Mayim Bialik Says ‘Quiet On Set’ Claims Of Abuse ‘Touched Me Personally’
Following the airing of the docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Big Bang Theory alum Mayim Bialik finds herself relating to the harrowing topics discussed in the five-part series.
Bialik, 48, shared her thoughts on the latest episode of her mental health podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown. Bialik discussed the ID doc with Blossom co-star Jenna von Oÿ and former Disney Channel star Christy Carlson Romano (Even Stevens, Kim Possible, Cadet Kelly).
Thankfully, Bialik’s parallels with the docuseries didn’t involve abuse from when she began her career as a child actress in the late ’80s. However, she did find that “being berated in the writer’s room” was something that is normal for women in the entertainment industry.
In the doc, two female writers working for Dan Schneider for All That‘s first season alleged he made them share their pay, being split one person’s wage. The two women also alleged Schneider was sexist, not finding women funny and degrading them by calling them things like idiots or, in one horrific retelling, simulating being sodomized.
Mayim Bialik Reflects On Her Early Career
Bialik says in the podcast episode that she doesn’t believe that happened in her and Von Oÿ’s Blossom writer’s room, though there “were things that we all thought were okay to even joke about which now we’d be mortified.” She says this kind of culture was not solely taking place on Nickelodeon. “Of course, it touched me personally,” the mother of two said.
There was some good that came out of the pushback against predators and abusers in the children’s entertainment industry. Bialik commends how far they have come to get to a place where people like Christy get to advocate, “and we know what she means when she says the mental health of children on set matters, and there are things that we can do to make sure that there are no exceptions. ‘You can’t push that child.’”
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Though the Even Stevens alum is an advocate for protecting child actors, she revealed she has chosen not to watch the documentary, calling the nature of such things under the watch by “trauma tourists.” She does the work behind the scenes, working with organizations that connect child actors and their families with essential resources.
The three ladies also discuss the dangers of dangling fame in front of child actors, the role parents have to play regardless of studios attempts at removing them, the importance of teaching children to use their voices, and the need for female representation and trauma-informed care in the industry.
Watch the full episode below:
