A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Have gun, no memory, will travel.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 6, 2024

A short-lived Western show that began and ended during the influential run of The Fugitive, MGM Television's A Man Called Shenandoah lasted just 34 episodes and featured a wealth of (mostly pre-fame) guest appearances. Starring Robert Horton a few years removed from his lengthy stint on Wagon Train, the show's slowly unfolding narrative and relatively breezy 30-minute format combined to create watchable but not wholly original small-screen entertainment, although A Man Called Shenandoah almost plays better these days due its relative obscurity among all but the genre's most seasoned enthusiasts. They'll of course remember Warner Archive's own Complete Series DVD set back in 2018, but now the boutique label rides again with this fully remastered (and bargain-priced!) Blu-ray package.

"That'll be a dollar an episode."

A Man Called Shenandoah's title character (Horton) hasn't been wrongfully accused of murder or sentenced to death like The Fugitive's Dr. Richard Kimble, but is similarly a desperate man searching for the truth. Its pilot episode "The Onslaught" -- written by the Peabody award-winning writer E. Jack Neuman, who also created the series -- establishes its long-form narrative in less than a half hour, introducing Horton's character as an unnamed man cornered by outlaws who's briefly escapes but is later shot and left for dead in the desert. Rescued by a group of men hoping that a reward is in order, this mysterious man is cared for by the closest town's doctor and given the name "Shenandoah" when it's discovered he has no memory. From there on out, Shenandoah is a man on mission to discover clues about his past, traveling from town to town in search of something, anything, including people who might recognize him.

Robert Horton reportedly swore off Western-themed entertainment after Wagon Train but believed that A Man Called Shenandoah was special... and despite a few minor speed bumps during this 34-episode series, it certainly still holds its own even almost 60 years later. He's quite good in the role; a little stiff and maybe a few years too old, but eventually fits the title character like a glove. (He made other contributions to the series as well, including his vocal performance of the title song, for which he wrote the lyrics.) Western-themed shows never totally disappeared from TV but were clearly on a gradual decline by the mid-1960s... so while A Man Called Shenandoah can't really be called one of the last of its kind, the series' slightly contemporary elements and occasional detours showed that it was almost trying to break free of its own genre's tight boundaries. It doesn't fully succeed in that respect and its abbreviated run doesn't achieve total narrative closure, but in hindsight that's part of A Man Called Shenandoah's slightly offbeat charm.

Horton's performance carries its own weight as we learn more and more about his character, while the rotating cast (see below) mostly puts in great work and the majority of scripts present occasionally darker and more adult fare than was commonplace on television Westerns during that era. (A Man Called Shenandoah is still a far cry from the bloody, highly stylized, and substantially more downbeat content seen in subsequent decades, yet it can certainly be seen as an appreciated stepping stone away from tamer territory.) It's also a pretty good candidate for marathon viewing, as the unavoidably serialized nature of Shenandoah's overall narrative holds up during back-to-back sessions.

The "rotating cast" mentioned above was done so with good reason: Horton is front and center every episode, only three actors appear in two episodes, and the rest can be regarded as guest stars. While not exactly unique in this regard, A Man Called Shenandoah manages to serve up a surprisingly wide variety of established names and soon-to-be-stars during this 34 episode run including Ed Asner, Bruce Dern, Leif Erickson (no, not that one), Beverly Garland, (Harry) Dean Stanton, DeForest Kelley, George Kennedy, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, Leonard Nimoy, Joyce Van Patten, Warren Oates, Susan Oliver, James Doohan, and Michael Witney. The show is more than strong enough to be considered more than a "spot the guest star" affair... but in this case, it's at least a fun little diversion.

Warner Bros.' November press release originally advertised A Man Called Shenandoah as a skimpy four-disc BD-50 set, and I'm certainly glad that was expanded in the interim to a much more reasonable five dual-layered discs. Now six to seven 30-minute episodes are presented on each one rather than eight or nine, allowing this fine-looking 35mm filmed production to breathe easier; it presumably now has a beefer encode thanks to the extra real estate, which proves to be more than enough for black-and-white material framed at a then TV-friendly 1.33.1 aspect ratio.

