Swanson's original frozen TV dinner consisted of a compartmentalized ... By the summer of 1954, fried chicken was introduced as a second entrée choice, and beef soon followed.

Whether you were a hungry kid or an adult in need of a quick and cheap meal, frozen meals were indispensable in the 1970s.

Ultimately, it was the Swanson company that transformed ... or enjoying one themselves. “The best fried chicken I know comes with a TV dinner,” Barbra Streisand told the New Yorker in 1962.

The TV dinner’s origin story goes like this: In the fall of 1953, Omaha-based C.A. Swanson & Sons, which produced frozen and canned foods, massively overestimated the market for frozen holiday ...

Either way, Swanson’s was shipping out veal parm dinners back in ... was sadly discontinued. Fried chicken, Salisbury steaks, ham, and the rest of the usual TV dinner suspects were all available.