Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: This is always be a big deal podcast.
This week on always be a big deal, we have the review of quiet on set, a review of the May 7 Apple event.
And now, please welcome your host, Clay Phoenix, and Jessica Vendetta.
Welcome to an all new episode of always be a big Deal podcast. Let's kick off our quiet on set conversation, starting with episode two. If you would like, you can go back and listen to episode one on the very first episode of Chasing Fruit flies now on our RSS feed.
So this episode, episode two of season one is called hidden in plain sight, and the synopsis reads, Dan Schneider's relationship with his star, Amanda Bynes, hits a breaking point as new child actors confront uncomfortable scenes and power dynamics until they face a startling revelation that two of their new members prey on kids they met on set.
This conversation is about quiet onset, and this series investigates the abuse experienced by children from the adults they were expected to trust.
Listener discretion is advised.
Jason Handy is the on set guy that is arrested for child abuse. So he is sought out to be accused of molesting the children on the set.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Then they go into Brandi's story. This got me emotional. Just hearing her mom speak was very, very, very touching.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Jason sent nudes to her.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: And she was, like, so excited just to have a friend in the industry.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: And I think, like, he was older and, like, she probably had, like, a bit of a crush on him, but didn't expect that.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, like. And, like, her age was, like, one of those things when you start going, like, it's at that age of, like, you notice you start going through puberty and things like that. So your body is changing, so you're trying to figure out your body as well as the feelings that you're getting with all of those hormone changes.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: And I feel like she was groomed a very long time before she got.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: That elaborate on that.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Like, he put in a lot of work, sending her emails all the time, like, friendly emails, and just acted like he was her friend. And I just remember when her mom was describing it, like, it was a very long time because, like, she would, like, kind of check in on it. But then I think she kind of let it go because it looks safe. So she even said, like, you know, everything seemed okay, so I kind of just let it go because she was just so excited to talk to someone in the industry and hopefully could get her in, you know, because, you know, you want your kids to be happy, so.
And I think about, like, my kids and, like, if they were younger and want to be famous. Like, I probably done the same thing. Like, you know, I would have monitored it, but, like, once you think they're okay, then, you know, and then all of a sudden, boom, he just kind of hit her with it. And I don't. I guess she didn't. He didn't expect her to tell her mom, is what I'm guessing.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, I think so too.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that's why it didn't go further than what it did. Thank goodness. But her life has affected, like, forever. It's always her mom, like, think about how guilty her mom feels. It's horrible. And these men just keep our women, not just men in this episode, it was men. They just keep living their life like nothing. Like, it's crazy to me that that's okay. Our world is crazy.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Even Brandi's mom had mentioned that she had felt uncomfortable, and there was something off about it, and she just kind of didn't wanna really say anything because she didn't wanna ruin her child's chances of getting another job or being in that industry. I mean, I would still rather my child hate me than them be hurt, in my opinion.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Absolutely. But, like, in the moment, you don't think about that. You just want. You see an opportunity, and you see something your kid wants. So, I mean, with everything we know now in the world, think it would bring up a lot of, like, if my kids were younger, just cause everything we know, I feel like. I hope that I would see the red flags easier, but these men, like, really know what they're doing to get in. These people. Like, they just. I don't even know. They. They just find their target and, like, they just fall into it. Like, it's especially. That's why they go for the younger ones. Cause they're kids and they're easily influenced, and, you know, and it's just. It just makes me so sad that anyone had to do so.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Also with Dan and the whole what I like about you thing was disturbing, that you're then going to follow Amanda so far as to make a show for her as she starts to venture into adulthood. And this show was even pushing a boundary in a line. Then you have this rumor where you're asked to not be on set anymore. So you go back to Nickelodeon and.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Rebrand all that, and I still wonder about that relationship. Like, I don't think it was sexual, but I feel like he had. I don't. I almost feel like he just felt like he owned her. Kind of like, he created her. But it's, the thing is, she's still a person, and she's still her own person. Like, just because you help someone and get somewhere in the career, it doesn't mean you own them.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: The crazy part about that is there's a lot of conspiracy theories online about the whole Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy, about Amanda Bynes abortion at that time. So there's a lot of, like, interesting things when you start to go down a rabbit hole, that almost makes you think even more like, what, what was the bigger picture? What happened that they're not letting on to Amanda Bynes? Never spoke. Jamie Lynn never spoke. Still haven't spoke. So is there something that did happen and they just haven't spoke up about it? And another thing is, is, was it in the NDA? Was, was there a line in the NDA that their legal team says, you can't say anything about it because of this line in your NDA?
