# This Was Your Life; Ralph Edwards Dies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394 "2005-11-16T21:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394/1 "2005-11-16T21:58:13Z")
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051116/ap\_en\_tv/obit\_edwards](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051116/ap_en_tv/obit_edwards) ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394/2 "2005-11-17T23:17:50Z")
RIP. Sadly, in my worldview, he would fall into the category of “God, I thought he had been dead for years.” Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394/3 "2005-11-18T00:14:31Z")
Have you ever seen the Buster Keaton or Frances Farmer episodes? _Agonizing_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394/4 "2005-11-18T06:23:56Z")
The worst was a Rodney Dangerfield episode from one of the 80s revivals. It was clear that Rodney was _NOT_ happy to see a couple of these people from his early days again (he’s not a good enough actor to think he was faking the grimace when one of them came out and hugged him). I believe it was Pat Sajak with a cameo by Edwards who tried to do a _This is Your Life_ to Angie Dickinson a few years back, and for the first time in the long long history of the show the intended star _absolutely refused_ to participate. Since they had a deadline they went with Kathy Lee Gifford, who of course ate it up, but they were bringing out childhood friends and relatives that Kathy admitted “I saw them just last week”. In Milledgeville, Georgia, there’s a family that’s still p.o.d over a This is Your Life episode, though not at Ralph Edwards Productions. It was for Oliver Hardy (who grew up in M’ville) and the show flew in one of his best friends, an old lady by that time, to reunite with him and it went really well. However, her employer refused to give her time off (she did something low paid and unskilled- a clerk in a hat store, as memory serves) so, wanting to see “Babe” and be on TV and get a trip to L.A. and all, she went anyway and returned to find she was fired. The hat shop went out of business soon after because people boycotted it for sacking the old lady. I saw the Buster Keaton one. He didn’t seem to particularly want to be there, and they actually mentioned how broke he was for many years and how his share of _The Buster Keaton Story_ paid for his home, which I think embarassed him a tad. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-was-your-life-ralph-edwards-dies/331394/5 "2005-11-18T20:41:59Z")
I saw a brief moment of the one with Oliver Hardy (maybe Laurel was with him, too). Mainly what I remember was he didn’t seem to be all there.