Issue date: July 11, 1999

A little Schroder. A little wiser.

Former child star Rick (a k a Ricky) Schroder 's grown-up role on NYPD Blue could earn him a nod in next week's Emmy nominations.

t's the end of another rigorous week on the NYPD Blue set, and Rick Schroder has a stomachache. Not that the actor, a likely Emmy nominee next week, is complaining. In fact, the former child star, now 29, who grew up on TV's Silver Spoons, is in fine spirits.

And why not? A year ago, Schroder was living on his 45,000-acre cattle ranch outside Grand Junction, Colo., with his wife of seven years, Andrea, and their three children, Holden, 7, Luke, 6, and Cambrie, 2. Then the NYPD Blue role came along. "I had no clue," he says of the public stir his casting caused. "It shocked me because I've done four miniseries, including Lonesome Dove, and I don't know how many TV movies. Yet, it seemed like everybody forgot I wasn't 12 anymore."

From child stars to successful show-biz adults: Jodie Foster, 36. 40 commercials by age 8. Elizabeth Taylor, 67. Film debut at age 10. Ben Affleck, 26. PBS series at age 8. Janet Jackson, 33. Good Times at age 11. Helen Hunt, 36. TV movie at age 9. Hayley Mills, 53. Movie debut as an infant. Ron Howard, 45: The Andy Griffith Show at age 6. Brooke Shields, 34: A model at 11 months. Mickey Rooney, 78: In movies by age 6.

Those days are over (and he has nude scenes on NYPD Blue to prove it). Since replacing Jimmy Smits last fall, Schroder has rejuvenated the aging series and his career. Most actors would be lucky to have one signature role in their career. But with his menacing attitude and weathered real-guy looks, Schroder is enjoying a second crack. "I'm being considered for more stuff than ever before," he says.

But he's not rushing into anything. "It took me a long time to get where I'm at right now," he says. "Why blow it?" No sooner did the TV season end than Schroder joined his family for a summer in Colorado with their 400 mother cows, 400 calves, 40 bulls, eight horses and more dogs than he can count. He's eager to spend time in the new 2,500-square-foot log cabin he's built among the aspen and alpine fir high above his main house. "I fit in with the cowboys," he says.

With all this activity in his life, Schroder looks forward to turning 30 next April. "It's exciting, the close of one decade and the opening of another. I feel like the 30s are going to be my best years." Reflecting on the past year, he says, "A lot of people who didn't respect me [before NYPD Blue] may have a different opinion now."

Excerpts from the interview:

Why Colorado? It all started with William Holden, who I did a movie with as a little boy called The Earthling. I was from Staten Island [N.Y.], where I used to play in the woods. But Bill opened my eyes to the wilderness. He was a big-time naturalist. He piqued my interest.

Wasn't it shooting Lonesome Dove that turned you on to the Southwest? I fell in love with the whole idea of living off the land, running cattle, working with your hands. I went to school in Colorado for farmer ranch management, but it didn't work. I'd been educated by a tutor my whole life and didn't have self-discipline. I made three weeks of college. As soon as the first job offer came, I left. I learned about ranching from old cowboys. I never intended to stay. But I fell in love with the ranch so much, eight years went by before I knew it.

What's the real appeal of ranch life? I have a big thing about feeling productive. I love having a list of 32 things to do and I'll be done with it by Thursday. It feels good.

Do the kids have chores? "Pick up your underwear and put them in the hamper." Not ranch chores. They're normal kids: They play Nintendo and like Teletubbies. They watch television; we have over 100 channels. The other day I said to my daughter, "Honey, do you want to go fishing with Daddy?" Then my wife said, "Or shopping with Mommy?" And Cambrie looks at me and goes, "Shopping with Mommy." My boys are fishaholics. You have to pull them away from the streams. It warms my heart because I think things like that are good for their confidence.

What do they know about your acting work? How much have they seen? Very little. They've never seen Silver Spoons or The Champ. That's got to be a mind twist. I don't want to confuse them. Maybe when they're around 10. We've told them I started acting when I was a little boy. And they know that's what I do today. But they know me as the rancher more. My daughter thinks I'm an airline pilot or mechanic. Every Friday when my wife picks me up and every Sunday when she drops me off at the airport, my daughter says, "Daddy go on big airplane."

Do you feel out of step with your generation because you've worked so much longer? When I finished Silver Spoons and I went back to Calabasas High School for senior year, I had a tough time. I didn't know a soul. My socialization skills were stunted. That was actually one of my biggest fears going back to a series: How am I going to do socially with a cast that has been together for five, six years? It turned out fine. I did a lot better than in high school.

How did your parents protect you? My mother was like a lioness protecting her cub from a pack of hyenas. Once, she heard an assistant director yell at me because I was roughhousing in my wardrobe and getting grass stains on my clothes. I remember her telling them, "You'd better get him three changes of clothes, because he's going to play and do what little boys do."

Danny Sorenson [his NYPD Blue cop] seems commitment-phobic. But, like your parents, you married young [23]. Did they set an example for you? Yeah. Andrea's parents have been married 30 years; my parents have been married 30-plus years. That's what I always expected. I always knew I was going to be a dad young. I never liked dating. I never was super-confident in the area of girls.

But you must have had every opportunity ... I never took advantage. I was too shy, too uncomfortable, too much a gentleman - whatever it might have been.

You did get a Porsche at 16. That was a big mistake. My mother indulged me. My father gave in. It turned out OK. I didn't get the Porsche to show off. It was about the brakes and the handling. I love to drive; even now I race around in my 318ti BMW and play Foo Fighters loud.

Is it odd to find yourself the poster child for well-adjusted child stars? It's flattering, but there have been lots of role models: Jodie Foster, Natalie Wood, Kurt Russell. I would look to them and see that it was possible.

How do you feel when you're referred to as a hunk? I find it odd for people to say things like that when they don't know me. It's flattering in a superficial way.

When you met your wife, did you think she was the one and only? I used to think there was one right person in the world for you. Now I realize relationships can be made with many people and they will all be different. I lucked out big time with my wife. I love her more now than I did then.

You're a conservationist, yet you hunt. Is that a contradiction? No. Actually, the original conservationists were all hunters. They were the first people to create regulations governing harvesting and licensing. Theodore Roosevelt, a big hunter, created our national park system. I know a lot of people don't relate to it - and I don't ask them to.

What's the appeal to you? It's not about killing. I can hunt for months without killing. Walking through the forest and hearing elk bugle is the most primeval scream you've ever heard. And there's the birds and the wind and the solitude. It's an overwhelming experience. I can't even comprehend how you would not want to be outdoors and return to a period when life was simple: hunt, food, shelter. The most basic beginnings of man.

Are you religious? Very - if you consider being religious praying every day, sometimes twice. I never went to church. But it's comforting to have somebody to talk to. I can go sit on my ranch for an hour and feel spiritual and pray.

Have you been renewing L.A. friendships? I saw Alfonso [Ribeiro] and Joel Higgins [co-stars on Silver Spoons]. But I'm a loner. If I'm not with family, I'm off in the woods or the movies by myself. I love dramas and war movies like Saving Private Ryan.

Is public attention easier to handle now? Yeah. I'm getting a lot more stares than I have since Silver Spoons. It's like déjà vu.

But you look different ... But I'm not. I'm still all that I was then; I've added to it. I just wanted to work. I didn't want to be one of those kid actors that went away. And I never gave up.

Mark Morrison, West Coast editor of In Style magazine, last wrote for USA WEEKEND about his physical resemblance to President Clinton.

Photo by EJ CAMP for USA WEEKEND