The outfit that Peter (G.W. Bailey) wears is an homage to Smiley Burnette, who was the "sidekick" for Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Charles Starrett in most of the western movies made in the 1940s and 1950s. He always wore a checkered shirt and a black hat with the brim turned up in front. He also rode a white horse with a black ring around one eye.
Hugh Wilson got the idea for this film while working on the series he created, WKRP in Cincinnati (1978). That show was shot on the CBS lot in Studio City, California. Before CBS bought it, it belonged to Republic Pictures, the studio that produced hundreds of low-budget westerns, exactly like the kind being spoofed in this film. Both Republic's library and its former lot became properties of ViacomCBS upon its 2019 formation, with the former being part of the library of Paramount, the distributor of "Rustler's Rhapsody". ViacomCBS has since announced it will sell CBS Studio Center to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management.
This was the first movie that director Hugh Wilson directed after his box-office smash Police Academy (1984). A few crew members from that cop comedy worked on this one as well as Brant von Hoffman (Jim) and G.W. Bailey (Peter). Rustlers' Rhapsody (1985) was filmed at the same time as Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) which explains their absence in that movie.
This movie features a window-boxed black-and-white opening sequence, which was a re-creation of an old western. It then segues into color with the narrator saying: "I wonder what one of these movies would look like today?".
Rex O'Herlihan's (Tom Berenger's) wardrobe consisted of ten-gallon hats, a dozen pairs of silver-tipped shoes, and fourteen designer cowboy suits.
Patrick Wayne: The son of John "The Duke" Wayne as Bob Barber, who, according to a review by Vincent Canby published on 10th May 1985 in 'The New York Times' newspaper, appears in the briefest of performances ''as the hired gun brought in by Mr. Griffith and Mr. Rey to rid Oakwood Estates of Rex O'Herlihan.''