This Ford Lets the ‘Secret’ Out : Television: New NBC reality-based series is hosted by former President’s son, who has firsthand knowledge about the agency.

Although he’s only 36, Steven Ford has had more careers than most people do in a lifetime.

The youngest son of former President Gerald R. Ford and former First Lady Betty Ford has worked as a ranch hand, competed on the rodeo circuit and appeared for more than six years on the CBS daytime soap “The Young and the Restless” as private detective Andy Richards.

Currently, he buys and sells thoroughbred horses and is vice president of a Kentucky racetrack. Starting Sunday, Ford also will be seen as the host of the new NBC reality-based series “Secret Service,” which will air at 7 p.m. opposite CBS’ long-running “60 Minutes.”

Ford is even thinking of testing the political waters.

“As I get older and more tuned in to a community or an area, I see myself getting more involved” in politics, he said during a recent interview in his publicist’s West Hollywood office. “Not that I see myself running for office, but more involved in local issues.”

A moderate Republican “like my dad,” Ford believes that the Republicans will have trouble at the ballot box this fall.

“I think the issue that is really going to hurt the Republican Party is the right-to-life issue,” he said. “I think they have painted themselves into a real corner. You can’t legislate abortion. It is a freedom of choice. It is a family issue.”

Ford said that his association with “Secret Service” is not accidental: His family owes a lot to the agency. Ford was just 19 and working as a ranch hand in Montana in 1975 when, in separate incidents, Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme and Sarah Jane Moore attempted to assassinate his father.

“Truly, what the Secret Service did for us is that they saved my dad’s life twice,” he said. “I hope this show is a good show for them. It shows them in a good light, and I am kind of honored to be the host. I owe these guys a great deal.”

“Secret Service” presents dramatizations inspired by cases from the agency’s files. Ford, who spent 2 1/2 years guarded by 10 Secret Service agents, will provide an introduction to the Secret Service, its history and its function.

Ford, his two older brothers, Mike and Jack, and younger sister, Susan, were totally unprepared for a life in the White House when their father became President in 1974 after Richard M. Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal.

“Our dad was just a congressman for 27 years, and if you live in Washington, D.C., everybody’s dad works for the government,” Ford said. “We grew up just like everyone else. Because it happened so quick, we didn’t have the reason to build up anxiety about living there. If you take the situation with Ronald Reagan and his family, basically for 12 years those kids knew their father was going to be President of the United States. I can’t imagine the anxiety that would cause a child growing up.”

Still, Ford’s entire life changed. He was enrolled to study oceanography at Duke University that fall when his father became President. Three weeks before classes started, Ford said, he realized he wouldn’t feel comfortable attending college packing 10 Secret Service agents complete with machine guns.

“I walked into Dad’s office, which was the Oval Office, and said: ‘I don’t feel I am ready to go to college. I always had a dream about going out West and being a cowboy.’ He just about fell over. I am sure he thought that was the dumbest thing that had ever been said in the Oval Office.”

But both his parents, Ford said, had “the insight and the courage to say all right. I felt it was a very important time in my life to develop like a normal person.”

So Ford took off with his 10 agents and headed to Montana. “They had to adapt to my lifestyle,” Ford said. “They wore boots and hats. It was kind of like ‘City Slickers.’ ”

It was difficult for Ford, though, going out on dates accompanied by the Secret Service.

“First dates are bad enough for a guy,” he said sheepishly. “You have all of these anxieties about are you going to pick the right restaurant or will the conversation be good. I would have to reserve two tables, one for myself and my date, and then you would tell the maitre d’, ‘I would like another table for two, like across the room,’ because you wouldn’t want them right next to you.”

Ford began acting more than 13 years ago when he had two lines as a cowboy extra in the Western “Cattle Annie and Little Britches.” Though Ford admitted he was “pretty awful,” he was bitten by the acting bug and enrolled in acting workshops in Los Angeles.

He signed with the William Morris Agency, which, Ford said, wanted to cash in on his famous name. “They were sending me out on things I was not qualified for,” he said. “I would go into interviews apologizing as I was going in. It was embarrassing, to be honest with you.”

So Ford found a new agent who was willing to send him out on smaller parts. In 1981, he landed a five-line appearance as a bartender on “The Young and the Restless.” Those five lines evolved into a 6 1/2-year stint.

After appearing three years ago as Meg Ryan’s yuppie boyfriend in “When Harry Met Sally. . . ,” Ford came to a crossroad in his acting career. During the ‘80s, he had been operating a company that bought and sold thoroughbred racehorses. One morning, he said, he decided he had to choose between them.

“I said to myself, ‘You know, if they paid me $2 an hour to go to the studio every morning and $2 to go to the backside of the racetrack, where would I go?’ Once I took the money out of it, I said, ‘I know exactly what I am going to do. I am going into the racehorse business.’ ”

Ford, who owns a ranch in San Luis Obispo, took a job as vice president of the Turfway Park racetrack in northern Kentucky.

“I do all TV and radio commercials for them to sell racing,” he said. When the “Secret Service” gig came up, Ford agreed to do it only if it didn’t interfere with his duties at the track. “I just stepped away (from acting),” he said. “It was a great decision.”