01x02 - Hidden in Plain Sight

[bunniefuu]

I wanted to be an actress
when I was young.

My mom had been
a legal assistant

within the movie industry
for years.

She knew a lot of what went on
behind the scenes.

And decided
she never wanted, uh,

my brother or I to ever have any
involvement within the movie industry.

So I had some resentment
over that.

Years later...

...my daughter, Brandi,
was very outgoing, full of life.

Full of personality.

Hi, little hambone.
How you doing?

And she was very enamored
with television.

Disney Channel, Nickelodeon.

She idolized these shows,
and she thought

what a fun life
that looked like.

She had found
what she wanted to do in life.

Brandi absolutely loved
The Amanda Show,

and they were looking for kids
to be in a schoolroom scene.

Class dismissed! Bring in
the dancing lobsters!

So, for her to get booked on a
show that she absolutely loved,

at only 11 years old,

she came out of that
just on cloud nine.

We, as parents,
were not allowed back on the set.

We were greeted by a production
assistant, Jason Handy,

who guided all the kids
to where they needed to be.

Jason looked like the
all-American boy next door.

Very charismatic,
very charming.

When he wasn't on set
with the kids,

Jason would come out
and talk with all the moms.

Wanted to get to know about us,
what our families were like.

You thought, "Oh,
I could be friends with this person."

On the drive home,
Brandi was very excited.

She said Jason started exchanging
numbers with the kids and the parents,

and Jason wants to email.

She thought, "Oh, this is somebody else
on the set that seemed to be so nice."

And she would have
a friend in the industry.

I thought,
"Oh, this is going well."

I was so happy.

I was the parent that could give
my child what she wanted in life.

About a week
after she was on that episode,

there was an email from Jason.

She let me read it, and it was
a very innocent email.

It just talked about the shows
that he had been working on.

After that,
they were emailing more.

She would tell me, "Oh,
I got an email from Jason.

He's doing this.
He's doing that."

I didn't see any harm in it.

A couple months later,
she was sitting at the computer,

and all of a sudden, I noticed she had
suddenly shut down the computer completely,

and got up
and ran into her bedroom,

and slammed
the bedroom door shut.

And I said,
"Brandi, what is wrong?"

She started to cry.

And she said,
"I got an email from Jason."

It was
a picture of him naked...

masturbating.

And he said
he had sent it to her

because he wanted her
to see...

that he was thinking of her.

I went back and forth with,
"Should I call the police?

They're gonna think
I'm a bad parent

because I allowed her
to talk to this person."

I struggled with this
and I finally told myself,

"I can't call the police.
All I can do...

is make sure
I keep her far away from him."

She left the business
and never returned.

The public still has
this image of Hollywood

of this glitz and glam,
and the limelight,

and, "Oh, you have the best career,
and it's all fine and great."

They don't know
what these kids went through.

This is Amanda.

I sure hope you like my act.

- What is your name? - Hi, my name's
Amanda Bynes. I'm nine years old.

How old are you,
by the way? Are you--

- I'm ten.
- You're 10 years old.

- I'm 12, turning 13 April 3rd. Yay!
- Yay!

Teenager!

And I'm 14 years old.

And I'm 16.

Amanda Bynes was very,
very famous by the time she was, like, 16.

And, at the time, she talked about
wanting to take on more adult roles.

On Nickelodeon, I had to do
a lot of, like, slapstick-y.

I was always wearing wigs
and doing all that.

And I got to a point,
I was growing up,

that I wanted to feel like my age,
and like a girl and do all that.

She made a few movies,
What a Girl Wants and Big Fat Liar.

So she's starting to pivot into
this different space in her career

that's well beyond Nickelodeon and well
beyond being a figure of child entertainment.

Dan Schneider created a show
called What I Like About You

on the WB with a 16-year-old
Amanda Bynes.

And Dan really wanted to follow
Amanda into this mainstream success.

But there's already trouble
on set.

Dan had a very
specific image

of how he wanted
What I Like About You to go,

but he was constantly fighting with the
co-creator of What I Like about You,

Wil Calhoun from Friends.

