On Monday’s (February 19th) episode of the Pod Meets World podcast, former Boy Meets World costars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle talked at length about their friendship with Brian Peck—who guest starred on the fifth season of the show. Peck was convicted of sexually abusing a Nickelodeon child actor in 2004 and subsequently spent 16 months in prison. The forthcoming docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV highlights his case among others.
Friedle explained how Peck “ingratiated himself into” his life by presenting as “this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with.” He added that he “hung out with him every day” and “talked to him every day,” despite their 20-year age gap.
The Trojan War actor also shared that Peck called him crying when he was first accused of sexual abuse in 2003, saying that he was “instantly spinning it to where it wasn’t his fault, it was clearly the fault of his victim.” Friedle added that he believed Peck at the time—so much so that Strong and Friedle even agreed to support Peck in court.
“We’re sitting in that courtroom on the wrong side of everything … The victim’s mother turned and said, ‘Look at all the famous people you brought with you. And it doesn’t change what you did to my kid,'” Friedle said. “I just sat there wanting to die. It was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ It was horrifying all the way around.”
