dare! (CROWD CHEERS) The On Air Dares were the Fear Factor of Nickelodeon. We would be standing in these tube chambers. It was, like, this ominous thing that was deciding, "Who is it gonna be?" - Will it be Bryan, Kyle, or Chelsea? - And then, it would be lights. And then, it would shine on, you know, all the cast members, and it would stop. - ALL: Bryan Hearne! Those were particularly traumatic, and they were sort of designed to be. The whole idea was that you would have to do something scary on camera. And they got pretty scary. I did the peanut butter one. So, I had to be submerged in peanut butter. All right, lay him down on the floor! That was weird. - Release the hounds! - HEARNE: But then, the dogs come. I'm laying on the ground and, then, the dogs, they gotta lick peanut butter off my body. That sounds like some kind of awkward fantasy from some freaky dude. It was really uncomfortable. I didn't like that. And when you question it, it's like, "But it's normal, isn't it?" Right? They begin to teach the parents, "This is normal." I didn't need to have dogs lick the peanut butter off. Jack didn't need to be submerged in a pool of worms. I don't think that any of that was necessary. There was, sort of, this weird dynamic with it, where they were taking something that, you know, exists in an adult context, like Fear Factor. (SCREAMS) And, like, transmogrifying it into kids. When you do that, it's actually, like, an inappropriate thing to do. - HEARNE: There was a scorpion there! The thing that was most uncomfortable is having to watch your fellow castmates... be, essentially, tortured. (CLAMOURING) If there's anything on set that I wish I could have yelled, "Stop! Let's not do this. I'm out," it's still On-Air Dares. (CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICK) I think that people just kinda look at us and go, "You made some money. So what are you complaining about?" And, yeah, we collect our money, sure. But at what cost? The environment on set really matters when we're talking about kids because if they aren't protected, then they're vulnerable to much worse. - Hey, Anthony. - Yes. - Do me a favour. - Yes. - TAYLOR: As Dan grew more powerful, he became more verbally abusive, more aggressive, more demanding of people. - HEARNE: Dan's presence in the room can change the vibe of the room. Everybody would kind of just be like, "OK, shut up. Shut up." - Dan would come down and yell and scream. There was many times where I had to go, "OK, you're creating an atmosphere on this set that is not healthy." - I worked with Dan on All That. And then came The Amanda Show. And then came Drake and Josh. When I worked with Dan, I felt like the bar was always being risen, and I had to reach that bar. You had to be as good, or better, or put more hours in, or do longer things than Dan did. And we all did it... or you got fired. The edit bay was like a Starship Enterprise. Dan Schneider would sit in the very back row and make comments the whole time. And they were sometimes very degrading. He would not talk to me directly. He would say to his associate producer, "Tell her to make this certain edit." Or, "Tell her to trim this." Or, "Tell her to, you know, start over," or "Better take." Dan was a golden child at the time, and there was always the next show, the next show. He would run to the mailbox on Monday mornings and get the Nielsen ratings. I think it put a lot of pressure on Dan to maintain some kind of number. - THOMPSON: I would be editing from 8:00am to midnight. You didn't eat, you didn't go to the bathroom. Dan would be like, "Wait. Wait a minute." You know? "Can you hold it? Can you wait a minute?" So, every day was constant pressure to get things done faster, faster, faster. One day, I keeled over, and I ended up having to go to the hospital. And, as I'm leaving and curled over, I could hear someone say... "How is the show going to get finished?" And I just remember saying, "I'll be right back!" (LAUGHS) "I'll be right back." And then, he promised me a job and didn't give it to me. Not only was this job that Dan promised me given to someone else, it was a younger man who had no experience. (CHUCKLES) I was livid. I got up out of my chair and I never came back. I had enough of promises from Dan that didn't come true. - FABIAN: He was just an egomaniac. You know, when everybody is just kissing your butt, and the money's crazy, yeah, how do you avoid that? I don't know how you avoid that. In the end, I was going through a disaster in my marriage, and I was not on my game. And he never pulled me aside and said, "Hey, man. Talk to me. What's going on?" Instead of giving me the note, he would play little games on the set, almost trying to get me to quit. I was doing an episode of All That. We were in the middle of rehearsals, and Virgil got mad at something. I don't know what the exchange was or what happened. The stage manager came to me and said, "You can go. We'll shoot it and it'll be fine." I was like, "OK. "If Dan wants me to go, then have Dan come over here and tell me that." And she said, "Look, man. "You can go." I really considered Dan a friend. And the way it ended, and the way he didn't talk to me, yeah, bothered me. A lot. To this day. Yeah. - SAMUELS: When Virgil left, you definitely felt a difference, 'cause Virgil was always fighting for us, going to bat for us, making sure we were OK. Virgil was very good about that. - HEARNE: I was excited to start my third season. I thought my dream of being able to take my family, quite literally, out the hood was on its way. I kind of knew by this time I was the real problem. Dan treated Bryan with caution. Like, he side-eyed him. And so, we're in New York City expecting to go back. We get a call from the agent. She was like, "Come down." (TRAIN RUMBLES) (ELEVATOR DINGS) And she told