And there was just this massive
amount of tension there,

where the network
didn't really trust Dan.

And they stepped in.

He got pushed out
from the writer's room.

But Dan is still able to remain on set
with Amanda in his role as producer.

Amanda's relationship
with Dan was very close.

He thought that he should be the one to,
kind of, usher Amanda into adulthood.

It's a very
delicate transition

to make from child star
to adult person,

never mind adult actor.

- What's the cost of fame, in your opinion?
-Um...

People like having to be
involved in your personal lives.

Oh, enough
out of you.

She wanted
to be a grown-up.

She still lived at home, you know?
So there were some rules.

Amanda and her parents
were not getting along.

Amanda was dating someone.

He was older.

You know, you're 16 years old, and you think
you're an adult and you know everything.

But her parents,
being good parents,

said, "Miss. Can't do that."

And I think she didn't like
hearing, "I can't."

Amanda tries to run away
from home

and, in this moment,
she turns to Dan for help.

The details
are a little bit murky,

but we know from sources
that the police were involved.

And we also know
that Amanda's parents

are really, really upset with
Dan's actions through this.

But around this time, Amanda turns
to Dan and other representatives

to come up with a plan
to get her emancipated

and get her a new level
of independence.

This plan takes her parents
completely by surprise.

They didn't say, "I do."

So what rights do kids have when they
want a divorce from their mom and dad?

Two teenage sisters went
to court to get a divorce,

not from their husbands,
but from their parents.

My child wants to be emancipated.
What does this mean?

That's a really good question.

What your child wants
is to be called a legal adult.

In order to do that,
your child needs to petition the court.

There's a pretty
lengthy history of teen stars

getting emancipated
from their parents.

It lets them work
a little more freely.

They don't have to work
reduced hours.

It would have made everybody
a lot more money

and they could have worked her
even harder than they already were.

And she really felt pulled in a
couple of different directions.

You know, parents,
Dan Schneider...

Dan Schneider is the guy
responsible for my career.

She's a teenager and that's
a lot to put on somebody.

Knowing that no matter
what decision you make,

you're gonna hurt someone who means
something to you is difficult.

Dan inserting himself into Amanda's life
like this is really ethically fraught.

I think that there is an
argument that can be made

that he was trying
to help Amanda.

But, unfortunately for Dan,

this goes to court,
and it entirely fails.

Because of Dan's involvement in
this plan to emancipate Amanda,

this creates this huge split in between
Amanda's parents and Dan Schneider.

This is really the end of
Dan's relationship with Amanda.

But her transition into
adulthood in the public eye

will be incredibly fraught.

Pretty soon after this,
Dan parts ways with What I Like About You.

He stays on with the show
in name only.

Dan has basically lost his ticket
out of children's programming.

It's a huge blow.

So, now, he has to turn his
attention back to Nickelodeon.

And Nickelodeon
obviously wanted him

because here's a guy,
he's responsible for a couple of

really successful shows
for them.

The dark side of that is that it
came at a cost to a lot of people.

Over at Nickelodeon, Dan had been
growing what would become an empire,

reviving All That
with a whole new cast.

The all-new cast
of all-new All That!

It's All That!

All That
made Dan's career.

He was able to capture
this really lively energy

where it just looked like everybody
was just having a good time.

What makes it
really fun for me,

working with young people,
is that it's fresh and new to them.

This is often
their first or second job.

Fame is new, the whole process is new,
and they're excited to be a part of it.

Dan was a writer and executive
producer on All That,

and he was the primary person
in charge on set.

There is a deference
on a television set.

It's very hierarchical.

Dan is someone
who holds economic power

and emotional power
over these kids.

He had so much power
and he threw it around.

I grew up watching All That, and I
remember the way they talked about Dan.

It's the Dan Phone!

There's a very telling scene
where Dan calls the cast,

and it's like Charlie
calling his Angels.

Hello, cast!
- Hi, Dan!

He's parodying himself
as a big-sh*t producer.

We lost him.

Lost 'em.

-How about a shrimp?
-Okay.

