A Man Called Shenandoah

Robert Horton plays a man who was shot and left for dead. In the premiere episode, two buffalo hunters find him out on the prairie and, thinking he might be an outlaw, take him to the nearest town in hopes of receiving reward money. When he regains consciousness, he has no recollection of who he was, or why anyone would want to harm him. The doctor who treats his wounds gives him the name "Shenandoah," stating the word means "land of silence". For the remainder of the series, Shenandoah roams the West in search of clues to his identity. He learns that he had been a Union officer during the American Civil War, and comes to believe that he had been married. The final episode, "Macauley's Cure", ends with Mrs. Macauley telling Shenandoah: "It's not always important who you are; it's always important what you are." Among the guest stars on the series were John Anderson, Claude Akins, Ed Asner, Elisha Cook Jr., Jeanne Cooper, John Dehner, Bruce Dern, Elinor Donahue, Leif Erickson, Beverly Garland, Sally Kellerman, DeForest Kelley, George Kennedy, Martin Landau, Cloris Leachman, John McIntire, Martin Milner, Leonard Nimoy, Jeanette Nolan, Warren Oates, Susan Oliver, Joyce Van Patten, James Doohan, and Michael Witney. ==Theme song==

The show's theme song was the traditional American folk tune "Oh Shenandoah", with new, specialized lyrics written by Horton himself. Horton, who had performed in musical theater, also sang the song. His recording became a Columbia single in 1965. It is from Horton's Columbia album The Man Called Shenandoah (Cs-9208, stereo; Cl-2408, mono; both 1965). The series was popular on Rhodesian Television (RTV) in central Africa, and the song, reworked by local talent Nick Taylor, reached Number 3 on the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation hit parade. ==Broadcast==

When reruns of the series aired on Turner Network Television in the 1990s, only 29 of the 34 episodes were rebroadcast. Since 2017, A Man Called Shenandoah has aired in the United States on the GetTV network, as part of their Western-themed programming block. In February 2014, Warner Archive Instant offered all 34 uncut episodes as part of their streaming service. ==Episodes==

On May 8, 2018, Warner Bros. released A Man Called Shenandoah – The Complete Series on DVD via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. A Blu-ray presentation made from new 4K resolution scans of the original negatives of the entire series and it was released by Warner Archive Collection on November 2, 2024. ==Reception==

As Boyd Magers noted, "stiff timeslot competition doomed Shenandoah after 34 half-hour episodes... and the series was cancelled on May 16, 1966, after 34 episodes, offering no resolution to Shenandoah's search for truth." ==References==