TV dinners are
frozen, prepackaged meals consisting of a meat, vegetable, and sometimes
dessert designed to satisfy a single human being's appetite. TV dinners have
entered 99% of American households over the seven decades. The frozen dinner industry still generates $4.5 billion in
sales each year and continues to innovate and grow. The first frozen meal was manufactured in 1945 by Maxson Food
Systems, Inc. known as "Strato-Plates," the meals were reheated
on airplanes for military and civilian passengers. However, they were never
sold on the retail market.
Four years
later, Albert and Meyer Bernstein created Frozen Dinners, Inc., which packaged
frozen dinners on aluminum trays with three compartments and sold them under
the One-Eyed Eskimo label. In 1952, after selling more than 400,000 dinners,
the Bernstein brothers formed the Quaker State Food Corporation.
The first official TV dinner was
created by Omaha-based C.A. Swanson & Sons and hit the market in 1954. The
meal consisted of turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, and
buttered peas, and sold for 98 cents. The food itself was packaged in a
foil-covered, segmented aluminum tray to be heated in the oven. And the
cardboard box it all came in was designed to look like a television set,
complete with “dials” and a “volume control knob.” Approximately 10 million of
the meals were sold that first year. Meals
had to be heated in the oven for about 25 minutes until microwave oven-safe
trays were marketed in 1986.
In 1953, Betty Cronin was the
director of product development, and was the person who figured out how the
meat, the vegetables, and the potatoes could all be heated at once using the
same cooking time. She also solved other pressing problems: “What kind of fried
chicken breading will stay on through freezing, not be too greasy and still
taste good
In 1954, television was a new and
fascinating phenomenon particularly for children, and there were only three to
four hours of new programming each day, generally in the late afternoon and
evening, during the dinner hour. Families were virtually living their lives,
after school and after work, around television. Gathering around the dining
room table was replaced with circling around the TV.
What’s more, the futuristic
aesthetic of the aluminum tray might have played a role in the TV dinner’s
popularity. In the 1950s, society became very futuristic. We wondered what our
lives would be like in the year 2000, and were very interested in technology
and machinery. People embraced TV trays and TV dinners not because the food was
good. It was awful, but because it was futuristic and convenient.”
TV dinners convenience and quick
cook time gave women (who usually did all or most of the cooking) more time of
their own to pursue jobs and other interests, while still providing a hot meal
for their families. One of the first advertisements for Swanson featured a
woman pulling a Swanson dinner out of her grocery bag and promising her
husband, ‘I’m late—but dinner won’t be.’”
In 1960, dessert was added, and that
little compartment of cobbler that would come to scorch the roofs of countless
mouths made its debut. (Then again, so did the brownie.) In 1962, Swanson
executives worried that the name “TV Dinner” would discourage customers from
eating the meals at various times of the day, so it disappeared from the
packaging. The company introduced Swanson Breakfasts to the market in 1969. In
1973, Swanson introduced Hungry Man meals that targeted the hungry man (or hungry
woman) who wanted a second helping. Banquet rolled out its own version, the “Man
Pleaser” dinner, around the same time.
“How can a society that exists on instant
mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach
patience to its young?” (Paul Sweeney) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“10
Things You Never Knew About TV Dinners” By Dan Myers
·
“11 Ready-to-Digest Tidbits about TV Dinners” BY Erika Wolf
·
“5 things you never knew
about TV dinners” By John Corrigan
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