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it very well could be because I definitely think there's a lot of unspoken thing because, like, some things just do not add up. Just to see this, the things we've seen the media before, we even watch quiet on the set. Like, there's always, like, especially with, like, Amanda Bynes. I've, like, when she first kind of went crazy or whatever in the media, like, I didn't believe it just because, you know, the media always says this, that or the other. But then, like, you saw pictures of her and it was just like. And I just assumed it was like, the acting got to her. Not the acting, but the whole lifestyle. I mean, that's. But how. And I am. I. That. That's what I thought. You know, this was when I was.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Younger, but still, like, just something that you kind of got used to after a while with child stars is they just kind of go off the deep end and, oh, there's the child star doing that again.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: That's very true. Yeah. Like, look at Corey. Like, yeah.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Who?
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Corey Haim.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Who'd that be?
[00:07:55] Speaker B: I knew that you were gonna know.
He was in a lot of movies, like, from the eighties. I'm trying to think of. I can't even think of him. But he was a child star that kind of lost. He was.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: Thank God for Google.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Seriously, though, Zachary.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: So Corey Haim was most famous for the Lost Boys, Lucas Crank, high voltage and license to drive. Corey Feldman is most famous for stand by me, the Goonies, the burbs, and the Lost Boys.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: You know what? I thought he was in a lot of more movies that I watched. I don't think I watched.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: He's been in a lot of movies.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: No, he's not in a lot of movies. But I just, I'm looking at them and I think I've seen, too, but I don't know why. But I was, like, in love with him. They also were abused. Sexually abused. Like, there's documentaries and stuff on, on both corries. I don't know if they're abused by the same person or anything, but. But they did a lot of movies together. I think they just kind of went off because they're both. Their names are Corey. Like, I don't know why they did movies together, but they did dream a little dream. That's the movie. I know. I love that movie.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: So next is quiet on set. Season one, episode three, the darkest secret. And at the end of episode two, they introduced John Doe, the child that was in the case that nobody knew who it was and it ended up being Drake Bell. So therefore, the synopsis reads, a former child star reveals how he survived abuse at the hands of his acting coach. The harrowing account traces how he met his abuser on set, the ways his coach upended the child family, and the challenges faced when the actor sought out police at the time of Drake coming out about his molestation and them keeping it a secret because he was underage. They premiered Drake and Josh in January of 2004, and then the court date was in October of 2004. So it was all in the same year. And a lot happened, but it never became a huge scandal. Nobody outside of the case or didn't have anything to do with the case. Didn't know about the case.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: No, I don't remember hearing about it.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah. And, like, Drake admits that he had never told a story publicly until quite.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: On set, I think because all the stuff he went through, like, in his own life, I think he kind of felt like he had to not to make excuses, but just kind of be like, hey, this is what's happened to me.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Like, and he never made an excuse. He always, he always said that I made the mistakes that I made and that is on me and I'm going to take credit for it, but I want people to take credit for what they did to me.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that's more than fair.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it is very fair. The thing that I found interesting about Brian Peck was the thing that he, Brian Peck was also on growing pains with Leonardo DiCaprio and he was very touchy feely with him. Leo's never said anything. Leo's never spoken up about it. So there's no evidence on that.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but I was actually thinking the same thing because he was also a very big star. I mean, he wasn't, like, when he was on growing pains. But I'm saying, like, I wonder if something happened and he just squashed, you know what I mean? And I get that that's. It's your business, so. Cause it might have affected him.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Did very much affect him.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: And the level of craziness with this whole entire story. Brian Peck having this with Drake had started to affect his dad because his dad could see it.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: And when he finally opened up to his dad about it, it really hit him very hard because he knew something was going on. He wanted to try to save him.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: And Brian manipulated his dad and his mom, and his mom then became the guardian of him on set.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: He messed with Drake's mind. Like, you need your dad anymore, even though his dad with him, like, the whole time, you know, which I get. He's a kid. He doesn't know, you know, listening to this guy that he thinks gonna help him make him famous or whatever, you know?