me Bryan wasn't being invited back. - HEARNE: I was crying... because I'm 13, 14, and I've built this family, and now, I'm not a part of the family anymore? Like, dang, I didn't even get to say goodbye to my people. Like my Gio, my Jack, my Kyle. Like, when am I gonna see them again? I definitely blamed myself, but I also kind of felt like... the times that my mom was, you know, raising hell, that, maybe, that had a lot to do with the collective decision to kick me off. It was "Get them out of here!" And that's Hollywood. But I wasn't prepared for that. (SOBS) The day that we were told... in that moment, he grew up, and his body language showed it. Just showed this man protruding out, and that's a man that didn't trust his mom anymore. It ruined us. (VOICE BREAKS) And you can't get that... Like, the moment, you can't get it back. - HEARNE: Getting kicked off the show definitely was the stage-setter for a lot of issues that I still face today. As a Black man in therapy, a lot of issues that I'm currently overcoming. But I feel like everything happens for a reason. You know what I mean? Maybe I wasn't supposed to be on set anymore. - BROWN: I had no idea what I was saving my son from. It was a house of horrors. No kidding. House of horrors. - REPORTER: Van Nuys division officers have arrested the suspected child predator, 28-year-old Jason Michael Handy of Sherman Oaks. Handy has connections to the TV industry... (PHONE RINGS) - MJ: Phone rang and it was a woman on the other line. She announced herself as a detective from the LA police department. And she said, "We'd like to speak with Brandi about Jason Handy. "Are you familiar with that name?" And I said, "I am very familiar with that name." (TENSE MUSIC) - SAMUELS: Jason Handy, he looked like a goofy white boy from Nebraska. (LAUGHS) "Hey, guys, how you doing? OK, we're going to set now." Jason was a regular member of the crew. He even appeared on screen at the end of a number of episodes. Jason Handy was a PA, production assistant. I remember him being a pretty nice kid. - SULLIVAN: He was around a lot because, as the PA, like, it was his job to basically walk the kids around the set, often outside of the presence of their parents. There's Jason. Lisa and I would have Bible study on set, and Jason would join us. He appeared to be this really nice, genuine person. I had people write notes to me, like a yearbook. And this is Jason. "Keep your trust in God and don't forget me. "You and all the kids are why I work for free half the week. "I love you. Jason." Law enforcement had been tipped off about Jason Handy's inappropriate behaviour towards children. (POLICE SIREN WAILS) So, in 2003, they searched his home. They find this enormous trove of child pornography. "Over 10,000 images of children, including 1,768 images of young girls in erotic poses, "238 images of young girls in sexually explicit poses, "and two images of girls engaged in 'bondage activity'". One of the CDs included seven video files of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The officer said, "We found Ziploc bags, each one with a girl's name on it, and each Ziploc bag had... some kind of token in it." And she said that, "The reason I'm calling is we found a Ziploc bag "with Brandi's name on it. And there were letters from her in that Ziploc bag." She had started describing some of the other bags and what were in them. There was a Ziploc bag... with a girl's name on it. She was seven years old and it was a pair of her underwear in that bag. She started telling me that a lot of parents did not wanna be involved in the investigation, and they said we would really like to speak with Brandi. I didn't want people to lay the blame on her in any way. But my decision in allowing Brandi to talk with the detectives was that we would find justice for her, and that we would get closure. - TAYLOR: One of the most disturbing things that law enforcement found when they searched Jason Handy's home was Handy's own journals, where he spells out how he feels about these young children. "I am a paedophile, full-blown. I really have been giving in to my desire for little girls these past few weeks." And, "I even struggle on a day-to-day basis of how I can find a victim to rape if I have to." - MJ: Eventually, Brandi had to go to court and testify against him. There was another family there. Their daughter was there to testify against Jason. They fell into his trap also. It went a little bit further on their end. Jason Handy meets another girl on a different Nickelodeon show, Cousin Skeeter. She was just a guest star on the show. They became friendly and... on one day in the spring or summer of 2000, when the girl was 9 years old, she and Jason Handy were playing video games in her bedroom. He kissed her twice and, on the second kiss, he tried to force his tongue inside her mouth. She backed away, feeling uncomfortable about the kisses. He told her not to tell her mother about the kisses. He had also told this young girl, "I can get you on other shows." So, there was that promise of... he's going to take her far in this business. - TAYLOR: Ultimately, Jason was sentenced to six years on two felony counts and one misdemeanour involving two girls, one of whom was Brandi. - MAN: Brandi! - WOMAN: Hi! - (COOS) - Hello, Brandi! I no longer trusted anybody with children in this industry. I felt abandoned. There was never any apology to Brandi herself for what happened. (SOLEMN MUSIC) Everything got swept under the rug. - SULLIVAN: He was gone. He was disappeared. And folks talked about it a little bit. But there's this sort of, like, steamroller effect of the pressure of the environment... that the show must go on. - TAYLOR: Jason was arrested in April of 2003. Just four months later, another member of the crew was arrested. Wait! Two paedophiles? What