Ricky Schroder family all take part in “Our Wild Hearts”

The Ricky Schroder family write, produce, star and even arrange craft food services for original film “Our Wild Hearts.”

Ricky Schroder is a rarity in Hollywood. From the minute audiences set eyes on him in 1979’s The Champ to his continued successes in TV series like Silver Spoons, Lonesome Dove and NYPD Blue, his charming childhood grin and endearing personality have made him easy to love.

I cornered him at a Hallmark Channel party earlier this year, where Schroder beamed with pride over his current passion project — Our Wild Hearts — a movie he wrote, produced and stars in with his entire family. The film debuts on Hallmark Movie Channel Saturday, March 9 at 8pm.

“All my family made an on-camera appearance. I wrote, directed and starred with my daughter [Cambrie],” Schroder says. “I did craft service. I pulled cable. Seriously, I did so much on this movie. After 35 years in the business, I know how to do it all. I literally did my own makeup one day.”

Schroder then introduces his family, which includes his wife of 20 years, Andrea, and their four children, Cambrie (16), Holden (21), Luke (19) and Faith (11, who wasn’t present).

“My daughter and wife came up with the story and they brought it to me, and I wrote the screenplay, and then we decided as a family to make it,” he explains. “As we were making it, Hallmark came onboard as a partner.”

The film follows a wealthy young girl from Malibu (Cambrie) who is reunited with her estranged father (Ricky), and discovers a different world watching her father break wild mustangs for a living in the wilds of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Conflict arises when her father sells the mustang she falls in love with.

Certainly filming a movie with your entire family must be fun and filled with some personal behind-the-scenes stories. Schroder was willing to share one. “There was a huge cow pie on the ground in the morning, steaming hot. One of my kids, I think it was Luke, dared me to dunk my face in it. So I did it. I did it.”

Not expecting that, I ask, “OK, seriously, who does that!?”

“I don’t know. And I got photos of it. That’s really sick, isn’t it? Why did I tell you that? Now you’re going to write about it. They were shocked. But that’s just the way I am. I’m just spontaneous and live in the moment and if I want to put my face in a cow turd, I will, damn it.”

And that, Ricky, is what we love about you.

Watch the Ricky Schroder family in “Our Wild Hearts” on Hallmark Movie Channel March 9 at 8pm.