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Whenever Drake and his dad were talking about that part and the part that, like, they, you know, they found out that had molested someone, and his dad was like, oh, thank goodness it was you that broke my heart. Because at that time, Drake still didn't tell dad.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: He didn't know. So he really thought, oh, thank goodness son wasn't one of them. Like, I can't even imagine the grief that he felt. He already suspected something, tried to speak up. Brian Peck saw that, cut ties with his dad and Drake, you know, and he got exactly what he wanted.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And so the line that Drake says that was, like, mind blowing was it just kept happening and he couldn't get out.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: On the flip side, his girlfriend's mom is the one that figured it out.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause she's like, why is this growing? Blowing up your phone and my phone, like, huge red flag.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Became obsessed over him.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: I think Drake was trying to get out of no idea where to even start.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: And then Brian was trying to get Drake to convince Stan to let him play the dad on Drake and Josh.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Ugh. Yes.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: And then finally one day, he just explodes and tells his mom everything.
Episode four is too close to the sun synopsis. An abuser goes to jail but gets support from big names in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Dan Schneider's power at the network grows, raising questions about the content and his treatment of the cast and crew. Eventually, tensions boil over.
So October 2004, Brian Peck is sentenced in Van News, California for child sex abuse. Drake was a minor at the time, so therefore he was known as John Doe. And a majority of the court records were sealed. But when they did this documentary, they petitioned to get them unsealed. And the interesting thing is, is that when they unsealed the documents, they found that there was a lot of big name artists or. Yeah, big name artists that were on Brian's side.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Yes. When he walked into the courtroom, like, Brian's side was filled support. I mean, at that time, he was, like, young. I mean, he was a teenager. Like, just imagine, like, this horrible thing happens to you. You walk in, some of them are probably his colleague, and they're all there supporting the man that did this to you. Like, I can't even imagine.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, so he gets convicted after Hollywood blames the victim, and then Brian ends up on sweet life of Zack and Cody. That is a Disney show crazy.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Like, with his record sealed. I don't get that.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: So what I think it is is that they had touched on the fact that they were not doing background checks on people that worked on kids shows prior to now. They will do it now. But back then they were not.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: And no one knew, like, what he did because everything was sealed and it.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: Wasn'T really publicized either. So it's not like.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: So it's not like they were like, oh, this happened, this, that, and third, and it was a minor. So we can't release his name. None of that was out. It was pretty much kept hush hush. So three predators before Nickelodeon decided to change their background check policy for freelancers.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Yes. And that's three we know of.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Then they start to get into iCarly Zoe, one on one, those later shows that Dan had, did. Speaking about episode one, I had mentioned that iCarly just had a reboot. So he. Dan Schneider is just listed as the creator because he originally created the original concept. Miranda Cosgrove is the one that produced it. Oh, okay, so she's the one that create. Yeah, she's the one that recreated it for the spin off.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: So he has no part in it. Right. Except for he created iCarly. That's the only thing. Okay.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah. He's just listed because he was the original concept creator.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Okay. Makes sense.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Which.
That's legal jargon. They have to do it.
Jennette McCurdy writes her memoir, and it's titled I'm glad my mom died.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Which is so ballsy. And I love her for doing that because she had such a crazy relationship with her mom. And the title really catches your attention.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: It does.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: And there's people that have literally read that memoir and have no clue who Jennette McCurdy is.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: She was very smart in naming it that.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Very, very smart. And they give her a lot of crap for it. But I think she was very intelligent for naming it that.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: She was one of the first ones to kind of speak up, and people thought she was crazy.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And so in the book, she talks about on set life, and she says the creator. So she coins this character. The creator doesn't use an exact name, but people had started to question if it was Dan. They did not fully question it until this documentary came out and pieces started falling together. And then 2017, the Me Too movement happened, and people started to feel even more free about speaking up. And that's when we started to learn about all of these different shows and the things that had happened behind the scenes.
It's rumored that Nickelodeon opens a second investigation on Dan, and they end up paying him $7 million to leave the network.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. But why did they have to pay him off?
[00:18:09] Speaker A: I guess it was a contract dispute or agreement or something that they had to pay out the rest of the contract to get him to leave.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: That's crazy. He got to do all that and get paid $7 million to leave.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: But if you ask Dan, that never happened.
All this comes out. It kind of makes Amanda Biden's story make a lot more sense.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Like, it makes me really think, like, we need to listen to our kids, even though, like, they may have been adults when they come out with this stuff, but we need to listen and stop thinking there's making it up for this, that, or the other. Like, to me, like, everyone should be heard, not, like, slashed in the media because of it. Oh, she just went crazy. I mean, it couldn't be that some man was, like, behind all of it or woman, you know, getting in these kids minds. Like, it can never be that. It's got to be the kids problem.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Because that's easier to brush another rogue, in my opinion.