He's being hand-fed
shrimp tails,

and then, the kids are literally
referring to him as God.

Look, it is not our place
to question Dan.

-Yeah. Dan's a god.
-True.

I can't argue that.

To me, it looks like a moment
that really reflects

what's happening
behind the scenes.

-Let's go make Dan proud!
-Come on!

I was so excited,
but I had no idea

what kind of wild ride
I was getting into.

You guys know Gail.

Heidi heidi heidi hi!

I am Giovonnie,
Giovonnie Samuels.

I started on All That
for season seven through nine.

I understood the magnitude
of being the token Black girl,

but I didn't realize how significant
that was until years later.

My name is Kyle Sullivan.

I was a guest star
on The Amanda Show.

You people
ripped us off!

I was apparently, like,
funny enough that Dan took a liking to me,

and was like, "Oh, wow. Okay."

Inhale!

I was on All That
for, like, four years.

My name
is Bryan Christopher Hearne.

I was a cast member on season
seven and eight of All That.

Every time I booked a role,

I felt like I was one step closer
to getting my family out the hood.

And, so, it was freeing
to get the role on All That.

But that wasn't the reality.

The set on All That
was dysfunctional.

You could just
kind of get away with more.

Like going overtime in ways that
were sort of pushing the envelope.

They would be like, "Hey,
can you stay an extra however-long?"

"I guess. Sure."

You kind of
look at your mom like,

"We're ignoring child labor laws
again, do you know that?

All right.

Let's... let's sh**t."

I remember we did this
sketch "Sugar and Coffee."

It involved me and Lisa
running around this set,

and basically, like, swallow a bunch
of sugar and swallow a bunch of coffee.

That sketch required, like,
a ton of, like, physical work.

-Welcome, Mrs. Nut-Hurst!
-Yeah!

They had me come in
dressed as an old lady

that gets drowned
in the sugar and coffee.

I mean, you're pouring, like, pounds and
pounds of literal sugar in your mouth.

And it's hitting you
like sand.

And, sometimes,
we would choke.

It was taxing and it...

And, frankly, like,
if you look at the sketch,

it's gross.

Oh!

Like, it would congeal into this
gross, viscous goo.

It was weird.

The show was full of, like,
these uncomfortable sketches.

I think that Dan got a kick out
of walking a line with that.

But, generally,
I had a good relationship with Dan.

Dan was very professional
and nice to me.

Dan had a nicer
relationship with...

some of the other white kids.

I didn't feel close to him
at all.

My time on Nickelodeon
played a big part in how I...

dealt, and still deal,
with racial issues.

We got impressions on what the
climate was like immediately,

first day filming.

You wanna buy
some girlie cookies?

You're not a girl.

They set up the scene
like he was selling dr*gs.

And I was like, "Oh, the Black
kid gets to be the cr*ck dealer?"

And then, we were at the end
of the scene,

and there's a man sitting
there who was the producer.

Behind him was a young lady
massaging him.

That was certainly pulled from
Dan getting massages on set,

which was weird.

Why are we having adult jokes?

Are you showing the kids that
Hollywood is a casting couch?

And, "Oh, Tracey."
"Go do it."

I was complaining too much.
I became the oddball.

There was a sketch
where I played

the youngest rapper
of all time,

Lil' Fetus.

Yo, yo, yo!

Lil' Fetus in the womb, yeah!

They were fitting me
for the Lil' Fetus role.

And, essentially, you're a
fetus, so you're naked.

But, you know,
they had to put a body suit on you.

And, obviously,
it has to be skin tone.

Someone said the skin tone
should be charcoal.

I started to get teary-eyed.

Whoever was doing my makeup
at the time was kind of, like,

hand on my shoulder, like,
"It's gonna be okay."

Like, "Don't worry about that
he just said."

That was a moment
where I felt like,

"Oh, I could go
get my mom about this."

But also, I know my mom,

and I know
that she would have rose hell.

I saw things differently
than everybody else.

Now, ultimately,
I did try to tell his agent,

'cause she called me.

She's like, "Tracey, come on.

Do it for Bryan.
Just shut up."

