The Groundbreaking Rise Of TV Dinners From The 1950s To Today

For many of us, eating while watching a screen feels natural. According to a 2025 YouGov survey, 47% of Americans watch television during breakfast, 46% at lunch, and a whopping 63% at dinner, and if we add in people looking at their phones the numbers rise to 81%, 81%, and 91%, respectively. We can track this habit back to the popularity boom of televisions in the 1950s as well as, of course, the rise of the TV dinner.

The initial invention of the TV dinner has some starts, stops, and contention. While Americans had eaten commercially frozen meat for years, the slow-freezing method typically meant the meat lost flavor and texture after thawing. However, in 1925, Clarence Birdseye learned a freezing technique from living with indigenous people in Canada, leading him to invent the double-belt flash-freezing technology specifically for freezing packaged fish, changing the frozen food industry forever. Unfortunately, few American homes had iceboxes at the time, so these frozen fish meals weren't popular, but the revolution of fast-frozen convenience foods had begun.

Fast-forward about 20 years, and Maxson Food Systems used the double-belt freezer technology to sell frozen dinners called Strato-Plates to military and civilian airlines in 1944. These never made it into stores as the founder William L. Maxson died in 1947. Later that year, though, entrepreneur Jack Fisher unveiled frozen Fridgi-Dinners, selling to bars and taverns. Then, in 1949, frozen dinners made their way directly to consumers via Albert and Meyer Bernstein with their One-Eyed Eskimo meals sold via their new company Frozen Dinners Inc. Starting in the Pittsburgh area, they sold more than 2 million meals by the time Swanson and Sons came on the scene.

Finally, the Swanson company, which was already well known for frozen pot pies, invented what we traditionally think of when we think of TV dinners — a tray with compartments for each food group — in 1953. Although there is debate over who exactly within the Swanson team can claim credit for the idea. Was it Gerry Thomas who claims to have had the idea for the original partitioned aluminum trays when the company had 260 tons of turkey left over from Thanksgiving? Was it Betty Cronin, Swanson's bacteriologist at the time who led research on how to properly heat everything at the same time? Or was it the Swanson brothers themselves, Gilbert and Clarke, who came up with the whole thing? No matter who, Swanson's first full year of production came in 1954, since when, the rise, fall, and rebound of TV Dinners has been driven by trends and consumer behavior throughout the decades.

The mass production of TV dinners coincided with more inventions and cultural phenomena. For instance, in 1950 only 9% of U.S. households had a television, however, by 1955, that number grew to more than 65%, and reached nearly 90% by 1960. Additionally, the television tray was first advertised in 1952. And, finally, more married women were entering the workforce, leaving less time for meal prep at home. In the 1940s, women were employed in war industries while postwar, 35% of all women were in the workforce. By 1950, 47% of employed women were married.

It was the perfect recipe for TV dinners to thrive. Swanson sold more than 10 million units in its first full year of production and 25 million the year after. The dinners were packaged in boxes that looked like mini televisions and targeted women who worked outside the home. Dinner in less than 25 minutes for 98 cents? Sold. Soon, it wasn't just Swanson selling TV Dinners; Banquet Foods, Morton Frozen Foods, and Stouffer's introduced their takes on the iconic tray meals. And while Swanson was purchased by the Campbell Soup Company in 1955, the Swanson name remained.

After TV dinners became mainstream, improvements started to be made. In 1960, a dessert compartment was added to the traditional TV dinner. A few years later, the term "TV Dinner" was removed from Swanson packaging with the hopes of broadening consumer buying power; they debuted a breakfast option in 1969. In 1973, Swanson unveiled Hungry Man meals complete with an ad featuring Pittsburgh Steelers stars "Mean" Joe Greene and Rocky Bleier. Banquet also introduced its Man Pleaser dinners around this time. In the 1980s, the marketing shifted again, away from targeting just busy wives and instead framing frozen dinners as a way to destress. 

In 1986, everything changed again with Campbell's invention of microwave-safe trays. Gone were the days of needing to preheat an oven — a full four-course meal could be done in minutes. During the 1980s, a few brands tried to get fancy with frozen dinners. Campbell's unveiled a line called Le Menu, which featured items like pepper steak instead of chicken nuggets. Stouffer's Lean Cuisine meals were released in 1981, becoming especially popular within the diet culture of the '80s and '90s. In the '90s, the last target audience was tapped: kids. Kid Cuisine debuted in 1990, featuring more kid-friendly dinners like hamburgers and pizza. Throughout the rest of the '90s, though, consumers started to become more health conscious and frozen convenience foods began to get a bad rap.

Following the dip in frozen meal consumption in the 2000s and 2010s, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused yet another shift. Spending on frozen meals shot up nearly 50% year on year from April 2019 to April 2020. Specialty companies such as Williams Sonoma and Ipsa Provisions started to make gourmet frozen meals. And some restaurants even capitalized, selling frozen versions of their dishes for takeout. This bounceback is projected to continue. Trader Joe's frozen food section has reached its own stardom and there are so many frozen dinner brands now, they can be ranked from worst to best. Today's frozen dinner market is worth about $41 billion and some see it increasing to $130 billion by 2029.