is that? What is that? Look, there's Brian Peck, AKA Pickle Boy. (CANNED LAUGHTER) Pickle Boy was this, like, character that returned again and again and again throughout the seasons of All That. Pickle Boy appeared in every episode, and he's often interacting with a celebrity. - Hello! (CANNED LAUGHTER) Anyone? I gotta get something to eat! (CANNED LAUGHTER) A pickle. - SAMUELS: We just went with it. Pickles? Look, this is the mind of Dan Schneider. You gotta ask him. There was this referencing to like, "Oh, yeah! Dan just has a weird sense of humour." That was like... "The pickles don't look like penises to you?" (CANNED LAUGHTER) (MOANS) - SULLIVAN: This is a children's television show. Wait, why is this in the show? What is... What is the joke here exactly? There's this weird element of, like, they all were able to, like, pull a fast one and get away with it. And that's, like, a part of the joke. - TAYLOR: Brian Peck worked closely with Dan as this dialogue coach. And Brian is seen as this guy on set who's just helping with the kids. He's very much one of the cogs in the Dan Schneider machine. I'll see you in hell! Brian first connected with Dan's World playing small roles in Good Burger and Kenan and Kel. - Let's get these balls a-bouncin'. - And there are these behind-the-scenes clips where you see Brian Peck joking around on set. - I... I'm not just Pickle Boy, but I'm also a trained professional who works here on the set of All That. You can tell by my very important-looking headset. I'm sorry. Hang on. Yeah, do you want fries with that? Everybody loved Brian. He was charming, he was clever, and he was around all the time. We played foosball with Brian. We played Nintendo with Brian. He was funny. It's also important to note, like, all the parents loved him, too. Like, everybody trusted Brian. - SAMUELS: I would walk on Brian's back. I guess, looking at it now as an adult, that was kind of weird. "Hey, Giovonnie, thank you for walking on my back. "It really cut down on my chiropractic bills." (LAUGHS) - TAYLOR: But there are moments where Brian joking around on set feels a little bit off. Later, Kyle. - SAMUELS: But we were there for so many hours, you'd get comfortable with people... until you're not. - SULLIVAN: I remember, at the time, I think it was about, like, two and a half years in, everyone went to Brian's house for a barbecue. And his house was a little off. He had a room that was just dedicated to, like, vintage toys and comic books, and he converted his garage into, like, a Planet of the Apes shrine. I noticed a painting in the room that stuck out to me because it had nothing to do with Planet of the Apes. It was of a birthday clown holding balloons. And Brian got very excited when I asked him about it. He flipped the thing around and, on the back, it said, "To Brian, I hope you enjoy the painting. Best wishes. "Your friend, John Wayne Gacy." (OMINOUS MUSIC) It was a self-portrait of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) At this point, I'm, like, 14. I didn't know, like, the details, but I knew, like, this guy is a (BLEEP) serial killer who, like, killed a lot of young men and boys. My instinct was, like, everyone has to see this. And so, like, all the parents and the kids come into the room. And, then, Brian presents the painting again. And Brian actually developed a pen pal relationship with John. He kept, like, this pile of letters and photos from John Wayne Gacy in his nightstand next to his bed. And he, like, pulls them out and starts showing them to me. Your instinct is to give someone the benefit of the doubt if you've known them for that long, even in the face of, like, this really bad sign. It was one of those, like, classic failures of group psychology, this man who is, like, trusted as basically a supervisor of kids... is not safe. It was probably just, like, several months after this. One Monday morning, we have the table read. - That table read was so weird. The energy was really off. - SULLIVAN: There were people that I had not seen before. And after we, like, do the table read, Dan says, "Would it be possible for the parents to leave the room for a moment "so that our friends can talk to the kids?" - We thought it was an announcement. Like, "Hey, we're gonna go over some stuff." - SULLIVAN: And this happens just after Brian Peck is arrested on 11 charges of child sexual abuse. (TENSE MUSIC) And these charges are related to a child actor. - We were like, "What? Are you sure? Brian Peck?" - SULLIVAN: And, then, these guys said something to the effect of, "Brian isn't gonna be here anymore. "Does anyone have anything they'd like to say?" That was one of the most awkward silences of my life. Everyone was, like, looking at everyone else. Basically wondering, like, is someone gonna admit that, like, they were abused by Brian? - Thinking about it now, as an adult, and having the parents leave the room... that was a little sus. - SULLIVAN: At the time, that experience was really disillusioning. It left a lasting impact on me in terms of how the world works. - SAMUELS: We go through enough as child actors, and for us to not feel like we have a voice, that's worse... 'Cause you don't know who you're supposed to trust. After this, like, very awkward pregnant pause, the lawyerly fellows were like, "OK, thank you very much." And, then, Dan was like, "All right!" And then, everyone got up, and that was that. - HEARNE: To hear that Brian Peck was a sexual predator, it made me wonder immediately about... who was being hurt. Who it is, when it happened, where it happened, I have no idea. - It wasn't dealing with anybody on the shows or anything, right? - PRODUCER: It was a child actor. - On one of our shows? - PRODUCER: Yes. - (SIGHS) (SOMBRE MUSIC) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Able 2024