Episode List

Disc One
"The Onslaught", "Survival", "The Fort", "The Caller", "The Debt", "Obion – 1866"

Disc Two
'The Verdict", "Town on Fire", "Incident at Dry Creek", "The Locket", "The Reward", "A Special Talent for Killing", 'The Siege"

Disc Three
"The Bell", "The Young Outlaw", "The Accused", "Run, Killer, Run", "Rope's End", "The Lost Diablo", "A Long Way Home"

Disc Four
"End of a Legend", "Run and Hide", "The Riley Brand", "Muted Fifes, Muffled Drums", "Plunder", "Marlee", "The Death of Matthew Eldridge"

Disc Five
"Aces & Kings", "The Impostor", "An Unfamiliar Tune", "The Clown", "Requiem for the Second", "Care of General Delivery", "Macauley's Cure"

A brief but helpful episode guide can still be found at Robert Horton's official website. Horton sadly passed away in 2016 and thus didn't get to see Warner Archive's DVD release (let alone this Blu-ray), but I've got a good feeling that he'd have loved both of them. Serendipitously, this year would have marked his 100th birthday.

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Archives has clearly applied their usual precise touch to A Man Called Shenandoah, as the original camera negatives for these 34 episodes were recently scanned in 4K before undergoing the boutique label's proprietary manual cleanup process. The end result is unsurprisingly tack-sharp and extremely crisp without sacrificing organic film grain, with no shortage of wide-shot landscapes and tight close-ups revealing stunning amounts of fine detail and textures that certainly weren't seen as clearly on small tube TVs during its original broadcast or on Warner Archive's previous DVD edition. Despite the variety of locations, A Man Called Shenandoah's overall aesthetic and atmosphere is largely consistent, typically dependent on the particular times of day or weather-related events to offer a bit of visual variety away from the generally basic indoor sets and fairly homogenous Wild West towns that our title character travels to. This translates to a fitting amount of consistency in its high-def presentation, with only sporadic dips into softness or slight "dupey" territory breaking up what's otherwise a marathon of near-perfect visuals. Disc encoding is solid too, though not without a few stray touches of macro blocking and posterization along the way. Overall, though, it marks a giant leap beyond previous presentations and this attention to detail is worth the price of admission alone.

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio also pulls its own weight and then some, as the series' mono roots are respected in this split two-channel presentation for wider playback. That said, A Man Called Shenandoah is dialogue-driven with sporadic lapses into quiet territory and thus doesn't feature non-stop action, but sporadic gun fights, brawls, and other conflicts pop up to offer a layer of sonic variety along the way. Elsewhere, the hustle and bustle of crowded saloons and smaller group conversations are handled capably and there's even a bit of perceived width where location-based atmosphere is concerned, such as roaming animals or wind heard far in the distance. George Stoll's original score also comes through cleanly, as does the series' singular theme music as co-written and performed by Robert Horton himself.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during all 34 episodes.

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This five-disc release ships in a slightly thicker-than-normal keepcase with vintage cover artwork. The discs sit one per spindle with two double-sided hinges; no inserts or episode descriptions are included, but lists are printed on each one. No bonus features are included, but given the total content for the price it's certainly not a big deal.

A Man Called Shenandoah: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

MGM Television's short-lived Western series A Man Called Shenandoah rides again on Blu-ray courtesy of the venerable Warner Archive, who resurrects this entertaining 34-episode show with a great-looking (and sounding) new Blu-ray set that trades in bonus features for a surprisingly rock-bottom sticker price. It's certainly Recommended to newcomers and even more so to established fans, most of whom probably won't mind shelling out a meager $30 to upgrade from the boutique label's 2018 DVD collection. When double dips are this cheap and good, it's hard to get upset.