“Sometimes I have dinner with Ed Sullivan, sometimes Dinah Shore or Perry Como. The other night, I had dinner with Mae West. Of course, she was much younger then.”
— C.C. BAXTER (JACK LEMMON) IN “THE APARTMENT” (1960), ON EATING IN FRONT OF THE TV
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Swanson did not introduce the first frozen food, but it was the first to come up with that perfect blend of product and marketing called “TV Dinners.” These frozen meals offered choice, convenience and (this should not be underestimated) peas separated from the potatoes. Most ingenious was the name. The aluminum tray, shaped vaguely like a TV screen, was all Swanson needed to link its new product with the hottest trend in the country. Even the box resembled a little TV set. Only later did Americans put two and tube together and start eating in front of the TV, and the whipped potato was joined by the couch potato. . . . Why the first TV Dinner entree was turkey: To get rid of 52,000 pounds of Thanksgiving surplus. * Year that Swanson dropped the TV Dinner name: 1962. * Percentage of Americans who regularly watch TV while eating dinner: 66.
Sources: Tribune archives, news reports, Pinnacle Foods, Frozen Food Age, TV-Free America.
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nwatkins@tribune.com