And I was like, "Yeah,
but things are weird here."

The person at the top sets the
tone for the entire production.

If you run a show dealing
overwhelmingly with children,

then you are responsible for creating
an environment where those kids feel

beyond comfortable to tell you
that they're not comfortable.

It needs to be so safe that your
most vulnerable person on set

is able to say to you,
the most powerful person there,

"I don't wanna do this."

From Nickelodeon
Studios in Hollywood,

- welcome to this week's
Snick On-Air Dare!

The On Air Dares were the
Fear Factor of Nickelodeon.

We would be standing
in these tube chambers.

It was, like,
this ominous thing that was deciding,

"Who is it gonna be?"

Will it be Bryan,
Kyle, or Chelsea?

And then,
it would be lights.

And then, it would shine on,

you know, all the cast
members, and it would stop.

Bryan Hearne!

Those were
particularly traumatic,

and they were, sort of,
designed to be.

The whole idea was that you would
have to do something scary on camera.

And they got pretty scary.

I did the peanut butter one.

So, I had to be submerged
in peanut butter.

All right, lay him down
on the floor!

That was weird.

- Release the hounds!
- -But then, the dogs come.

I'm laying on the ground
and, then, the dogs,

they gotta lick peanut butter
off my body.

That sounds like some kind of
awkward fantasy

from some freaky dude.

It was really uncomfortable.
I didn't like that.

And when you question it,
it's like,

"But it's normal, isn't it?"

Right? They begin to teach
the parents, "This is normal."

I didn't need to have dogs
lick the peanut butter off.

Jack didn't need to be
submerged in a pool of worms.

I don't think that any of that
was necessary.

There was, sort of,
this weird dynamic with it,

where they were taking
something that,

you know, exists in an adult
context, like Fear Factor.

And, like, transmogrifying it
into kids.

When you do that,
it's actually, like,

an inappropriate thing to do.

There was
a scorpion there!

The thing that was most
uncomfortable is having to watch

your fellow castmates...

be, essentially, tortured.

If there's anything on set that
I wish I could have yelled,

"Stop! Let's not do this.
I'm out,"

it's still On-Air Dares.

I think that people
just kinda look at us and go,

"You made some money.
So what are you complaining about?"

And, yeah, we collect
our money, sure.

But at what cost?

The environment on set really
matters when we're talking about kids

because, if they aren't protected,
then they're vulnerable to much worse.

- Hey, Anthony.
- Yes.

- Do me a favor.
- Yes.

As Dan grew
more powerful,

he became
more verbally abusive,

more aggressive,
more demanding of people.

Dan's presence in the room can
change the vibe of the room.

Everybody would kind of just be
like, "Okay, shut up. Shut up."

Dan would come down
and yell and scream.

There was many times
where I had to go,

"Okay, you're creating an atmosphere
on this set that is not healthy."

I worked with Dan on All That.

And then came The Amanda Show.

And then came Drake and Josh.

When I worked with Dan, I felt like
the bar was always being risen,

and I had to reach that bar.

You had to be as good, or
better, or put more hours in,

or do longer things
than Dan did.

And we all did it...

or you got fired.

The edit bay was like
a Starship Enterprise.

Dan Schneider would sit
in the very back row

and make comments
the whole time.

And they were sometimes
very degrading.

He would not
talk to me directly.

He would say
to his associate producer,

"Tell her to make this certain edit."
Or, "Tell her to trim this."

Or, "Tell her to, you know,
start over," or "Better take."

Dan was a golden child
at the time,

and there was always
the next show, the next show.

He would run to the mailbox on Monday
mornings and get the Nielsen ratings.

I think it put
a lot of pressure on Dan

to maintain
some kind of number.

I would be editing
from 8:00 a.m. to midnight.

You didn't eat,
you didn't go to the bathroom.

Dan would be like,

"Wait. Wait a minute." You know?
"Can you hold it? Can you wait a minute?"

So, every day was constant
pressure to get things done

faster, faster, faster.

One day, I keeled over,

and I ended up
having to go to the hospital.

And, as I'm leaving
and curled over,

I could hear someone say...

