This Is Your Life was the creation of Edwards, who was also the host of radio's popular Truth or Consequences. In a 1946 radio broadcast of the latter program. Edwards presented a  capsule  narrative  of  the past life of a disabled World War II veteran who was having difficulties adjusting to postwar life. Edwards received such positive feedback from this show that he developed the formula for a separate radio program called This Is Your Life. It began airing  on  radio  in 1948 and became a live television program in 1952. running on the NBC network until 1961, and reappearing in syndicated versions briefly in  the  early  1970s and 1980s (during this last period. it was hosted by actor Joseph Campanella). The British version of the program had a longer lifespan. Beginning on the BBC in 1955 and hosted by Eamonn Andrews, it  ran  first until 1964, then (still with Andrews) transferred to Thames Television in 1969, where it ran continuously until 1993, with Michael Aspel succeeding Andrews as host in 1988. It then transferred back to the BBC. stiII fronted by Aspel. for a final nine-year run from 1994 until its final cancellation in 2003.

     In  its network  television  years. the U.S. This  Is Your Life alternated in presenting the life stories of entertainment personalities and those of "ordinary" people who had contributed in some way to their communities. Edwards always insisted that the theme of "Love thy neighbor" was clear no matter who was the subject of a particular program. The host was often quoted as saying that the lives under examination must represent something "constructive," must have been "given a lift 'above and beyond the call of duty' and ... in turn. he or she has passed on the help to another." For that reason, the emotion expressed by the guest, who having first been  surprised  by  Edwards  with  the on-air announcement, "This is your life!," and then with the appearance of people from his or her past, was justified as a source of audience inspiration rather than voyeurism.

     Entertainment personalities who were subjects of the program ranged from broadcast journalist Lowell Thomas (who displayed obvious anger and embarrassment over the "surprise") to singer Nat "King" Cole, from the famous silent film star Gloria Swanson to contemporary movie favorite Debbie Reynolds. While Edwards claimed that there were few "leaks" to the subjects about the show (if there were leaks, that subject was immediately dropped), there were several notable occasions when guests were informed in advance of their tributes-for example. Eddie Cantor was told because his heart trouble worried producers regarding the show's "surprise factor," and singer-actress Lillian Roth and actress Frances Farmer were told because their well-known troubled pasts were considered subjects too delicate (and perhaps unpredictable) for the program's usual spectacle of surprise.

     When This Is Your Life reviewed the lives of "ordinary people," Edwards and the show staff relied on help from the individual's community. In some ways the program's coverage of individuals whose accomplishments were achieved despite handicaps  was ahead of its time when indicating how the subject had surmounted societal bigotry. However, even as the series displayed some of the contradictions so prevalent in the 1950s, it also shared with its time a Cold War fervor for conformity and patriotism that worked against its more liberal impulses. For example, in a 1958 program featuring a Japanese-American druggist who had been sent to an internment camp during World War II, the life narrative recounts his struggle to establish a pharmacy practice in a bigoted community. But Edwards praises the subject's behavior in the internment camp when he squelched a camp uprising protesting forced labor. At the end of the show, members from his most recent community embrace him and Edwards announces that Richard Nixon (then vice president of the United States) has donated an American flag, and Ivory soap has donated money for a flag­ pole for the town, in recognition of its overcoming racial prejudice.

     In the late 1980s Edwards and his production company made many of the episodes featuring Hollywood celebrities that are now available for rebroadcast. American Movie Classics (AMC) cable network channel aired these for several years to accompany screenings of movies from studio-era Hollywood.