Add Josh Peck, star of Nickelodeon‘s beloved sitcom “Drake & Josh,” to the lengthy record of people that owe Oprah Winfrey an apology.
On a current episode of the “Syd & Olivia Speak Sh*t” podcast, Peck addressed a scene from a season 4 episode of the sitcom the place his character, Josh Nichols, together with the OWN founder’s shut encounter.
Peck admitted that the community did not ask Winfrey for permission to make use of her likeness within the episode, titled “Josh Runs Into Oprah.”
“I don’t know. I do know we don’t have her permission. 100% we don’t,” Peck informed the hosts, comedy writers Sydney Heller and Olivia DeLaurentis, when requested how Nickelodeon acquired away with the scene.
He then recalled reluctantly filming the scene with a “non-sanctioned” stunt double.
“She was a stunt woman, as a result of she needed to do the roll over the automobile. I used to be like, ‘Oprah goes to return after you. She’s highly effective,’” he recalled.
The now-classic 2006 episode was the season premiere of the sitcom’s last season. Peck’s character, who is continually teased for practising interviews on the cardboard cutout of Winfrey that he has in his room, takes his super-fandom to a different stage, which lands him and his stepbrother, Drake Parker (Drake Bell), in her studio parking zone.
After the wild antics unfold, Josh crashes into the Oprah look-alike’s path with a shifting object. The chaotic scene ends with Josh being issued a restraining order by his idol.
Peck stays in disbelief that the scene made it onto the screens.
“To today, I’m amazed it made it previous the script stage. It’s simply insane, the entire plot facilities on me hitting Oprah, and one way or the other that was fantastic,” he stated.
Regardless of the scene not being his concept, the 37-year-old actor issued his formal apology to Winfrey through the podcast. “I’m so sorry I brutalized you with my car, with my Honda Accord, or no matter it was.”
Whatever the questionable scene, Peck isn’t oblivious to the fandom nonetheless hooked up to the slapstick sitcom that topped Nickelodeon’s scores for 4 years.
“It was such a wild idea, even by early 2000s sitcom requirements,” he said. “However I feel that’s what made it so memorable. We had been doing slapstick comedy, and it simply went there full-on.” With fun, he mirrored on the truth that the scene stays related to followers. “It’s bizarre how a lot that scene nonetheless circulates. I’ll randomly get tagged in memes …”
As highly effective as Winfrey is, she can also have a humorousness, as evidenced by her by no means retaliating in opposition to the community or any of the actors within the sitcom.
Revealing the community’s failure to ask the previous discuss present host about making her the butt of the episode’s joke isn’t the one secret that has been revealed in regards to the child’s community.
Peck’s longtime co-star and good friend, Bell, was on the forefront of the scandals that fueled the 2024 docuseries “Quiet On Set.” The five-part documentary tv that particulars the poisonous behind-the-scenes world of kids’s tv packages from the Nineteen Nineties to the 2000s, some by the hands of the present’s dialogue coach, Brian Peck (who has no relation to Josh Peck).
After the docuseries uncovered the darkish aspect of the youngsters’s community, particularly relating to his co-star, Peck posted an Instagram submit in response to his emotions.
“Youngsters needs to be protected. Reliving this publicly is extremely troublesome, however I hope it might probably carry therapeutic for the victims and their households in addition to essential change to our business,” he wrote.
Regardless of the submit, followers criticized Peck for not talking out in protection of Bell extra. Shortly after, Bell posted a TikTok video, asking followers to take it straightforward on Peck. He, too, stated he was “processing” every part and acknowledged that it was a really “troublesome” time, and that his former co-star had reached out to him.
“So not every part is put out to the general public. … However he has reached out to speak with me and assist me work via this and it’s been actually, actually nice.”