"How is the show
going to get finished?"

And I just remember saying,
"I'll be right back!"

"I'll be right back."

And then, he promised me a job
and didn't give it to me.

Not only was this job that Dan
promised me given to someone else,

it was a younger man

who had
no experience.

I was livid.

I got up out of my chair
and I never came back.

I had enough of promises from
Dan that didn't come true.

He was just
an egomaniac.

You know, when everybody
is just kissing your butt,

and the money's crazy,

yeah, how do you avoid that?
I don't know how you avoid that.

In the end, I was going through
a disaster in my marriage,

and I was not on my game.

And he never pulled me aside

and said, "Hey, man.
Talk to me. What's going on?"

Instead of giving me the note,
he would play little games on the set,

almost trying
to get me to quit.

I was doing an episode
of All That.

We were in the middle
of rehearsals,

and Virgil got mad
at something.

I don't know what the
exchange was or what happened.

The stage manager came to me
and said,

"You can go. We'll sh**t it
and it'll be fine."

I was like, "Okay.

If Dan wants me to go, then have Dan
come over here and tell me that."

And she said, "Look, man.

You can go."

I really considered Dan
a friend.

And the way it ended,
and the way he didn't talk to me,

yeah, bothered me.

A lot.

To this day.

Yeah.

When Virgil left,

you definitely felt
a difference,

'cause Virgil
was always fighting for us,

going to bat for us,
making sure we were okay.

Virgil was very good
about that.

I was excited
to start my third season.

I thought my dream of being
able to take my family,

quite literally, out the hood
was on its way.

I kind of knew by this time
I was the real problem.

Dan treated Bryan

with caution.

Like, he side-eyed him.

And so, we're in New York City
expecting to go back.

We get a call from the agent.
She was like, "Come down."

And she told me

Bryan wasn't being
invited back.

I was crying...

because I'm 13, 14,
and I've built this family,

and now, I'm not a part
of the family anymore?

Like, dang, I didn't even get
to say goodbye to my people.

Like my Gio, my Jack, my Kyle.

Like, when am I gonna
see them again?

I definitely blamed myself,
but I also kind of felt like...

the times that my mom was,
you know, raising hell,

that, maybe,
that had a lot to do with

the collective
decision to kick me off.

It was "Get them out of here!"

And that's Hollywood.

But I wasn't prepared
for that.

The day
that we were told...

in that moment, he grew up,
and his body language showed it.

Just showed this man
protruding out,

and that's a man that didn't
trust his mom anymore.

It ruined us.

And you can't
get that...

Like, the moment,
you can't get it back.

Getting kicked off the show
definitely was the stage-setter

for a lot of issues
that I still face today.

As a Black man in therapy,

a lot of issues
that I'm currently overcoming.

But I feel like everything
happens for a reason.

You know what I mean?

Maybe I wasn't supposed to be
on set anymore.

I had no idea
what I was saving my son from.

It was a house of horrors.

No kidding.

House of horrors.

Van Nuys division officers have
arrested the suspected child predator,

28-year-old Jason Michael
Handy of Sherman Oaks.

Handy has connections
to the TV industry...

- Phone rang and it was
a woman on the other line.

She announced herself as a detective
from the LA police department.

And she said, "We'd like to speak
with Brandi about Jason Handy.

Are you familiar
with that name?"

And I said,
"I am very familiar with that name."

Jason Handy,

he looked like a goofy
white boy from Nebraska.

"Hey, guys, how you doing?

Okay, We're going to sit now."

Jason was a regular member
of the crew.

He even appeared on screen at
the end of a number of episodes.

Jason Handy was a PA,
production assistant.

I remember him
being a pretty nice kid.

He was around a lot

because, as the PA,

like, it was his job

to basically walk the kids
around the set,

often outside of the presence
of their parents.

There's Jason.

Lisa and I would have Bible study on
set, and Jason would join us.

He appeared to be this really
nice, genuine person.

I had people write notes to
me, like a yearbook.

And this is Jason.

"Keep your trust in God
and don't forget me.