[00:19:05] Speaker A: One last thing that I find very intriguing. Dan had boogie from one of the shows. I want to say it was on iCarly. Come in and interview him for an apology. And the thing about this, the thing about the interview with Boogie was that he questioned him about being racist. And Dan said, well, I made one of the biggest shows, and it had two lead black actors.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Which is textbook. I'm racist. Repeat that.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: I said, it's like he did that on purpose so that later, if he was questioned, he could be like, well, look what I did.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Yes. And that whole interview just kind of, it wasn't an apology, it was just him blaming everybody else except for himself.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: Yes. And it's funny, but when I watched it, I believed him because I'm an idiot.
I didn't believe everything, but I believed that some of it. I believe that he was sorry. I mean, I still think it's all true, don't get me wrong. But. But we just had different opinions on it. But I'm also very naive, so.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Well, I don't think that it was that he was sorry for what happened. He was sorry for getting caught in what happened.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Yes, I do get that, too, because I feel like the person that interviewed him, I don't know if they, like, stayed close friends, but I felt like he was very, very team him. You know what I mean? And that's fine, but I would have liked to see maybe someone else that was in the documentary interview him. I think that would have been better.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Any other thoughts on quiet onset?
[00:20:45] Speaker B: I don't think so. It was very not interesting. I don't say it's interesting. Mind blowing to watch think about these shows that and what these kids went through.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: I don't think you could take away the word fascinating, though, like, or interesting because it was those words, like, you're not making it a negative connotation by using those words because there was an interesting aspect about it because we grew up watching these shows and we never would have thought that that was going on.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Never.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: And what's interesting, too, is so with all of this, I feel like I kind of fell into this and was like, oh, my gosh, I want to know more about it. Where other people around me are like, this means nothing to me. I have no clue what this show is. I have no clue who Drake Bell is.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: So you just see those two different sides of the coin where like, people are like, I don't know who that is. So I'm not going to bother with it. It's not going to affect me. And then there's other people that are like, oh, man, that's really interesting and fascinating to me. And I'm going to watch this and figure out more about this because I grew up with these people and watch these people.
It's always be a big deal. Podcast with Clay Phoenix and Jessica Vendetta Media Trend now let's turn our attention to iPad. And today we have some huge updates across the iPad lineup.
So Apple gives us a surprise Apple event. And with this surprise Apple event, they are primarily focused on the iPad. And for starters, the iPad mini and the base model iPad are still available and they lowered the price on the base model iPad. They've revamped and recreated the iPad Air to have more of a look of the iPad Pro and have functionality for that pen still on it and making it a better screen to bring that in and giving it the M two chip. The mind blowing thing of the whole entire surprise Apple event is they bring you this brand new iPad. So the air is now going to be in two different sizes.
IPad Pro will be available in two different sizes just as well as the iPad air. The interesting thing about this that blew my mind and has me so hype is the fact that the iPad Pro introduces the M four chip and it's the first time that an iPad has introduced a chip. But as they explain in the video, they needed this chip in order to make the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro, with the new neural engines and the more capability for AI integration, gaming and things like that, it really brings this whole new world into the iPad.
The new refined Apple Pencil Pro, which now has a squeeze gestures. It has rotating gestures and you could find it on find my. That is probably my favorite thing. I literally have two Apple pencils and one is still at my house in Stordstown, never getting that one back. And I have one here that I gave to my daughter. She uses it on my old iPad pro to draw and stuff. When you lose that you can't use find my to find it, it's just lost until you find it. So that's amazing that they added that to it. And the functionality as the procreate CEO was talking about, you know, it, it kind of brings this whole new world because you can adjust your paintbrush or your angle or your drawing utensil just by squeezing or just by rotating it to create beautiful images. If you're an artist or if you're using it for cad or different things like that.
The iPad air eleven inch will start at $599. The iPad Air 13 inch will start at $799 and will be available in space gray, blue, purple and starlight. The iPad Pro eleven inch will start at $999 and the iPad Pro 13 inch will start at $1,299 and they will be available in silver and space Black. The iPad mini comes in at $499 and is available in space gray, pink, purple and starlight. The base iPad is $349 and it is available in pink, blue, yellow and silver.
So the iPad air will be available in 128 gigabyte, 256 gigabyte, 512 gigabyte, and 1 TB. So they're adding the 512 gigabyte in the 1 TB option that was typically just for the iPad Pro model.
The Apple Pencil Pro comes in at $129, and the new Magic keyboard starts at $299. This is always be a big deal podcast with Clay Phoenix and Jessica Vendetta.
