Jennie Garth says she doesn’t ‘want to talk about Dan Schneider ever again’ as she worked with controversial creator on TV series What I Like About You
Jennie Garth had little to say about Dan Schneider, with whom she collaborated on the TV series What I Like About You, amid a renewed focus on the controversial TV maker with the release of the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side or Kids TV.
Garth, 51, narrated The Hollywood Reporter Saturday: “I never want to talk about Dan Schneider again in my life,” when asked about the TV executive, 58.
Schneider co-created The WB comedy with Will Calhoun, starring Amanda Bynes, 37, and aired 86 episodes over four seasons from 2002-2006.
Garth, who played Valerie Tyler on the series, told THR about Bynes, who played her sister Holly, “I just love her and I would love to see her anytime.”
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum told the outlet that she has not communicated with Bynes since the release of Quiet on Set last month on Investigation Discovery.
Jennie Garth, 51, had little to say about Dan Schneider, 58, with whom she collaborated on the TV series What I Like About You, amid a renewed focus with the release of the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kid. Pictured in LA in December 2023
Garth told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday: “I never want to talk about Dan Schneider again in my life,” when asked about the TV executive, 58. Pictured in LA in 2011
Quiet on Set, which first hit the airwaves on March 17 and 18, explored the problematic workplace conditions that child stars on Nickelodeon faced decades ago.
The documentary raised multiple accusations against Schneider, ranging from humiliating staffers, writing pieces inappropriate for children to appear in, and overseeing a toxic workplace.
Schneider, who first found fame as an actor on the ABC sitcom Head of the Class from 1986-1991, would go on to create a number of prominent series for Nickelodeon, including iCarly, Zoey 101 and Drake & Josh.
He worked on What I Like About You for two seasons of the show’s four seasons, American weekly reported.
Schneider himself started working on it YouTube with a March 19 video clip in which he spoke to iCarly actor Bobbie K. Bowman about his thoughts after seeing Quiet on Set, saying he felt like he had to make amends with some of his former colleagues.
“Watching over the last two nights has been very difficult for me,” Schneider said. “I have to face my past behavior, some of which is shameful and some of which I regret, and I certainly owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
While many Nickelodeon alumni were featured in the documentary, including Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) and All That’s Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan and Bryan Hearne. Bynes did not speak in the document and did not comment after it aired.
In the documentary, director Virgil L. Fabian describes how Schneider “immediately knew she was going to be a star” after seeing her at the Los Angeles Laugh Factory and casting her in his shows All That and The Amanda Show.
Garth and Amanda Bynes played sisters Valerie and Holly Tyler on the show from 2002-2006
Garth told THR about Bynes: ‘I just love her and I would love to see her anytime’
What I Like About You was the last project the pair worked on together.
Schneider said in his response clip that he “supported” Bynes when she tried to be emancipated from her parents in 2013. (She was subsequently placed into receivership, which was scuttled in 2022.)
“She tried to emancipate,” Schneider said in his clip. “It didn’t work out in the end and they didn’t.”
Schneider’s professional relationship with Nickelodeon in 2018 amid allegations of inappropriate behavior, which he denied. Schneider, through his representative, issued a statement to US Weekly last month ahead of the documentary’s broadcast:
“Dan cared about the children in his shows, even if sometimes their own families did not,” Schneider’s team said in the statement. “He understood what they were going through and he was their biggest champion.
‘The fact is that many of the children on these shows are put in the untenable position of becoming the breadwinners for their families and the pressures that come with that. Add to that the difficulties of growing up and having to be in the spotlight while working a demanding job, all as a child.’
Schneider’s team said that dynamism is “the reason there are many levels of norms everywhere, always, on every set, every day: executives, lawyers, teachers, and parents.”
“It’s still a tough place to be as a kid, though, and no one knew that better than Dan.”