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Dan Schneider Opens Up About Relationship with Amanda Bynes Amid ‘Quiet on Set’ Accusations
Former Nickelodeon creator Dan Schneider opened up about his relationship with Amanda Bynes following accusations of inappropriate conduct on set were presented in ID’s docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
“Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents, which was a fairly common with successful young actors at least at the time. And she wanted that for herself,” Dan, 58, shared in his first public response to the doc on Tuesday, March 19. “So, she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me, cause she included me as part of her team, thought of me that way. We supported her. She tried to get emancipated and it ended up not working out and she didn’t.”
In the video, which was shared via YouTube, Dan went on to detail a night in which he helped Amanda, 37, run away from her parents’ house.
“One night, it was very late. Well after midnight, one or two in the morning. Phone rang, I answered. It was Amanda. She was upset. She was in distress. She had had some conflict with her parents, I think her father. And she called me,” he recalled. “I was immediately concerned about her safety. I called someone who I knew was fairly nearby. That person was able to go and pick her up. Then I knew she was safe, I felt better. She ended up being taken to the police.”
Despite having a professional relationship with the former child star after discovering her at just 10 years old, the relationship between Dan and Amanda ended when he left the production of her hit series What I Like About You.
Despite claims of Dan’s inappropriate conduct with the cast and crew of his various Nickelodeon shows, the disgraced show runner has maintained his innocence.
“Dan cared about the kids on his shows even when sometimes their own families unfortunately did not. He understood what they were going through and he was their biggest champion,” his team told Entertainment Weekly amid the new docuseries. “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.”
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