Up until the early 1950s, dinners were almost exclusively served in the kitchen or at the dining room table. The growing popularity of television began to change all that as families looked for a way to enjoy dinner while viewing their favorite programs. The TV dinner, first produced by Swanson in 1953, seemed to be the ideal solution. Rather than slaving over a hot stove, the family cook could remove the dinners from the freezer, pop them into the oven, and approximately 30 minutes they would be piping hot and ready to eat. The foil trays were perfect for serving, especially in front of the TV, and afterward there would be very few dirty dishes to clean up.
At first, TV dinners came in limited varieties, such as turkey and dressing, Salisbury steak, and fried chicken as pictured in this ad. This would later expand to more choices such as meatloaf and beef & gravy with a variety of sides and even desserts. Lest there be any doubts about the quality of the meat used in the frozen dinners, Swanson sought to assure consumers that its chicken and other meats were only of the finest grade, the same quality that the family cook would choose for a home-cooked meal.
As someone who grew up primarily in the '70s, I always loved Swanson TV dinners. Even though my mother is and was an excellent cook, there was something oddly fun about eating dinner from the foil tray in front of the TV. Of course, TV dinners, or frozen microwave meals as they are now known, are still readily available, and in more varieties than would have been imagined in 1966 and even quite a few years beyond that. But those were simpler times, when something as ordinary as a frozen dinner could make for a special occasion.
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