This Is Your Life (American TV series)

Did You Know?

• The idea for This Is Your Life arose when Ralph Edwards was asked by the U.S. Army to do something for paraplegic soldiers at Birmingham General Army Hospital in Van Nuys, Los Angeles.
• Edwards chose a despondent young soldier and presented his life on Truth or Consequences, integrating his past with a hopeful future, which led to the radio show.
• International adaptations include versions in Australia, Chile, Denmark, France, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom, and a Taiwanese variety show segment.

Notable guests

One subject was Reverend Kiyoshi Tanimoto, a Hiroshima bombing survivor, who was led to believe he was there for a news interview. Instead, he encountered a dramatized reenactment with sound effects, music, and footage of the destruction, and was asked to narrate the events. Edwards introduced Tanimoto to Robert A. Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay. The episode was later described as exemplifying America's tendency to view Hiroshima as a dramatic spectacle.

In February 1953, singer Lillian Roth, who had been an alcoholic for 16 years before joining Alcoholics Anonymous, was featured. Edwards cited her impending blindness, inflamed sinus, and alcoholic insanity, and brought on her psychiatrist, a brother-in-law, and friends including Lita Grey Chaplin and Ruby Keeler. Roth's story became the basis of her 1954 autobiography and the 1955 film I'll Cry Tomorrow, in which Edwards appeared as himself. Holocaust survivor Hanna Bloch Kohner was the subject on May 27, 1953.

Dr. Kate Newcomb, who practiced in a 70-mile area around Woodruff, Wisconsin, was featured in 1954, drawing attention to her million pennies drive for a hospital; viewers donated over $112,000 in pennies.

Reception

This Is Your Life was nominated three times for the Emmy for Best Audience Participation, Quiz, or Panel Program, losing in 1953 to What's My Line? and sharing the award with that show in 1954 and 1955. It ranked well in the ratings during the 1950s, finishing at #11 in 1953–1954, #12 in 1954–1955, #26 in 1955–1956, #19 in 1957–1958, and #29 in 1958–1959. By October 1960, Time magazine called it the most sickeningly sentimental show on the air, citing a May 1960 episode on Elizabeth Hahn as evidence that the show had turned to ordinary people after running through faded actresses. The episode presented Hahn as a devoted mother who worked menial jobs for her children, but omitted that she had brought her daughter to court as a delinquent and that her husband had sued for divorce before the broadcast. Virginia Graham described the show as a maudlin invasion of privacy.

Reruns and revivals

In the late 1980s, Edwards recorded new introductions for vintage episodes featuring celebrities, and American Movie Classics aired these versions for several years alongside screenings of studio-era Hollywood films. Edwards revived the series twice in syndication: first in 1971 with himself as host, and again in 1983 with Joseph Campanella as host. Both revivals failed to capture the original's success, partly because the shows were pre-recorded and some stations gave away the surprise elements in ads.

During the late 1980s, Edwards hosted a few primetime network specials, most memorably one with Betty White and Dick Van Dyke. Pat Sajak hosted an episode in November 1993 on NBC honoring Roy Scheider and Kathie Lee Gifford, with Edwards making cameo appearances. Actress Angie Dickinson was to be honored but walked out when surprised, later saying she had previously declined and did not want to cry on camera. In November 2005, ABC announced a new version hosted by Regis Philbin; creator Ralph Edwards died shortly after.

Philbin did not renew his contract in August 2006, and ABC considered another host but never proceeded. In October 2008, Survivor producer Mark Burnett signed a deal to produce an updated version, which also did not materialize.

Parodies

The show was parodied in 1954 by Your Show of Shows as This Is Your Story, with Carl Reiner hosting and Sid Caesar as an uncooperative audience member. The same year, Warner Bros. released the short So You Want to Know Your Relatives, featuring Joe McDoakes confronted by guests from his past. In 1955, animator Friz Freleng created This Is a Life?, hosted by Elmer Fudd with Bugs Bunny as the guest, also featuring Daffy Duck, Granny, and Yosemite Sam.

Bob and Ray issued a 45-rpm record in 1955 titled This Is Your Bed (You Made It, Now Lie in It). A 1960 episode of Walt Disney Presents, This Is Your Life, Donald Duck, was a parody tribute hosted by Jiminy Cricket. Sesame Street had a recurring segment, Here is Your Life, hosted by Guy Smiley, featuring inanimate objects; seven sketches aired between 1972 and 1990, with two later variants in the 1990s. The Price Is Right parodied the show in a 1976 Showcase skit called This Is Your Strife, surprising model Janice Pennington.

A 1987 Howdy Doody special included a spoof called Your Happiest Days. The WWE spoofed This Is Your Life three times with Mick Foley as host, most notably on September 27, 1999, with The Rock; that segment remains the highest-rated non-wrestling segment in Raw history. In the early 1990s, McGruff the Crime Dog was honored by Ralph Edwards in a PSA.