RickySchroder

It was brutal.

It was hard as hell.

It was hard, because - can you imagine being Gary Coleman, who was on DIFF'RENT STROKES, who was a friend of mine, being one of the most famous kid actors ever, and then your career going away, and you're trying to make a living as a security guard, and everyone knows you still, it's almost like a mean joke, that position - to have been as famous as Gary, and then to transition into an adult life.

So it's always been a fear of mine, to have been famous and worked and done things that you liked to do your whole life - you don't remember a time before work - and then to not be able to do it is a fear.

And I'm just thankful that I'm still able to contribute, and that people still want to watch what I do.

The fan letters really did reach me. My aunt and my cousins managed my fan club when I was a kid, and they would open up and read every letter, and they would get me the ones they thought I needed to see. So all the letters got looked at and read. As far as the ideas for those contests, that was the editors of the magazines would come up with those giveaway contests. I remember once I had a girl who was a Make-A-Wish girl, she was terminal, and her wish was to have dinner with me. And so I was like 15 years old, and this girl - pretty heavy dinner- a dinner with a girl my age who doesn't have long to live, and who's in pain and discomfort. She was very shy, and wouldn't talk at all, and so it was a very challenging experience for a 15 year old, you know? I wasn't quite prepared or equipped to deal with that kind of thing. But that's what happens with those kinds of things. You don't want to say no to somebody's wish, but at the same time, it doesn't always end up as happy and relaxed as you might imagine it would.

Sorry you're having those problems. I can relate in a very small way to some of that, I think. But other soldiers that have seen it have gotten some comfort from it. And one of the benefits of The Fighting Season is if you don't want to talk about your deployment or experiences, other soldiers have told me that they show The Fighting Season to their family or wives or friends, and that helps those people around the soldiers understand what it's like without having to sit down and talk.

So maybe if you can't watch it, then perhaps people around you could watch it, and they will have more insight into your challenge or struggle.

Goodness! LONESOME DOVE was a great time. I had a blast making it. I actually almost stepped on a six-foot rattlesnake, I actually shot it myself, and I had it made into a pair of boots, Tony Llama boots, and they didn't fit me when they were done, so I gave them to my dad!

I learned how to make a Javelina Barbecue - Javelina is a wild pig, so you make a hole in the ground, with hot coals, and dig it up a day later. I never saw a real true argument between an actor and a director before, and Robert Duvall, he's a friend of mine, but he didn't particularly like the director Simon. And I thought Simon was going to quit, but he ended up toughing it out.

I wasn't on that show?