Nickelodeon 'abuser' Dan Schneider defends Amanda Bynes relationship and says ... trends now

Dan Schneider has defended his relationship with a teenage Amanda Bynes and revealed he supported her decision to pursue parental emancipation aged 16.

The producer, 58, who has faced numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior  on the set of children's TV shows, spoke out in the wake of documentary Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV - which made shock claims about the 'toxic environment' at the network.

Schneider, who was disturbingly filmed in a hot tub with a then-16-year-old Bynes in 2002, said he helped Bynes after she ran away from home and was 'concerned for her safety' when she decided to leave her parents.

Speaking with former iCarly actor Bobby 'BooG!e' Bowman on his own YouTube account, Schneider said of Bynes' decision: 'She wanted that for herself. We supported her.  

'Amanda was between the ages of 16 and 17 and she wanted to get emancipated from her parents, which was a fairly common thing with successful young actors — at least at the time.

'She wanted that for herself, so she turned to her team, which included her lawyer, her agent, her manager, her publicist, me — because 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.'

Schneider claimed matters came to a head one night when Bynes called him following a row with her parents - which led him to call a person he trusted to take her to the police.

He said: 'One night very late, well after midnight, 1 or 2 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. I was immediately concerned about her safety. 

'I called someone that I knew was fairly nearby. That person was able to go and pick her up. I knew she was safe, I felt better. She ended up being taken to the police.'

Bynes did pursue legal emancipation from her parents Lynn and Rick - but later withdrew the petition. 

The 19-minute video saw Schneider discuss Quiet On Set, released at the weekend, which he said had made him 'face his past behaviors.'

Schneider admitted that had previously overstepped professional boundaries and conceded he owed 'some people a pretty strong apology.'

Schneider, who was previously described as 'Nickelodeon's golden boy,' began by addressing the furor head on as he explained: 'Watching over the past two nights was very difficult. 

'Me facing my past behaviors - some of which are embarrassing and that I regret. I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology.'

Schneider, who began working at the network in 1993, is said to have 'launched the careers of child actors who became major stars' including Miranda Cosgrove, Jamie Lynn Spears and Ariana Grande.

But he was later flooded with allegations before being sued over accusations of gender discrimination, hostile work environment and harassment - many of which were divulged in the new documentary.

It wasted little time in dishing that the period of the 1990s and 2000s 'marked one of the darkest chapters,' writer Scaachi Koul said.

Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen were hired as co-writers for The Amanda Show and split a single salary - as the network got 'two writers for the price of one.'

'It was early on when we first started that Dan said he didn't think women were funny,' Christy said.

'He had fostered this very casual, fun atmosphere but I felt that Dan could be very volatile and could turn any moment. I was scared.'

She said that staff were left feeling 'paranoid and uncomfortable,' concluding: 'Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship.'

Jenny also dished on having a similar experience, sharing that he 'didn't really value women in the writers' room.'

But that was not all because, dishing on the depths of the inappropriate behavior at the channel, she claimed: 'Dan was showing pornography on his computer screen. He asked me several time to massage him in the writers' room and in the studio...

'You always felt like disagreeing with Dan or standing up for yourself could result in getting fired. 

'One of the worst, we were in the writers' room and Christy was talking about high school which is relevant because we are writing for a young girl. 

'And Dan just said: "You know what would be funny? If you leaned over the table and acted like you were being sodomized and told that story about high school."'

Jenny said that Christy had initially said no but Dan kept insisting and 'she couldn't get out of it.'

'So she just leaned over the table and did what he asked her to do. It was upsetting to watch because I knew Christy at this point and I didn't feel at all comfortable complaining to him.'

She concluded: 'It was probably the wrongest thing I have ever seen happen to a woman in a professional environment ever.'

Christy herself declined to talk about the incident but remarked that she felt sorry for her former self as she was just a young woman at the time. 

Ultimately, after quitting her role at the network, Jenny decided to sue Dan because she 'didn't want it to happen to other women in the future.'

'I hired a lawyer and started blowing whistles. My lawyer filed complaints against the production company for gender discrimination, hostile work environment, harassment - and in response they did an internal investigation and they settled.

'But it had a lasting impact on my career... To learn that it didn't stop and that it was all for nothing.'

Former assistant Amy Berg also took to X, formerly Twitter, in recent days to slam Schneider as a 'f***ing a**hole.'

She branded him as a 'psychological tormenter' and a 'manipulator' before claiming his treatment caused her to suffer panic attacks, anxiety, and develop a 'heart arrhythmia.'

Addressing the widespread reports of inappropriate behavior in the writers' room, Schneider said: 'Let me just say no writer should ever feel uncomfortable in any writers' room. Ever. Period. The End. No excuses.

'Most TV writers comedy writers have been in writer rooms and they are aware that a lot of times there a re inappropriate jokes made and inappropriate topics come up.

'But the fact that I participated in that e specially when I was leading the

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