TV Dinner

1
TV Dinner

• By Justin Chiu

2
Menu

• How it started?
• What was the first TV Dinner like?
• How it improved our lives?
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

3
How it started?

• In 1954, Swanson had 270 tons of unsold turkey
  from thanksgiving. The executive of Swansons was
  Gerry Thomas. He stored all the turkey in ten
  railroad cars. He had no idea what to do with
  the turkeys. He needs a way to get rid of all
  the frozen turkeys. He bought aluminum trays and
  had his workers to stuff turkey in them. He knew
  that he needed to put something else in the trays
  with the turkey. He put with the turkey assorted
  vegetables and potatoes.

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What was The First TV Dinner like?

• Gerry Thomas invented the first frozen dinner (TV
  dinner) in 1954. Thomas worked for Swanson in
  Omaha, Nebraska. By using the modern inventions
  of the time, he wanted to find a quick to cook
  his frozen dinners. Using the aluminum tray,
  people could easily put the frozen dinner in
  their oven to heat. Overtime, the TV dinner
  became a very popular meal of the time. TV
  dinners consisted of turkey, frozen peas, and
  potatoes and a dessert. Later, Swanson started
  coming up with new things to put in their TV
  dinners. Such as, fried chicken, Salisbury steak,
  and meatloaf. The tray could be used in the
  oven. It was estimated that five thousand frozen
  dinners were sold its first year. In 1962,
  Swanson changed the name of the frozen dinner to
  the TV dinner. Later, in 1986 Swanson replaced
  the aluminum tray with plastic microwaveable
  tray.

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How it improved our lives?

• The TV dinner became a success, many people
  watched TV with their TV dinners. The TV dinner
  was faster and easier than cooking a full meal.
  People went to the supermarket to purchase their
  dinners. The first TV dinner was sold for
  ninety-eight cents. The TV dinner helped improve
  many peoples lives. They could cook their
  dinner fast and buy it at a cheap price.

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Conclusion

• In conclusion, Gerry Thomas changed peoples
  lives with his creation of the TV dinner. The TV
  dinner consisted of everything for the meal. It
  included turkey, peas, and potatoes. Later on
  Swanson had added choices to their TV dinners.
  Now people had more of a choice when choosing
  their TV dinner. The TV dinner had to be cooked
  in an oven at the time, with the aluminum tray.
  In 1968, Swanson replaced the aluminum tray with
  a microwaveable tray because of the invention of
  the microwave.

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Bibliography

• History of the TV Dinner
• http//inventors.about.com/od/inventionsalphabet/a
  /tv_dinner.htm 2/18/05
• Mary Dixon Lebeau, TV dinner is still cookin',
  updated November 10, 2004
• http//www.csmonitor.com/2004/1110/p11s01-lifo.htm
  l 2/18/05
• TV Dinners
• http//www.foodreference.com/html/arttvdinners.htm
  l 2/18/05
• Swansons TV Dinners
• http//www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/tv-dinner.htm
  2/18/05
• TV Dinner
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_dinner 2/18/05
• Ultimate TV Dinner
• http//www.creativechocolatesofvt.com/images/TVDin
  ner.jpg 2/28/05
• Fried Chicken TV Dinner
• http//tulsatvmemories.com/imag1999/tvdinner.jpg
  2/28/05
• Salisbury Steak TV Dinner
• http//www.winickdesign.com/image/photos/tv_dinner
  .jpg 2/28/05
• Fried Chicken TV Dinner with fork
• http//iseita.cocolog-nifty.com/iseita_photoworks/
  photo/P1040855.JPG 2/28/05