This Is Your Life
These Were Your Lives
TV Flash files “These Were Your Lives” as the last listed hour of season 1 — This Is Your Life (1952–1961) on NBC, season 1, episode 16, aired 1956-05-20, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E16: listed hour 16 of 497 in the This Is Your Life guide, last listed hour of season 1. It aired 1956-05-20 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Robert Stanford Tuck” (S01E15). Next is “Peter Scott” (S02E01). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Eamonn Andrews introduces and comperes a review of the first series of This Is Your Life in a pre-recorded special edition. Several ‘guests of honour' or ‘subjects' return to the BBC Television Theatre to recall incidents and stories relating to their experience of being surprised by Eamonn.
Viewer FAQ
Where does These Were Your Lives sit in the This Is Your Life guide?
S01E16 is listed hour 16 of 497 — last listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 16.
When did This Is Your Life S01E16 air?
These Were Your Lives aired 1956-05-20 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with Edwards ambushing a guest into their own biography. The shock-and-tissues contract is the show; named celebrity nights are the heat.
In the series
Why this series still plays
This Is Your Life had Ralph Edwards ambush a guest with their entire biography, tissues mandatory. Invented the life-tribute ambush still used at reunions and award-show montages. Watch it now as live television that felt dangerous and sweet — genuine shock, occasional discomfort, and biography as a surprise party with cameras.
The guest does not know the night is about them until the night is already on the air. This Is Your Life, NBC 1952–1961 in the classic American television run, had Ralph Edwards ambush a subject with their entire biography, tissues mandatory. Invented the life-tribute ambush still used at reunions and award-show montages: genuine shock, occasional discomfort, biography as a surprise party with cameras. Based on Edwards's radio format; the U.K. imitated it widely. Live television that felt dangerous and sweet in…
Filed against
- Ralph Edwards as Host
Ralph Edwards ambushed guests with their entire biography on This Is Your Life — tissues mandatory, live television that felt dangerous and sweet — and turned wrong answers into stunts on Truth or Consequences. Life-tribute as reunion…