‘QUIET ON SET' DIRECTORS DENY MARC SUMMERS' CLAIM HE LEFT AFTER FEELING BLINDSIDED BY DOC: ‘NOBODY EVER WALKED OUT'
Marc Summers claims that he was blindsided by the filmmakers behind "Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV" when he went in to be interviewed, causing him to leave. However, that's not what happened, according to filmmakers Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson.
"We're clear with each participant in our project about the nature of our work," Robertson said on the latest episode of Variety‘s "Awards Circuit" podcast. "The vast majority of our participants have left the project feeling incredibly happy."
Schwartz added, "I also want to be clear that nobody ever walked out on set on any of the interviews in ‘Quiet on Set.'"
When host Michael Schneider asked why Summers would claim he walked out, the filmmakers responded, "That's a good question for him."
Summers, who hosted Nickelodeon's "Double Dare" from 1986 to 1993, recently opened up about filming the docuseries during an appearance on "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show." He claimed he was asked to be part of the Nickelodeon doc, but agreed without knowledge that it was actually about inappropriate behavior at the network.
"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," he said in the interview last month. "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?'"
He then claimed that he walked out of the interview.
"I left. So I got a phone call about six weeks ago saying you're totally out of the show. And I went, ‘Great.' Then they called me about four weeks ago and said, ‘Well, you're in it, but you're only in the first part of it because you talked about the positive stuff of Nickelodeon,'" Summers said. "What they didn't tell me - and they lied to me about - was the fact that they put in that other thing where they had the camera on me when they ambushed me. And so, now we get into a whole situation about who's unethical."
Variety reached out to Summers for a response.
One person who has not spoken out via comment nor interview is Brian Peck, the dialogue coach who was arrested for child sex abuse in 2003. For the first time, Drake Bell came forward in the doc, revealing he was the John Doe who was Peck's victim. The five-part series also revealed the multiple letters of support for Peck that were written to the judge by both child actors and television directors.
"Brian Peck is aware that we petitioned the court to unseal the letters of support," Robertson told Variety. "He hired a lawyer to oppose that. But obviously, the court disagreed with that. And there's certainly, I think, a lot of questions about what happened in the years after he was convicted, after he went to jail and registered as a sex offender and continued to work in Hollywood on sets - including sets with children - for many years."
Variety previously confirmed that Peck performed voiceover work on three episodes of Disney Channel's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" following his arrest and was never on set. He had zero interaction with any cast or crew. Once Disney learned about his conviction, he was terminated immediately and his credits were replaced.
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