Disney’s Doctor Odyssey In Distress Over Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Contributing Author: Nicole Page

The Walt Disney Company’s Doctor Odyssey premiered on ABC in the fall of 2024, with a star-studded cast featuring Dawson’s Creek’s Joshua Jackson, Hamilton’s Phillipa Anne Soo, and Skins’ Sean Teale. While the series started off as one of the channel’s top-rated shows, recent allegations of sexual harassment, wrongful termination, and retaliation from cast members may pose a threat to a second season.

Sailing into the Courtroom

On May 30, 2025, three members of the production’s prop department, Caroline Mack, Alicia Haverland, and Ava Steinbrenner filed a lawsuit against Disney and 20th Century Studios. The suit alleges sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and negligent hiring, supervision, and retention.

According to the complaint, Tyler Patton, hired as a prop assistant and married to Prop Master Tammie Patton, was brought on despite prior knowledge of sexual harassment allegations against him on the set of Fox’s House. While employed at Doctor Odyssey, Mr. Patton allegedly subjected the Plaintiffs to repeated instances of “sexual jokes, innuendos, comments, sexual gestures and images, and unwanted touching,” from both Mr. Patton and his friends. When Mr. Patton was asked to stop, the victims were met with laughter and escalation of the sexual commentary. Mr. Patton was aware of his misconduct and position of power over his subordinates, verbally exclaiming, “If I wasn’t fucking the boss, I’d be fired” after one instance in which he showed Ms. Haverland a sexually explicit image. Ms. Patton witnessed some of these events firsthand, yet no action was taken until over two weeks after formal complaints were filed against Mr. Patton.

Following her husband’s termination, Ms. Patton allegedly retaliated against the Plaintiffs by screaming, assigning demeaning tasks, and threatening termination of employment, among other things. Instead of providing assistance, the plaintiffs allege that HR repeatedly undermined their concerns. In one cited instance, despite their requests for confidentiality and over the plaintiffs’ objections, Ms. Patton was invited to a meeting to address her own conduct. When they complained, the plaintiffs were purportedly told “[T]

ough luck, she has to be present.”

In a written statement to Forbes’ Legal Entertainment channel, legal representatives of the Plaintiffs have noted, “As detailed in their complaint, our clients suffered severe and troubling sex-based harassment while working in the Doctor Odyssey props department. The companies that made and profited from Doctor Odyssey failed to prevent this egregious conduct and instead fostered a culture and workplace that allowed it to happen.”

On August 31, 2024, the entire prop department was notified their jobs were terminated with the exception of Don Bracken, Mr. Patton’s friend and replacement. Directly after the so-called “lay-offs” the production “hired a whole new set of employees to replace the Plaintiffs and other Props Department employees for the Doctor Odyssey Season 1 project.” The lawsuit alleges that the layoffs are believed to have been orchestrated in retaliation for the complaints.

Legal representatives of the Plaintiffs continued to write, “When our clients took the difficult step of raising these issues with Defendants’ human resources personnel, Defendants decided the “show must go on” at all costs and with conscious disregard for our clients’ well-being and careers. Instead of remedying the issues, Defendants took the easy route by summarily “laying off” our clients and others in the props department and then replacing them shortly thereafter.”

“We look forward to presenting Defendants’ misconduct to a jury and obtaining justice for Ms. Mack, Ms. Haverland, and Ms. Steinbrenner,” said the aforementioned legal representatives. At this time, the Defendants have not filed a counterclaim. Forbes has reached out to both parties for comments.

Employees Are More Than Props

The Plaintiffs’ accounts outline a consistent pattern of misconduct, indifference of management, and institutional retaliation which was apparently implemented against multiple employees after they complained about sexual harassment. Movie sets, although perhaps more glamorous than offices, factories, or any other run-of-the-mill workplaces, are governed by the same employment laws and must provide the same employee protections as any other workplace. If instead of addressing employee complaints about sexual harassment, Disney’s response was to fire the employees voicing the complaints, that would certainly constitute retaliation. According to the facts alleged, Disney went even further and also fired everyone else in the prop department who may have been subjected to or at least witnessed the complaints about behavior. That is an unusual and seemingly extreme move for an employer to make. It is not clear what motivated that action, although the Plaintiffs posit it was done in an effort to avoid additional complaints about the workplace environment.

Above all, what seems especially egregious to me is that Disney may have known that Patton had prior harassment complaints made against him on other productions but hired him anyway. We are no longer in a peak #MeToo world, which makes it even harder for people who suffer harassment at work to speak up. Disney’s response and what happens next in this litigation will be telling, not only about this case, but about whether we can expect to see a backslide to the time when men routinely got away with sexually harassing female employees and studios looked the other way. Let’s hope that’s not the case.

Nicole Page is the Head of the Media and Entertainment practice and Partner at Reavis Page Jump LLP, where she represents film, television and podcast clients in connection with issues ranging from financing, rights acquisition, production, talent and distribution agreements, exploitation of ancillary rights, content licensing, fair use and clearance issues and an array of related matters. She also represents creative talent, athletes, and authors in their various endeavors and negotiates executive compensation deals for top talent at leading entertainment companies.