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TV Dinners - The first
commercially successful TV dinner was introduced by L.A. Swanson
Food Company in 1953.
For the cost of $1.00, the 12 ounce TV dinner included sliced
turkey, gravy, buttered peas, whipped sweet potatoes, and
cranberry sauce. The carton's front cover displayed a picture of
a TV set.
With the microwave oven becoming so commonplace in the 1980s,
manufacturers of instant dinners began replacing the classic
aluminum metal trays with those made of plastic, cardboard, and
Styrofoam materials.
Actually the first frozen dinners were made for the US Navy
in 1944. The process of quick freezing food was invented in 1911
by Clarence Birdseye, a former government surveyor. His
discovery was inspired by watching the Eskimos in Labrador
preserve their food by freezing the food in the arctic air.
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Mother: |
[At the dinner table] "Guess well have to
send daddy to the store every time. |
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Father: |
Huh? |
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Mother: |
This turkey is delicious and the slices are
bigger. Why you brought home the best frozen dinner we
ever had. |
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Father: |
Well, I guess I cant take all the credit.
You see when I was down at the store today. [Flashback to
store] "So darn many frozen dinners." |
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Store Clerk: |
Trust Swanson that what most folks do.
They're the ones. No comparison." |
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Father: |
[Cut to dinner table] So, I took Swanson |
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Mother: |
So from know on we'll always take Swanson. |
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Announcer: |
Yes, trust Swanson every time. There's is
the turkey that's so tender and juicy with bigger slices
on corn bread dressing. Swanson dinners just taste better
and who else gives you 11 kinds to choose from. That's why
so many folks... |
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Store Clerk: |
Trust Swanson.
They're the ones. |
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Announcer: |
They are,
indeed. No comparison. |
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--Text
from a 1953 Swanson TV Dinner Commercial |
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