Oct 20, 2017

New Accusation: Nickelodeon "Loud House" Creator Allegedly Offered to Produce Animation in Exchange for Sexual Favors

One of Chris Savino's accusers released to Cartoon Brew a letter she submitted to Nickelodeon during Nickelodeon's internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against the "Loud House" creator.

This person was not among the large number of women who made the initial accusations against Savino, for which he was suspended from Nickelodeon Animation and fired yesterday. Rather, this person came forward during Nick's investigation, as did "Bojack Horseman" director Anne Walker Farrell.

The accuser requested anonymity, which Cartoon Brew granted. However, the person's identity is known to both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Brew. The letter was edited for clarity by Cartoon Brew, re-edited by Savino's accuser, and approved for publication.

I warn you that the details of this letter are very disturbing and may annoy some readers.

I have suffered the same pain as the other women in the Chris Savino case. I am a professional artist and I work in animation. I also worked for Disney Publishing and visited LA several times. I met him when he was directing a show called "Kick Butowski" on the Disney Channel.

He was very nice to me the first time. Then he got my cell phone number and kept in touch with me. I was 22 years old at the time. One night he drunkenly texted me and told me to get him a drink, gave me a recipe, and we started having fun conversations. Then he sent me alien emojis and splash emojis and asked for nude pictures. Another night, he sent me pictures of his penis and told me dirty secrets about how he masturbated.

He then proceeded to harass me for years, making me feel very uncomfortable because he said he had an open relationship with his wife. One day I went back to Disney to visit a dear friend. Chris looked at me and yelled at me why I didn't tell him I was at the studio (he showed jealousy at the situation). Years later, I visited Nickelodeon to have lunch with one of my friends. When he found out I was in town, he started texting me again asking why I wasn't visiting him, which was very annoying and aggressive. He also invited me to "hook up" with him before I left Los Angeles and offered me freelance work if I would do something inappropriate with him

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I had the opportunity to work for Nickelodeon a long time ago, but I did not take the job because I knew he was inside the studio. We should never again allow anyone to do this to a place where there are so many women trying to get ahead in this industry!

The nature of these allegations raises some very important issues that Nickelodeon's firing of Chris Savino alone does not address:

1. These accusations, like Walker Farrell's accusations, date back to long before "The Loud House" was taken up as a series dating back to long before it was taken up, and illustrate the long predatory history that led up to the production of this series. Either no one in Nickelodeon's management was aware of this when the series was picked up, or during the last three years of production, or they were blind to the extensive and longstanding rumors about Savino's behavior -

2. The Loud House is based on Savino's life directly modeled on the series; when Nickelodeon picked up the series in 2014, they said they were "inspired by Savino's chaotic life growing up in a large family." What message does Nickelodeon's continued airing of a children's show inspired by the life of a serial sexual predator send to its viewers -

3. Nickelodeon has been working with Chris Savino to ensure that the series and its ancillary revenue streams such as licensing and merchandising What steps will Nickelodeon take in the short term to ensure that Chris Savino does not continue to profit from this series and its ancillary revenue sources such as licensing and merchandising -