The seemingly innocent world of kid’s television was tarnished quite a bit by the release of ID’s docuseries Quiet on Set, which unearthed more than a few disturbing incidents from the Nickelodeon era littered with series created and/or produced by Dan Schneider. The four-part series, which is available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription, goes hard on all the negativity behind-the-scenes, but featured clips of GOAT kids game show host Marc Summers speaking highly of his time at the network. However, he’s now come out saying his appearance happened under false pretenses.
Ahead of its full-length interview with Summers, the radio daily Elvis Duran and the Morning Show released a bombshell preview (via Variety) in which he tells host Duran & Co. that the project’s directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz weren’t up front with him about what kind of project they were actually working on. In his words:
They asked me what I thought of Nick, and the first 10 to 12 seconds, from what I understand, in this documentary is me saying all these wonderful things. But they did a bait and switch on me. They ambushed me. They never told me what this documentary was really about. And so they showed me a video of something that I couldn’t believe was on Nickelodeon. And I said, ‘Well, let’s stop the tape right here. What are we doing?'
Those who watched Quiet on Set likely caught the fleeting moments when Marc Summers appears on screen, and now we know exactly why he (allegedly) doesn't appear more often. Even the video bit he refers to made it into the ID docuseries, and has him watching a supercut of questionable and potentially perverse scenes from Nickelodeon's live-action comedies.
Though Summers doesn't say in the preview whether or not he would have agreed to appear if he knew what the subject matter actually was, he clearly did not appreciate being brought into the project without knowing the full story. At that point in the interview, he says he walked out altogether.
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According to Summers, he was contacted by someone from the docuseries in the weeks ahead of Quiet on Set's release, saying his appearance was completely cut out of the project, only to get another call two weeks later alerting him that he actually would appear in it. And he questioned the ethical nature behind it all.
To be sure, as much as he's upset about being lied to, part of perspective is also that his core run on Nickelodeon was done by the time Dan Schneider emerged as a creative force on the scripted side. Here's how he put it:
Those people came in after and took over our studios. I never met the man, I have no idea about any of those things. I mean, I know Kenan from Kenan and Kel, because we’ve done stuff together. But as far as anything that happened on that show with any of those people, I never met any of them. I didn’t know anybody. But it made it seem like I knew those people.
While the docuseries allowed many Nickelodeon stars from past years speak out about their experience, from Drake Bell revealing his sexual assault to All That vet Bryan Hearne recalling multiple demeaning experiences, both as a Black actor and as a human being in general. Not everyone who broke into Hollywood through Nickelodeon experienced such traumas, with Kenan Thompson speaking out, and Melissa Joan Hart sharing her thoughts about her time on Clarissa Explains It All being non-problematic.
But the problems did exist, and the importance of a project like Quiet on Set is possibly undermined by the idea that personalities like Marc Summers may have been drawn in dishonestly. The docuseries isn't quite done yet, either, with a follow-up episode set to debut in the coming weeks, with more interviews from series stars.
