With both of the nominations clinched

matt_zimmer on Dreamwidth, Matt Z on Daily Kos, Fone Bone on Toon Zone, and the BlogSpot site Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse all officially endorse Joe Biden for President!

I am admittedly only 48 years old, but Joe Biden has been the best President of my lifetime. Bar none. I am proud to endorse him and VP Kamala Harris for a second term.

Also there's something about his opponent being a horrendous piece of shit and human garbage, the worst President of all time, and the biggest traitor in American history.

Re: Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV

This is not a review per se. But this is what I posted on Toon Zone after seeing this documentary about Dan Schneider's abusive and creepy behavior on-set on the shows on Nickelodeon.

Okay, I've seen the first two episodes of the doc. And I warn you it is absolutely 100% triggering, and disturbing on every level. I don't want to discuss those aspects right this second. I need the context of the final two episodes and Drake Bell's story to get into that, but I think I can say something that is the thing that struck me throughout the first two episodes, which is probably something trivial considering all that happened, but it's something I think people really need to think about.

All of the clips they showed from those Nick kidcoms were awful. I'm not just talking about the cringe red flag stuff. Literally all of the comedy is pure unfunny lowbrow garbage made in an era of television where sophisticated humor and witty dialogue were becoming normalized and expected.

The reason the low-quality really stood out for me, is people's lives were ruined, and Dan Schneider had so much power to abuse people, essentially because of trash. It's like if Jerry Springer took over Hollywood and wrote kids shows. The Nick Dare stuff says I'm not exaggerating.

I stayed away from the kidcoms in the 1990's because I was an adult and knew trash when I saw it. But let me just state for the record knowing this, and seeing these clips affirm this, makes every single thread on this site about Nickelodeon's "current decline" piss me off. THIS is your high bar, folks? Really?

And yes, I know you are speaking mostly about cartoons. But the reality is cartoons were always a very small and niche part of Nick's identity, at least until SpongeBob. Nickelodeon's entire output has always been low quality and mostly live-action.

I got into an argument with classic Speedy a couple of months ago about this specific subject and he reminded me that back in the day a LOT of Nick was socially conscious and tried to get kids to play outside, engage with the world, be aware of current events. And yeah, Linda Ellerbee WAS a selling point. But seeing these clips makes me believe that the network's promos favoring healthy activities are an actual rarity. Mostly, Nickelodeon pandered. Every scene on this special proves it.

This network literally made money hurting kids on the set and feeding the kids at home garbage. There is really no defense for it. And I'll do another post after seeing the other two episodes (hopefully somebody else will post after me so I don't double-post) but I wanted to state that I believe a whole bunch of lives and careers were destroyed for pure crap. That's the thing that floors me.

I am not surprised Stanley Kubrick was a perfectionist, a tyrant on set, and made his actors miserable. You can actually tell, and much of the greatness of the art makes it worth it on some sick level. The idea that the creator of All That was that exact same way in defense of poor and unfunny garbage? That's annoying. That's appalling. And yeah, it pisses me off.

Re: Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV, Part 2

My second post on Toon Zone (after having seen the final two parts).

Finally saw the final two episodes. This problem is bigger than Dan Schneider. He's a symptom. He's a horrible symptom, but it is not lost on me that he was one of the few adults supportive of Drake Bell after he was raped by Brian Peck when everybody else supported Peck. That blew my mind. Schneider is horrible and gross. But it's the entire environment, where a guy who repeatedly rapes not just a regular kid but a FAMOUS kid, has a whole bunch of Hollywood defenders, gets a lousy 16 months in prison, and goes right back to working on trashy kidcoms. Where was the outrage? Why did it take so long?

Bell's story is horrifying and I am grateful he declined to go into detail. But when he described telling all the people in court, "How dare you stick up for this criminal?" him saying he hopes these people remember this moment for the rest of their lives is something I hope too.

I don't actually have high opinions about the documentary itself. It seems a bit commercialized, particularly the second part ending on a "cliffhanger" of Drake Bell sitting down for the interview detailing his abuse publicly for the first time ever. But I'll give it this. It has receipt of the people writing letters of support for Peck.

Two hours ago I was a huge fan of both Will Friedle and Kimmy Robertson. I am not anymore. Other people I'm familiar with on that rapist's character witness list are James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Rider Strong, and Taran Killan. Do you know the bitterest thing about Kerns? She supposedly claimed that if she knew then what she knows now she never would have written the letter. And I hope it eats her alive until her dying day. And if she was in that courtroom that day on Peck's side I hope Bell's wish for her and everyone there to remember what side they picked for the rest of their lives comes true. I am disgusted,

I have said this before and I will say it again. If I were the King of America (not the President, somebody who made unilateral decisions and didn't have to answer to anybody else) I would make child acting illegal. I'm not kidding. I believe it should be. I have for years and this doc made that opinion more entrenched than it has ever been.

People are scared of AI taking actors' jobs. I would very much support it taking the job of every single child actor. I am not joking about that.

You can say, "Matt, think of ALL of the storytelling in Hollywood that would be hindered if that happened". And I'll say "Hollywood has had over a hundred years to improve these crappy conditions and they never have." While they decide it's more cost effective to settle lawsuits after the fact instead of hiring a bunch of professionals to keep things safe for kids, I don't freaking care. It needs to be taken out of their hands. I'll go without a new Stranger Things. Stranger Things is not worth this. Absolutely no project in Hollywood with kids in it is worth this. And you can be very glad that I am not King. I would not be dissuaded about this. Ever.

About those red flag cringe kidcom moments. I can't imagine how any of these shows are still allowed reruns on Teen Nick or streaming on Netflix and Paramount+ while it has stuff like that Victorious Backpack scene or the Arianna Grande web blogs. Those aren't funny, they're disturbing as hell. I hate that it took MeToo to take Schneider out. He should have been gone LONG before it.

I'm angry as hell.