Kriti Mehrotra
When Christy Stratton and Jenny Kilgen landed a spot in the writer’s room of Nickelodeon’s ‘The Amanda Show’ in 1999, it was a dream come true for them in every way, shape, and form. However, as carefully explored in ID’s ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,’ things changed the minute they actually started working under then-renowned creator-producer Dan Schneider. It turns out they were the only two women writers in this brand-new production and thus the only ones sharing a salary before also being bullied, disregarded, or made fun of almost daily.
Christy Stratton Has Since Moved on in the Industry
It was following season one itself that Christy was fired from the sketch comedy series as a result of doing personal things in her free time instead of always standing by on-call for work. These activities reportedly included attending a concert as well as hosting friends at her home, but she was apparently not even allowed to do that – she had to be readily available at all times. However, the worst part for her wasn’t the fact her dreams of making it big in Hollywood were crashed through this; it was her actual experiences during the 8 episodes she stayed on.
That’s because “working for Dan [Schneider] was like being in an abusive relationship,” Christy herself conceded in the first episode of the aforementioned ID documentary series. He actually told them he didn’t think women were funny or capable of writing comedy, and then he went on to play jokes and pranks – some were harmless, but others were simply cruel. He goaded her to shout “I am an Idiot” and “S**t” in the office, bet $300 she couldn’t eat 2 pints of ice cream and then not pay her a penny, and even asked her to act out being sodomized while telling a story about a high school experience. If she refused or tried to stand up to him, she was ostracised.
Thankfully though, Christy soon managed to land ‘Being Ozzy Osbourne,’ which then helped her contribute to ‘Three Sisters’ before she landed stable writing jobs at several other incredible shows. Wheather it be ‘King of the Hill,’ ‘Awkward,’ ‘Modern Family,’ Bless the Harts,’ and ‘The Runt,’ she had a signficant hand in them all. Moreover, she has since evolved into an actress, director, plus producer, too, with additional credits in ‘Hope & Faith,’ ‘Raising Hope,’ ‘Everyone’s Crazy But Us,’ ‘Bless the Harts,’ ‘Freeridge,’ and much more. She has actually directed the soon to be released comedy short film, ‘The Runt.’
Jenny Kilgen is Still a Proud Writer
Although Jenny’s experience while on ‘The Amanda Show’ was different than Christy’s, she concedes it was just as traumatizing owing to the simple fact she was made to believe she’d never make it in Hollywood. Not only did she see everything that was happening to her co-worker and friend, but when she learned that splitting her salary was against WGA rules and tried to get it sorted, she was told by Dan that if he found out she had gone against him, she wouldn’t work for Nickelodeon or Viacom ever again. Nevertheless, she was still offered a 16-week contract for season two of the show, only to then be told she’d need to work 11 weeks without pay as there weren’t enough funds.
Jenny still agreed, yet she lasted only four days – her last straw was Dan having a meeting in his office with all the male writers before calling her in to pitch her idea, just to reportedly interrupt her to say, “Didn’t you used to do phone sex?” That’s when she quit and filed a gender discrimination and hostile workplace claim by suing him, which was then settled out of court for an undisclosed amount following an internal investigation. She had a letter from Christy backing her claims, too, yet no action was taken against Dan at that point, inadvertently driving her to step away from the industry.
However, that’s not to say Jenny has given up writing – she still writes but in a different manner; she’s now a proud author with two published books under her belt and a third seemingly on the way. She co-wrote ‘Amanda Please’ back in 2000 before releasing ‘The Terrible Timing of Candy Cane Cray’ in 2021. Now, this word and music enthusiast is perfecting another one of her original words, titled ‘Three on a Match.’
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