You and all the kids are why
I work for free half the week.

I love you. Jason."

Law enforcement
had been tipped off

about Jason Handy's inappropriate
behavior towards children.

So, in 2003,
they searched his home.

They find this enormous trove
of child p*rn.

"Over 10,000 images
of children,

including 1,768 images of
young girls in erotic poses,

238 images of young girls
in sexually explicit poses,

and two images of girls
engaged in "bondage activity".

One of the CDs included
seven video files of minors

engaged in sexually
explicit conduct.

The officer said,
"We found Ziploc bags,

each one
with a girl's name on it,

and each Ziploc bag had...

some kind of token in it."

And she said that, "The reason I'm
calling is we found a Ziploc bag

with Brandi's name on it.

And there were letters
from her in that Ziploc bag."

She had started describing some of
the other bags and what were in them.

There was a Ziploc bag...

with a girl's name on it.

She was seven years old and it was
a pair of her underwear in that bag.

She started telling me
that a lot of parents

did not wanna be involved
in the investigation,

and they said we would really
like to speak with Brandi.

I didn't want people to lay
the blame on her in any way.

But my decision in allowing
Brandi to talk with the detectives

was that we would find justice
for her,

and that we would get closure.

One of the most disturbing
things that law enforcement found

when they searched Jason Handy's
home was Handy's own journals,

where he spells out how he feels
about these young children.

"I am a pedophile, full blown.

I really have been giving in to my desire
for little girls these past few weeks."

And, "I even struggle
on a day to day basis

of how I can find a victim
to r*pe if I have to."

Eventually, Brandi had to go to
court and testify against him.

There was
another family there.

Their daughter was there
to testify against Jason.

They fell into his trap also.

It went a little bit further
on their end.

Jason Handy meets another girl
on a different Nickelodeon show,

Cousin Skeeter.

She was just a guest star
on the show.

They became friendly and...

on one day in the spring
or summer of 2000,

when the girl
was nine years old,

she and Jason Handy were playing
video games in her bedroom.

He kissed her twice
and, on the second kiss,

he tried to force his tongue
inside her mouth.

She backed away,
feeling uncomfortable about the kisses.

He told her not to tell her
mother about the kisses.

He had also told
this young girl,

"I can get you
on other shows."

So, there was
that promise of...

he's going to take her far
in this business.

Ultimately, Jason
was sentenced to six years

on two felony counts and one
misdemeanor involving two girls,

one of whom was Brandi.

- Brandi!
- Hi!

Hello, Brandi!

I no longer trusted anybody
with children in this industry.

I felt abandoned.

There was never any apology

to Brandi herself
for what happened.

Everything got swept
under the rug.

He was gone.
He was disappeared.

And folks talked about it
a little bit.

But there's this sort of,
like, steamroller effect

of the pressure
of the environment...

that the show must go on.

Jason was arrested
in April of 2003.

Just four months later,
another member of the crew was arrested.

Wait! Two pedophiles?
What is that?

What is that?

Look, there's Brian Peck,

AKA Pickle Boy.

Pickle Boy likes to
hurt and tease pickles.

Pickle Boy was this,
like, character

that returned again
and again and again

throughout the seasons
of All That.

Pickle Boy appeared
in every episode,

and he's often
interacting with a celebrity.

Hello!

Anyone?

I gotta get something to eat!

A pickle.

We just
went with it.

Pickles? Look, this is the mind of
Dan Schneider. You gotta ask him.

There was this referencing
to like,

"Oh, yeah! Dan just has
a weird sense of humor."

That was like...

"The pickles don't look
like penises to you?"

This is
a children's television show.

Wait, why is this in the show?
What is...

What is the joke here exactly?

There's this weird element
of, like,

they all were able to, like,
pull a fast one and get away with it.

And that's, like,
a part of the joke.

Brian Peck worked closely with
Dan as this dialogue coach.

And Brian is seen as this guy on set
who's just helping with the kids.

He's very much one of the cogs
in the Dan Schneider machine.

I'll see you in hell!

Brian first connected
with Dan's World

playing small roles in Good
Burger and Kenan and Kel.

