Outside of his regular role in “Eight is Enough” and the many commercials he appeared in, Rich also had guest roles in TV shows like “CHiPs,” “Fantasy Island,” and “St Elsewhere,” as well as a supporting role in the feature film “The Devil and Max Devlin,” starring Bill Cosby and Elliot Gould. Rich walked away from acting in the early ’90s, telling Brad Berkwitt, “I was just so burnt out, and I didn’t like being famous at all, and I didn’t like what was coming down the pipe, so I just quit.” He eventually started going in for auditions again years later, but “then, at that point, no one was interested in having me on their show or giving me a job.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Rich said, “I was already kind of in my own pandemic in a way, with my illness, and in a weird way everyone kind of adapted to the way I was already living … So it took a lot of pressure off for me.” In recent years he had found significant, long-term relief from his depression by participating in clinical trials of synthetic psilocybin.
Rich briefly returned to acting to play himself in a cameo role for the 2003 movie “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” alongside other child star actors like Dustin Diamond and Corey Feldman. Though he may now be counted among the long list of child actors who have suffered from addiction and mental health problems, in part due to the pressures of fame, he looked back on his time filming “Eight is Enough” fondly, telling Berkwitt: “It’s nothing but good memories for me.”