Leave Josh Peck Alone, Says Drake Bell in the Wake of 'Quiet on the Set' Revelations

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 21, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 21, 2024 |

The Internet is being weird again. In the wake of the revelations in Quiet on the Set that Drake Bell had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by an adult employee, Brian Peck, Internet commenters (particularly on TikTok) have rushed to support Drake Bell. That’s good. However, the fact that these Internet commenters are dragging others, often without cause, on behalf of Bell is not so good.

Many of the commenters are basically demanding a full accounting from anyone associated, no matter how tenuous, with Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon during his 20-year reign. They want to know what they think, and why they haven’t yet come out to show support for Bell (even if their only relationship to Bell was sharing employment with the same network). Some are demanding that Amanda Bynes speak out. Many (including Bell) are calling out a couple of stars on Ned’s Declassified for making a bad joke about the assault, which is appropriate, but suggesting they were somehow complicit is not.

One person getting called out a lot is Drake Bell’s Drake & Josh co-star Josh Peck. Peck and Bell have not had a particularly close relationship since the show ended. For instance, Bell expressed a lot of anger online a few years ago when he wasn’t invited to Peck’s wedding. However, it was also during a time in which Bell was going through a lot of public issues of his own — a child endangerment charge, specifically — and Peck fairly wanted to distance himself from it. Peck stated on the record even before that he and Bell were co-workers and not particularly close off the set of their Nickelodeon series, and also expressed some bafflement over the fact that Drake Bell sent him angry text messages on the night of his wedding and used his lack of an invite to drum up publicity for himself.

Despite their history, the Internet still got pissed off at Josh Peck a couple of days ago for posting a TikTok video that had nothing to do with Bell instead of immediately taking to social media to share his every thought about the revelations. “How DARE!”

Bell, however, is asking the Internet to “take it a little easy” on Peck because his former co-star has privately reached out (often the most appropriate thing to do in a situation like this) and that “processing this and going through this is a really emotional time.”

“I just want you guys to know that he has reached out to me, and it’s been very sensitive,” Bell said. “But he has reached out to talk with me and help me work through this and has been really, really great. So just wanted to let you guys know that and to take it a little easy on him.”

Leave Peck alone. And while they’re at it, leave Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes, and everyone else associated with Nickelodeon in the ’90s and Aughts alone, too. They don’t owe an explanation to anyone.