The first TV Dinner was produced in the United States and consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes packaged in a tray like those used at the time for airline food service. Each item was placed in its own compartment. The trays proved to be useful: the entire dinner could be removed from the outer packaging as a unit; the aluminum tray could be heated directly in the oven without any extra dishes; and one could eat the meal directly out of the same tray. The product was cooked for 25 minutes at 425?°F (220?°C) and fit nicely on a TV tray. The original TV Dinner sold for 98 cents, and had a production estimate of 5,000 dinners for the first year. Swanson far exceeded its expectations, and ended up selling more than 10 million of these dinners in the first year of production. Their early packaging featured the image of a TV set.
Jacqueline Kennedy's love of ''TV Dinners'' was credited with increasing their sales during the 1960s. Much has changed since the first TV Dinners were marketed. For instance, a wider variety of entre?©s ?— such as fried chicken, Salisbury steak and Mexican combinations ?— have been introduced. Competitors such as Banquet began offering prepackaged frozen dinners. Other changes include:
1960 ?– Swanson added desserts (such as apple cobbler and brownies) to a new four-compartment tray.
1969 ?– The first TV breakfasts were marketed (pancakes and sausage were the favorites). Great Starts Breakfasts and breakfast sandwiches (such as egg and Canadian bacon) followed later.
1973 ?– The first Swanson Hungry Man dinners were marketed; these were larger portions of its regular dinner products. ''Mean'' Joe Greene, football player, was its spokesman.
1986 ?– The first microwave oven-safe trays were marketed.
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/TV_dinner
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