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First TV Dinner A Luxury Item....

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01 / Original postFirst TV Dinner A Luxury Item....Gregory Morrow · 5 Jul 2004 02 / This pagePosts 1–8Page 1 of 1 · chronological order 03 / Latest replyPost #8Sam D. · 5 Jul 2004

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General fitness, health and nutrition
Published
5 July 2004
Last activity
5 July 2004
Original author
Gregory Morrow
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  1. Original post
    Gregory Morrow
    Archived post
    #1

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below) $6.52...pretty
    rich vittles!

    [ westegg.cominflation ]

    tvacres.comfood menus.htm

    "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."

    "Mother: [At the dinner table] "Guess well have to send
    daddy to the store every time.

    Father: Huh?

    Mother: This turkey is delicious and the slices are bigger.
    Why you brought home the best frozen dinner we ever had.

    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."

    Store Clerk: Trust Swanson that what most folks do. They're
    the ones. No comparison."

    Father: [Cut to dinner table] So, I took Swanson

    Mother: So from know on we'll always take Swanson.

    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...

    Store Clerk: Trust Swanson. They're the ones.

    Announcer: They are, indeed. No comparison."

    --Text from a 1953 Swanson TV Dinner Commercial

    Report
  2. Steve Wertz
    Archived post
    #2
    Gregory Morrow said:

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below)
    $6.52...pretty rich vittles!

    [ westegg.cominflation ]

    tvacres.comfood menus.htm

    "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."

    This is slightly wrong. The year was 1954, there was no
    cranberry sauce and there was cornbread dressing. The
    cost was $.98.

    They came about because Swanson's had 250+ tons of
    leftover turkey after the holiday season (1953) that they
    couldn't unload from the railroad cars due to lack of
    warehouse space.

    Inspired by airline meals/trays, they initially produced
    5,000 individual TV dinners to be made as a kind of test
    market. They ended up selling 10 million of these TV dinners
    in 1954. The foil plates are now collectors items -
    discontinued almost 20 years ago (thanks to the microwave).

    -sw

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  3. Sam D.
    Archived post
    #3

    "Gregory Morrow" <[email hidden]> wrote in
    message "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below)
    $6.52...pretty rich vittles!

    [ westegg.cominflation ]

    tvacres.comfood menus.htm

    "TV Dinners - The first commercially successful TV dinner
    was introduced


    by

    Quoted message said:

    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,

    Quoted message said:

    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

    Quoted message said:

    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

    Quoted message said:

    former government surveyor. His discovery was inspired by
    watching the Eskimos in Labrador preserve their food by
    freezing the food in the arctic air."

    That inflation calculator only goes up to 2002.

    Try this one from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis:
    minneapolisfed.orgcalc

    The equivalent price in today's dollars would be $7.01.

    Interesting post. I do remember the introduction of
    Swanson's Turkey TV dinner. The varieties that followed were
    not so tasty.

    Report
  4. Jarkat2002
    Archived post
    #4
    Quoted message said:

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below)
    $6.52...pretty rich vittles!

    WOW ... I remember TV Dinner nights ... we were SO excited
    to peel off that foil top and dig in. I even remember my mom
    having a card party and serving TV dinners ... everyone
    loved them hehe, or at least said they did lol

    ~Kat

    "The early bird gets the worm, the second mouse gets
    the cheese."

    Report
  5. Jean B.
    Archived post
    #5
    Gregory Morrow said:

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below)
    $6.52...pretty rich vittles!

    [ westegg.cominflation ]

    tvacres.comfood menus.htm

    "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."


    [snip]

    I wonder what was in those first meals? Most of the ones now
    have a huge laundry list of chemicals, which make them very
    unappealing (to me).

    --
    Jean B.

    Report
  6. Jmcquown
    Archived post
    #6
    Gregory Morrow said:

    The first teevee dinner would today cost (adjusted for
    inflation per the inflation calculator below)
    $6.52...pretty rich vittles!

    [ westegg.cominflation ]

    tvacres.comfood menus.htm

    "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.

    This is very funny! Mom told me late last year she bought
    some Swanson's TV dinners for her and Dad. She got the
    Salisbury Steak & Gravy and Dad had the Fried Chicken. Each
    came with a meager portion of some fercocktah (thanks for
    the term, Sheldon!) dehydrated rehydrated mashed potatoes.
    Dad's meal had corn while Mom's had peas. Neither one came
    with a dessert - remember back in the day when TV dinners
    came with a little bit of cobbler or baked apples or
    something like that? She said the meals were just *awful*.
    Of course, I suspect she nuked them. Can't see much
    improvement if she had baked them, though.

    As a kid I can recall being absolutely thrilled when we got
    to eat our first TV dinners. In *front* of the TV, on TV
    trays! (I remember those funny gold toned folding stands and
    the metal trays with starbursts on them- snap on, snap off.)
    IIRC Mom and Dad were going out so this was a quick easy way
    to feed us kids and get us to shut up for a time. Wish I
    could remember what was on television at the time; I know it
    was well after the Beatles debuted on Ed Sullivan, but we
    may well have been watching Sullivan (we have a "really big
    shew"😉 at the time.

    Thanks for the fun memory, Greg!

    Jill

    Report
  7. Gregory Morrow
    Archived post
    #7
    Sam D. said:

    That inflation calculator only goes up to 2002.

    Try this one from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis:
    minneapolisfed.orgcalc

    Thanks, I need a new one that goes up to present day :-)

    --
    Best Greg

    Report
  8. Sam D.
    Archived post
    #8

    "Jean B." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    I wonder what was in those first meals? Most of the ones
    now have a huge laundry list of chemicals, which make them
    very unappealing

    It's my guess that they were pretty much free from chemical
    additives.

    Report

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