Drake Bell and Josh Peck starred together on the Nickelodeon show for four seasons
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| Josh Peck and Drake Bell on 'Drake & Josh' (left); Josh Peck and Drake Bell recording 'Good Guys' (right). Photo: Nickelodeon; Courtesy of Dear Media / Good Guys |
Drake Bell and Josh Peck, who starred together in hit Nickelodeon comedy series Drake & Josh, are reuniting for the first time since the documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV premiered in spring 2024 on Investigation Discovery/Max to talk about their time on the show, their lives as child stardom and the bombshells the documentary revealed.
In a preview of the March 24 episode of Josh's Good Guys podcast shared by People, which he hosts alongside Ben Soffer, Josh and Bell opened up about their time working together on Drake & Josh and what it was like to be Nickelodeon child stars.
Soffer, 32, and producer Olivia Meade spoke on the podcast about the “completely eye-opening” experience of watching Quiet on Set. Soffer said it “never at all clicked” that Josh and Bell, both 38, were also kids.
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| Drake Bell recording the 'Good Guys' podcast. Courtesy of Dear Media / Good Guys |
“You're not an adult, but you're being treated like an adult and you're with adults,” Soffer said. Meade added, “I can’t imagine losing those formative years, or giving such responsibility and pressure at that age when you are just beginning to figure out bits and pieces of who you are and how you interact with other people.”
Josh said it’s complicated because the show is beloved by fans who grew up watching it but was hard for him to go through. He explained, “You know what the show means to everyone. You know that the moments that were great were great, and we were incredibly lucky to get to do this thing that we loved.”
“But there's also the truth of everything you went through and everything that was an experience for a kid that was unacceptable in so many ways and you’ve got to wrestle with this,” he said. “I remember people would ask me about the show, and I would say, ‘Well, I lost a hundred pounds and had to get sober at 21. Did I seem happy?’ Like, it’s a bit of a sign."
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| LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 17: Actor Josh Peck (L) and Drake Bell (R) attend Drake Bell's album release party for "Ready Steady Go!" at Mixology101 & Planet Dailies on April 17, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic |
Drake & Josh premiered in 2004 and ran for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Bell and Josh played stepbrothers (who shared the same first names as the actors playing them), with Miranda Cosgrove as Drake’s younger sister. Before the show, Josh and Bell also starred together on the network's The Amanda Show alongside Amanda Bynes.
In Quiet on Set, Bell talked about being sexually assaulted by Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck (no relation to Josh) when he was 15. Brian pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 and performing a lewd act with a 14- or 15-year-old in connection with the case. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender. At the time, Bell was not revealed as his victim.
Speaking to People on March 17, Bell revealed that the documentary airing was “a really nice weight lifted.”
“It's a roller coaster of emotions,” he said. “I don't want to sugarcoat it and make the message, ‘Hey, all you got to do is just tell somebody and get your story out and when you wake up the next day, it's going to be gone and everything's going to be fine and you're going to walk through life without any pain or sorrow or sadness!’ It's always going to be there, but it's a lot nicer getting support.”
The new episode of Good Guys premieres Monday, March 24. The second half of Bell’s interview will appear in the Thursday, March 27, episode.
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Originally published: March 22, 2025.
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