Let's get these balls
a bouncin'.

And there are these
behind-the-scenes clips

where you see Brian Peck
joking around on set.

I... I'm not just Pickle Boy,
but I'm also a trained professional

who works here
on the set of All That.

You can tell by my very
important-looking headset.

I'm sorry. Hang on.

Yeah, do you want fries
with that?

Everybody loved Brian.

He was charming,
he was clever,

and he was around
all the time.

We played foosball with Brian.

We played Nintendo with Brian.

He was funny.

It's also important to note, like,
all the parents loved him, too.

Like, everybody trusted Brian.

I would walk
on Brian's back.

I guess, looking at it now
as an adult,

that was kind of weird.

"Hey, Giovonnie, thank you
for walking on my back.

It really cut down on
my chiropractic bills."

But there are moments where
Brian joking around on set

feels a little bit off.

Later, Kyle.

But we were there
for so many hours,

you'd get comfortable
with people...

until you're not.

I remember,
at the time,

I think it was about, like,
two and a half years in,

everyone went to Brian's house
for a barbecue.

And his house
was a little off.

He had a room that was
just dedicated to, like,

vintage toys and comic books,

and he converted his garage into,
like, a Planet of the Apes shrine.

I noticed a painting in the
room that stuck out to me

because it had nothing to do
with Planet of the Apes.

It was of a birthday clown
holding balloons.

And Brian got very excited
when I asked him about it.

He flipped the thing around
and, on the back, it said,

"To Brian, I hope you enjoy
the painting.

Best wishes.
Your friend, John Wayne Gacy."

It was a self-portrait of
serial k*ller John Wayne Gacy.

At this point, I'm, like, 14.

I didn't know, like,
the details,

but I knew, like, this guy
is a serial k*ller

who, like, k*lled
a lot of young men and boys.

My instinct was, like,
everyone has to see this.

And so, like, all the parents
and the kids come into the room.

And, then, Brian presents
the painting again.

And Brian actually developed a
pen pal relationship with John.

He kept, like, this pile of letters
and photos from John Wayne Gacy

in his nightstand
next to his bed.

And he, like, pulls them out
and starts showing them to me.

Your instinct is to give
someone the benefit of the doubt

if you've known them
for that long,

even in the face of, like,
this really bad sign.

It was one of those, like,
classic failures of group psychology,

this man who is, like, trusted

as basically a supervisor
of kids...

is not safe.

It was probably just, like,
several months after this.

One Monday morning,
we have the table read.

That table read was so weird.

The energy was really off.

There were people
that I had not seen before.

And after we, like,
do the table read, Dan says,

"Would it be possible for the parents
to leave the room for a moment

so that our friends
can talk to the kids?"

We thought
it was an announcement.

Like, "Hey, we're gonna
go over some stuff."

And this happens just after
Brian Peck is arrested

on 11 charges
of child sexual abuse.

And these charges
are related to a child actor.

We were like, "What?

Are you sure? Brian Peck?"

And, then,
these guys

said something to the effect of, like,
"Brian isn't gonna be here anymore.

Does anyone have anything
they'd like to say?"

That was one of the most
awkward silences of my life.

Everyone was, like,
looking at everyone else.

Basically wondering, like,
is someone gonna admit

that, like, they were abused
by Brian?

Thinking about it now,
as an adult,

and having the parents
leave the room...

that was a little sus.

At the time, that experience
was really disillusioning.

It left a lasting impact on me
in terms of how the world works.

We go through enough
as child actors,

and for us to not feel like
we have a voice,

that's worse...

'Cause you don't know
who you're supposed to trust.

After this, like,
very awkward pregnant pause,

the lawyerly fellows were like,
"Okay, thank you very much."

And, then, Dan was like,
"All right!"

And then, everyone got up,
and that was that.

To hear that Brian Peck
was a sexual predator,

it made me wonder
immediately about...

who was being hurt.

Who it is, when it happened,
where it happened,

I have no idea.

It wasn't dealing with anybody
on the shows or anything, right?

It was
a child actor.

On one of our shows?

Yes.