Despite good reviews, the film was a financial disappointment for MGM upon release in 1975, but it has since developed a significant cult following from midnight showings and college campus screenings.

[citation needed] In 1933, Lewis Tater, an aspiring novelist who harbors dreams of becoming the next Zane Grey, decides to leave his family home in Iowa to go to the University of Titan in Nevada so he can soak up the western atmosphere.

He arrives to find that there is no university, only a mail order correspondence course scam run by two crooks out of the local hotel.

After applying for work at Tumbleweed, he is referred by crusty old extra Howard Pike to the Rio, a western-themed restaurant.

Roger Ebert called it "a lovely little comedy, a movie to feel fond of" and that Bridges "brings a nice complexity to the role".