Jennie Garth has no interest in discussing Dan Schneider.
“I don’t want to talk about Dan Schneider ever again in my life,” Garth, 51, told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday, March 31. Garth starred opposite Amanda Bynes on the teen sitcom What I Like About You, co-created by Schneider, 58, and Will Calhoun, for four seasons from 2002 to 2006.
While she apparently has nothing nice to say about her former boss, Garth gushed about her former costar, though she has not heard from Bynes, 37, since Investigation Discovery’s four-part docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premiered.
“I just love her and I would love to see her at any point,” Garth said.
Quiet on Set aired on March 17 and 18 and examined the toxic work environment for child actors at Nickelodeon. The documentary features allegations of abuse against Schneider, who created popular Nickelodeon shows like Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, iCarly, Victorious and Sam & Cat. Though he was a co-creator of What I Like About You, he only worked on the set of the series for two seasons before his involvement was just in name only.
Many former Nickelodeon stars were interviewed for Quiet on Set, along with All That cast members Giovonnie Samuels, Kyle Sullivan and Bryan Hearne and Drake & Josh alum Drake Bell.
Bynes has not spoken publicly about the docuseries, though her relationship with Schneider was a focal point. Schneider discovered Bynes at the Los Angeles Laugh Factory as a child, which led to her being cast on All That before landing her sketch series, The Amanda Show (on which Schneider was head writer and an executive producer).
“Dan saw her and immediately knew she would be a star,” director Virgil L. Fabian said in the docuseries. Though Schneider and Bynes both worked on What I Like About You, the two inevitably parted ways once she began pursuing more mature roles.
Schneider, for his part, gave his first interview since Quiet On Set premiered regarding the allegations of abuse brought against him. “Watching over the past two nights was very difficult,” he said in an interview with iCarly alum BooG!e on March 19. “Me facing my past behaviors, some of which are embarrassing and that I regret, and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.”
Bynes has faced her fair share of ups and downs throughout her career since leaving the spotlight. In 2013, she was placed under a conservatorship which came to an end in 2022. Bynes attempted to file for emancipation from her parents in 2013 and, according to the documentary, went to her team, including Schneider, to help her do it.
“We supported her,” Schneider said of the situation. “She tried to get emancipated. It ended up not working out and she didn’t.”
Schneider and Nickelodeon parted ways in 2018 when he was accused of inappropriate misconduct, which he denied at the time. Schneider’s representatives released a statement to Us Weekly ahead of the premiere of Quiet on Set.
“Dan cared about the kids on his shows even when sometimes their own families unfortunately did not,” the statement read. “He understood what they were going through and he was their biggest champion. The fact is many of the kids on these shows are put in the untenable position of becoming the breadwinner for their family and the pressure that comes along with that.”
The statement continued, “Add on top of that the difficulties of growing up and having to do so under the spotlight while working a demanding job, all as a child. That is why there are many levels of standards, executives, lawyers, teachers and parents everywhere, all the time, on every set, every day. However, it is still a hard place to be a kid and nobody knew that better than Dan.”
