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(LR) Will Friedle and Rider Strong
David Livingston/FilmMagic
On Monday, the light tone of The capsule meets the world, the podcast that runs through the episodes of the successful comedy full of anecdotes The boy knows the worldgot serious as the hosts and former sitcom stars discussed self-care, child grooming and their friendship with a convicted child molester whom they befriended when he guest-starred on the show.
Podcast hosts Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle were joined on Monday’s episode by family therapist Kati Morton to discuss “the difficult topics of grooming, childhood sexual abuse and its effects on victims.” The trio, who played Topanga Lawrence, Shawn Hunter and Eric Matthews on the ABC sitcom that aired from 1993 to 2000, agreed to be open and honest in their conversation about a person from their past whose name recently came up:The boy knows the world Season 5 guest star Brian Peck.
In 2003, Peck was accused of sexually abusing a child. He was subsequently found guilty of lewd act on a child and oral copulation of a minor under 16 years of age and spent 16 months in prison. Recently, before the issuance of Silent on set, In an upcoming documentary about alleged abuse at Nickelodeon, both Strong and Friedle were contacted for a statement about Peck, a man they had befriended as young actors and who was a charismatic man in his 40s who was suddenly in its orbit.
When Peck joined the The boy knows the world Cast for a two-episode arc, Strong and Friedle were quickly with him on set and off work, every day. Friedle recalled on the podcast how well Peck maneuvered his life.
“I worked a lot after The boy knows the worldand this guy had become so ingrained in my life that I took him to three shows later The boy knows the world”Friedle said. “This was the kind of thing where the person hosting was a cool, fun guy who was really good at his job and who you wanted to hang out with.”
Peck, an out gay man, may have gotten a pass to hang out with actors 20 years his junior because of his sexuality, the hosts speculated as they discussed the fluid attitudes toward the gay community in the mid- to late ’90s and why. The parents throughout the set never commented on these relationships. “There was probably a part of them that didn’t say it because they were afraid it would be taken as homophobia, rather than ‘This is a boundary, whether he’s gay or not.’ This is a boundary between adults and children,’” Fishel said.
The actors also discuss the manipulation tactics they say were used by Peck, who was helping Fishel’s career at the time he was accused of the crimes in 2003. Peck, according to the hosts, turned the situation around on his version, so he was the real victim, they said. They believed him, and even confronted the victim’s family as they supported him in court, they recalled. “My instinct initially was: ‘My friend, this cannot be. It has to be the other person’s fault. The story makes a lot of sense the way it is told,” Friedle revealed.
Both actors wrote letters on their behalf to the judge overseeing Peck’s case, they said. In court, while the young men were sitting in front of the accuser, the victim’s mother called them. “’Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And that doesn’t change what you did to my son,’” Friedle recalled saying.
“There is a real victim here. And he turned us against the victim to where we are now on his team. That is what, for me, I remember as my eternal, loving shame for all of this,” she said. “Being fooled by someone who is a good actor and a manipulator, I could attribute it to being young and that’s just how it is. It is awful.”
The episode closes with the group stating that by having this conversation, they can help even one person realize that they are being manipulated or groomed by a bad actor.