Former Nickelodeon writer and producer Dan Schneider defended his controversial relationship with “The Amanda Show” star Amanda Bynes in an interview on Tuesday, saying he fully supported her decision to pursue emancipation from her parents and assisted in her attempt to run away from home.
“She wanted that for herself,” Schneider said, whose rehabilitative interview with former “iCarly” actor Bobby “BooG!e” Bowman aired Tuesday after the release of Investigation Discovery’s damning four-part docuseries, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
“We supported her,” he said.
Schneider is credited for creating some of the Nickelodeon’s most successful shows, like “All That” and “iCarly,”as well as launching the careers of several child actors, including Keenan Thompson, Drake Bell, Ariana Grande, during his time as a showrunner in the ’90s and 2000s.
One of his biggest stars was Amanda Bynes, who went from Laugh Factory child prodigy to one of the youngest female talents to have her own self-titled show.
During Tuesday’s interview posted on his YouTube page DanWarp, Schneider opened up about the controversy that surrounded his relationship with Bynes, as in part detailed in the docuseries, beginning with her desire to become emancipated.
“Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents, which was a fairly common thing with successful young actors — at least at the time,” Schneider said. “She wanted that for herself, so she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me — because she included me as part of her team, thought of me that way. We supported her, she tried to get emancipated and it ended up not working out and she didn’t.”
“Quiet on Set” recounts a number of questionable moments Schneider had with Bynes, including footage of the two performing a scene inside a hot tub and instances where Schneider would work with Bynes into the night rather than letting her to do her schoolwork along with the other child actors on set.
His involvement in her attempt to run away from home was also brought to the forefront, but Schneider said he just wanted what was best for the teen.
“One night very late, well after midnight, 1 or 2 in the morning, phone rang, I answered, it was Amanda,” Schneider said in the YouTube interview. Per the series, Bynes was still living with her parents and turned to Schneider for help.
“She was upset. She was in distress. She had had some conflict with her parents, I think her father, and she called me,” the producer recalled. “I was immediately concerned about her safety. I called someone that I knew was fairly nearby. That person was able to go and pick her up. I knew she was safe, I felt better. She ended up being taken to the police. “
Schneider was fired from Nickelodeon in March 2018 as a result of a second investigation into several toxic workplace allegations made against him. “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” spotlights allegations of abusive and toxic behavior by the longtime Nickelodeon producer and screenwriter. The series made its debut over the course of two nights on ID, first on Sunday before wrapping Monday.
Click here for more of a breakdown of what happened in the series. Watch Schneider’s full post-mortem interview in the video below.
