Mary Robertson: Last News

Elon Musk is nearing a deal to buy Twitter, a television documentary about the polarizing businessman has been announced to premiere this May.Titled “Elon Musk’s Crash Course,” the upcoming film is the latest in FX and The New York Times’ collaborative documentary series “The New York Times Presents,” which provides in depth looks at prominent people and events, ranging from Janet Jackson to Juul to the 2020 Australian bushfire disasters. The series is best known for its two in-depth films about Britney Spears, “Framing Britney Spears” and “Controlling Britney Spears,” which helped contribute to the eventual end of the singer’s conservatorship.Directed by Emma Schwartz, “Elon Musk’s Crash Course” is an exposé into Musk’s company Tesla, and its work on self-driving cars.

EXCLUSIVE: Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander, two high-profile real-estate agents and their brother, were recently charged with sex trafficking after being accused of working together to “repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault, and rape dozens of victims, according to federal prosecutors.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that former Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider can proceed with his defamation lawsuit over claims made in Investigation Discovery’s Quiet On Set limited series.

Prime Video has orderd four-part docuseries Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story, about the popular Lisa Frank brand. Directed by Arianna LaPenne, the series comes from Sony Pictures Television’s Maxine Productions (Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV). It will stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Per the description, Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story “penetrates the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Behind the rainbows and psychedelic illustrations, we unravel a nostalgia-soaked, stranger-than-fiction tale that takes us into the hidden world that has been lurking at the heart of the company for decades.”

Selome Hailu Amazon Prime Video has ordered a docuseries about the popular Lisa Frank brand titled “Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story.” According to its official description, “Glitter and Greed” will examine “the neon-hued world of Lisa Frank Inc., a brand that defined girlhood for a generation of Americans only to seemingly disappear overnight. Behind the rainbows and psychedelic illustrations, we unravel a nostalgia-soaked, stranger-than-fiction tale that takes us into the hidden world that has been lurking at the heart of the company for decades.” The four-part series features over twenty interviews with insiders and enthusiasts of Lisa Frank Inc., along with multiple journalists.

Jack Dunn Morgan Neville, the director of “Steve! (Martin): A Documentary in Two Pieces,” always loved movies and writing as a child, but when he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, he was unsure what to do with his interests. He thought “writing seemed serious” and “movies were too frivolous” to get into show business, but once he started his first documentary, “Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost L.A.,” he knew he found his lifelong passion.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV may have exposed the ugly underbelly of ’90s kids TV, but good things have come from the documentary series that’s up for Best Documentary at this year’s Emmy Awards.

The creators of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV say they’re open to making a follow up to the series, which scored two Emmy Nominations today, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.

CBS Chief George Cheeks on Paramount Global uncertainty and the future of Broadcast TV, a deep dive into the beloved reality TV series “Traitors,” a conversation about the 80th anniversary of D-Day with the “Masters of the Air” creators and a surprise “White Collar” reboot announcement. Check out a few of the conversations below: As part of the Variety TV FYC Fest, Dakota Fanning (“Ripley”), Jennifer Jason Leigh (‘Fargo”), Ricky Martin (“Palm Royale”), Lewis Pullman (“Outer Range”), Lisa Ann Walter (“Abbot Elementary”) and Greta Lee (“The Moring Show”) joined Variety senior TV features editor Emily Longeretta to discuss their supporting roles on some of this year’s hottest television shows.

Embattled producer Dan Schneider is fighting back against Quiet on Set, Investigation Discovery’s explosive limited series that promised to delve into the toxic and dangerous culture behind some of the most iconic kids’ television shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

A few years ago, filmmakers Emma Schwartz and Mary Robertson remember taking note of video compilations from old Dan Schneider series that showed children and young teens “enacting scenes that are arguably sexual in nature.”

Some participants of Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV are calling out producers of the docuseries for not being more transparent about the project being made for Investigation Discovery.

If there was an upside to doing Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake Bell said it would be the strangers who have approached him with gratitude before sharing their own sad tales of abuse.

This post contains details from the first four episodes of ID’s documentary series Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.

Jack Dunn If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. After years of development by directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” aired on ID this week, with episodes now available to stream on Max.

Emily Longeretta For the first time, the so-called toxic environment at the cable channel Nickelodeon in the late ’90s and early aughts is being exposed on screen, in ID’s “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” docuseries. For years, directors Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz worked to make sources comfortable with the idea of talking about their experiences, sharing allegations of abuse, sexism, racism and inappropriate dynamics on sets — mostly under creator Dan Schneider.

EXCLUSIVE: Verve has hired Jacy Schleier as an agent in the Non-Fiction team, led by Partner Andy Stabile. Schleier was most recently an agent, Non-Fiction Television, Talent & IP at CAA.

Nickelodeon kiddie TV titan Dan Schneider.“Quiet on Set,” a four-part docuseries, investigates Schneider, who created Nickelodeon hits including “The Amanda Show, “Drake & Josh,” Zoey 101″ and “iCarly, ” which launched the likes of Amanda Bynes, Jamie Lynn Spears, Victoria Justice and Miranda Cosgrove into stardom.Schneider, a former child actor, was dropped by Nickelodeon in 2018 after a 25-year relationship following an investigation into his alleged abusive behavior towards people with whom he worked on the set.“‘Quiet on Set’ pulls back the curtain on an empire, built by creator Dan Schneider, that had an undeniable grip on popular culture,” ID said in press materials for the documentary.“Series such as ‘All That’ and ‘The Amanda Show,’ among others, were obsessively consumed by children across the country and defined comedy for a generation. “But behind the upbeat onscreen presence on these shows with questionable jokes and over-the-top sketches, ‘Quiet on Set’ reveals an insidious environment rife with allegations of abuse, sexism, racism and inappropriate dynamics with its underage stars and crew.”The documentary is directed by Mary Robertson and Emma Schwartz.“Working for Dan was like being in an abusive relationship,” a former employee who is not named claims in the trailer, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

BreAnna Bell Sony Pictures Television’s nonfiction group is expanding. Eli Holzman, Sony’s President of Nonfiction Entertainment and co-president Aaron Saidman have revealed Gena McCarthy’s Unconventional Entertainment has signed an overall deal with SPT. As part of the agreement, Unconventional will develop, sell, and produce original formats in core genres including relationships, home, food, survival, Americana, competition, and crime, with SPT providing all associated production services. Known for her extensive resume which includes several long-running franchises like “Married at First Sight” and “Project Runway,” McCarthy has held senior positions at Discovery, TLC, We TV, Lifetime, and FYI.

Sony Pictures Television is adding to its roster of non-scripted production companies.

FX’s The New York Times Presents has set its latest documentary feature, centered on controversial Tesla CEO Elon Musk.