Former Nickelodeon star Kel Mitchell claims that Dan Schneider screamed at him in a closet on the set of All That.
Mitchell, 45, recalled that heated moment on the Tuesday, June 11, episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. He was 18 or 19 years old at the time, he told Palmer, when Schneider — a writer on Mitchell’s sketch comedy show, All That — directed rage his way.
“The vibe of the show started to change a little bit. [The show’s co-creator] Brian Robbins started to do Varsity Blues and all these different movies and the production team started to blow up, so they left,” Mitchell said of personnel changes on All That. “And they left us with the head writer, Dan Schneider. So he’s writing, and me and him kind of bump heads a little bit.”
One day, “I remember me and Dan had a big argument on set,” he continued. “He was like, ‘Let’s go over here to this room right here, in this closet.’ He closed the door and he just took off, you know, just yelling all this wild stuff.”
From the Repair Man (man man man) to Lester Oakes Construction Worker and everyone in between, the characters of All That are etched into the minds of ’90s kids everywhere. Nickelodeon’s half-hour sketch comedy show originally ran from 1994 to 2000, spawning spinoffs like Kenan & Kel and The Amanda Show and becoming the signature […]
Mitchell walked away from Schneider.
“Being an adult at this point, I had a decision to make, you know what I mean? I was just like, OK, either we [are] going to fight or either I’m going to leave,” he said. “And so that’s what I did. I left the situation.”
Mitchell is the latest Nickelodeon alum to talk about negative experiences working with Schneider, 58, who co-created The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh and iCarly, among other series on the children’s network. Earlier this year, Investigation Discovery released an explosive docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, that detailed Schneider’s tenure at Nick and his alleged inappropriate behavior. It also covered allegations of sexual abuse, specifically involving former dialogue coach Brian Peck.
In March, Schneider gave his first interview regarding the claims against him, saying that watching Quiet on Set had made him face “my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret, and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
The conversation around the alleged toxic work environment at Nickelodeon may just be getting started. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, which aired in March on Investigation Discovery, covered producer Dan Schneider’s time at the network, with former child stars and crew members recalling their experiences on the sets of various shows […]
“I can tell you why it hurts really bad for me,” he said at the time. “I remember very clearly my early experiences [and] my first experiences in the entertainment business. I was green, I was scared, I was excited. It meant the world to me that I was getting those opportunities and I went in and I got lucky cause they were great.”
Looking back, “the fact that I didn’t pay that forward to every employee that walked through my door, it hurts my heart cause I should have,” he added. “I wish I could go back and fix that.”
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