Straight from the Freezer: The History of the TV Dinner
"Twenty-year-old turkey in a 30-year-old tin."
That was how American rock band ZZ Top described the gastronomic phenomenon in their 1983 song "TV Dinners."
Perhaps they weren't fans. But millions of Americans would probably have disagreed with them — the public had spent years voting with their mouths.
Of course, the turkey may not actually have been 20 years old, but TV dinners did come in a tin or a tray.
When they first arrived in US shops at the end of the 1940s, frozen dinners — soon to be known as "TV dinners" — looked a lot like a tray of food you'd get on an airplane, with different sections for the various parts of the meal.
They were perfectly portioned and sitting in the freezer, ready to be heated up and then eaten on laps while watching TV — hence the name.
At first, it was revolutionary: a way to save time and energy by simply turning on the oven — or, later, the microwave.
But it had taken years of hard work to get there.
In the 1920s, American inventor Clarence Birdseye developed a method of quickly freezing food that allowed it to keep its flavor when it was heated again.
But it wasn't until the late 1940s that freezers became common in American homes. And with TVs becoming popular in the 1950s, TV dinners weren't far behind.
According to History, more than 35 million pre-packed frozen meals from just one company — Swanson, which coined the term "TV dinner" — were sold in the US in 1954 and 1955.
However, for some, convenience equaled laziness — TV dinners have always received criticism both for taking people from the family dinner table to the sofa, and for providing lower quality food.
But as more US women went to work in the 1950s, TV dinners became a solution for busy families.
Today, food delivery services offer just as much convenience and variety. But TV dinners — also known as "frozen dinners" and "ready meals" — are still big business across the world.
