"Meanwhile, back at the ranch..." is a catch phrase[1] that appears in a variety of contexts.
For example, it may be employed by narrators of American cowboy movies and TV shows to indicate a segue from one scene to another but there is often more to this than meets the eye.
Later, as the phrase became a cliché, it was used more and more loosely and with a growing sense of mockery or levity, often with a vague focus.
[4] "Meanwhile, back at the ranch" is the title of a children's book by Trinka Hakes Noble;[5] a crime novel by Kinky Friedman;[6] of the first album of the German country band Texas Lightning; and is the root of the name of the English band Meanwhile, back in Communist Russia... (1999-2004).
Contemporary filmmaker John Sturges quoted Hitchcock as saying, "the name of making movies is meanwhile back at the ranch.