Fedderson was born April 16, 1913, in
Beresford, South Dakota. His family moved to Kansas, where he worked on the business and advertising staffs of
The Wichita Eagle and
Wichita Beacon newspapers. In 1942 he became an account executive of the
San Francisco News and then sales manager of
San Francisco radio station
KYA, rising to president and general manager and collecting a
Peabody Award for a program he developed. Los Angeles radio station
KMTR was added to his charge when the
New York Post bought it and KYA. KMTR changed call letters to KLAC in 1946 and added a television station,
KLAC-TV, two years later. Fedderson was in charge of radio and TV broadcasts for five years. Fedderson formed his own television company in 1953 and signed
Liberace to a contract that put him before a nationwide TV audience. It was one of several shows starring the flamboyant pianist on network and syndicated television. He also produced the syndicated series
Life with Elizabeth starring
Betty White in 1953–54,
The Millionaire with
Marvin Miller on
CBS from 1955 to 1960, and
Date with the Angels, again with Betty White, on ABC in 1957–58. Fedderson's company became TV consultants to bandleader
Lawrence Welk in 1954 and put him on
ABC from 1955 to 1971, then syndicated his program widely until 1982. His biggest success on television, however, began in 1960 with
My Three Sons, starring
Fred MacMurray, of which Fedderson served as the executive producer. The show aired for five years on ABC and another seven on CBS, producing a total of 380 episodes, making it the fourth
longest-running live-action sitcom among American prime-time network programs. Fedderson produced
Family Affair, starring
Brian Keith as a substitute father for a nephew and two nieces, and
Sebastian Cabot as his servant, which ran on CBS from 1966 to 1971,
The Smith Family, an ABC series starring
Henry Fonda as a detective from 1971 to 1972; and
To Rome with Love, with
John Forsythe, on CBS from 1969 to 1971. He also delved successfully into game shows. He produced
Do You Trust Your Wife with
Edgar Bergen as host of the primetime quiz show on CBS from 1956 to 1957. It subsequently switched to ABC as a daytime show hosted by
Johnny Carson and also called
Do You Trust Your Wife, then within a year the title was changed to
Who Do You Trust?. Game show host Carson was joined in 1958 by
announcer Ed McMahon, who left with Carson in 1962 for the
Tonight Show on NBC. The game show, which by then sported a ″Whom″ instead of a ″Who″ in its title, ran for one more year through 1963 with host
Woody Woodbury. On November 14, 1974, Fedderson received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the television industry, at 1735 N.
Vine Street. ==Personal life==