the secret formula Ingredients for success

In the land of Dan Schneider’s Bakery, here are several Ingredients for Success we could sneak out with, after cornering the creator, his stars and his colleagues:

It’s acting, not drama: As a veteran of some unpleasant sets while a young actor, Schneider has a rule: “There’s no drama on set, even if the show is a drama.” Jerry Trainor, the physically gifted actor (think a 30ish Jim Carrey) who plays Carly’s elder brother/quasi-guardian, concurs. “It’s so much fun on the set,” he says. For setting the mood, having experience as an actor “is a massive help,” says Schneider, who in the mid-’80s co-starred on the high-school sitcom “Head of the Class” with Howard Hesseman and Robin Givens. Cosgrove, 16, who has known Schneider roughly half her life, says “It helps a lot that Dan is an actor — he helps people get the point of the scene across. He’ll come over and have five ways to do it and make the scene 20 times funnier.”

Don’t talk down to the kids: Schneider has a knack for talking to them, not at them. “He knows what kids like,” Cosgrove says. “It’s really difficult — it’s harder than people think: to make kids laugh but not insult them. He’s really good at that.” Adds the “iCarly” star: “He’ll even put in things (in scripts) that we say or tell him.”

An uncanny eye for talent: Schneider discovered Cosgrove when she was 8 and soon cast her in “Drake & Josh” (at about the same time, she appeared in the Jack Black comedy “The School of Rock”). He cast Victoria Justice in the Emmy-nominated “Zoey 101” when she was barely a teenager, the actress says. Now, Schneider is convinced Justice is poised to be a breakout performer. “I see a mega-superstar waiting to explode — she’s a rare combination of funny and pretty,” enthuses Schneider.

Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty: “The core of Dan the person is that he is loyal, and he looks (for ways) to use people he likes,” says Trainor, whom Schneider first cast in “Drake & Josh.” “He’s got that memory.” Shortly after “Drake & Josh” ended, Trainor was working in the ticket office at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles when his old boss called. “I got an e-mail from Dan directly,” Trainor recalls. “It was like: ‘So it’s Miranda’s show, there’s a big-brother role, whaddya think?’ And I thought: ‘Do you know where I am right now?’ ”

Work ’round the clock: As he embarks on his eighth straight show, Schneider does admit to one downside: He feels like “an engine that never gets a chance to relax,” and says he works 100 hours a week.

Embrace your techno toys: After high school, Schneider — a Memphis native who briefly attended Harvard and then Memphis State University — worked at a computer store in the ’80s, repairing early Apple computers. Pursuing geekdom has served him well. “I love the Web in a big way,” says Schneider, who on set looks like a grown-up video-gamer, as he nearly simultaneously types script notes on a laptop, eyes the camera angles during takes and posts Twitpics. Schneider first tried to give a character a Web show about a decade ago, with “The Amanda Show.” “It was really revolutionary,” he says — but he was too far ahead of the curve. (At about this same time, we should note, Schneider’s wife-to-be was an executive at Nickelodeon’s Web site.) With “iCarly,” the timing dovetailed perfectly. Many of the “iCarly” actors are big into Twitter, but as with “iCarly’s” real Web-site-within-a-Web-show, Schneider uses it as tool to interact with viewers. He now has 15,000 followers.

Find that funny word: As a writer, Schneider can offer a mini-thesis on why “banana” is funnier than “apple.” For one episode, “I made up the word ‘hobknocker,’ ” recounts Schneider, citing a coinage that meant nothing more inappropriate than “fool,” “moron” or “nub.” “Within days, if you went on UrbanDictionary.com,” he says, “you could find all these alternate meanings that aren’t accurate because I ‘invented’ the word.”