Scanning Around with Gene: Dinner Time Is TV Time

The political conventions, upcoming debates, and election season means spending more time in front of the television, often around dinner time. I’m a plate-on-the-lap sort of eater, but I got to thinking about that time in America when dining in front of the television was a new concept. Juggling a plate full of food while you slouched on the couch wasn’t an option back then. For at least a while, many American families tried to carry the tradition of the formal dining table with them into the living room, most often in the form of collapsible TV trays.
Throughout the 1960s and much of the ’70s, you couldn’t go into a home without finding at least one set of four metal TV trays. These sets were popular wedding gifts and many homes found themselves with multiple designs. Thanks to silk-screen printing, most of these metal trays were highly decorative. Eventually you could even get designs with pictures of your favorite TV characters, and at the high end there were fine wooden versions and unusual designer editions.


But for most of us, TV trays were of the collapsible folding metal variety. When not in use, they lived on a mobile cart in the corner or inside a closet. They were difficult to set up, and getting them all back on the cart facing the right direction was no easy task (at least for me as a 7-year-old). They scratched easily and you tried to find the best-looking one to place in front when stored.

Of course, TV trays weren’t limited to eating in front of the television. We also used them for craft projects, and at a formal dinner they often became the kids’ tables, set up somewhere other than where the adults were eating.


And later, as the popularity of TV trays waned, they turned into cheap side tables for college students, rusted plant stands, and gathering places for stacks of unread newspapers and magazines. I still find them on patios, decks, and in gardens, though the number of intact sets at garage sales is decreasing.

When people first began eating in front of the television, it was only for special occasions: something other than regular TV. So the TV trays were set with normal dinnerware — plates, utensils, napkins, glasses, etc. You simply moved the usual dinner-table paraphernalia to the living room.

That all began to change in 1953 when The Swanson Company introduced their now-famous line of frozen TV dinners. For the first time, three food courses were contained in one handy metal tray, which went directly from oven to table.

There are disputes as to the exact origin of the TV dinner, but there is no question it was Swanson that coined the term “TV dinner” and first associated frozen food with watching television. The early packages from Swanson were even designed to look like a television, complete with dials and antenna.
The most likely story about the origin of the TV dinner is that Swanson, a food producer in Omaha, Nebraska, ended up with a lot of leftover turkeys after one Thanksgiving season and had to decide what to do with the frozen birds quickly. There had been other frozen dinner products for many years, and airlines were serving previously frozen meals in segmented trays at the time.

Either one of Swanson’s salesmen or the Swanson brothers (herein lies the dispute) combined the ideas of making an aluminum tray with three segmented compartments; cooking the food in various states so that it was all ready to eat at the same time after heating; and tapping into America’s new obsession with the television. The first year 5,000 dinners were sold. By year two, Swanson was up to 10 million units.

Swanson’s timing was perfect. Not only were people moving away from the formal dining table, but more women were working and the movement in the food industry was all toward convenience. Nothing could be more convenient than a complete meal that was simply popped in the oven and served in the same container.

By 1962 Swanson dropped the TV Dinner name, not wanting to limit sales, though in recent years the owners of Swanson (now Pinnacle foods) have revived the brand. Dessert was added in 1960.
At first the TV dinners and TV trays were a perfect fit — literally. Simply add a fork and napkin and dinner in front of the television was a natural. But in some ways the self-contained nature of TV dinners also signaled the beginning of the end of the need for TV trays. Eventually, things like fast food, microwave meals, and pizzas made eating without the aid of a table more the norm.


I don’t own a set of TV trays right now, and with five dogs in the house I always hold food very close to my chest. But I do occasionally long for those days as a child when we’d set up the TV trays in the living room, carry in our plates of tuna casserole and glasses of milk, then sit down and watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

Gene Gable has spent a lifetime in publishing, editing and the graphic arts and is currently a technology consultant and writer. He has spoken at events around the world and has written extensively on graphic design, intellectual-property rights, and publishing production in books and for magazines such as Print, U&lc, ID, Macworld, Graphic Exchange, AGI, and The Seybold Report. Gene's interest in graphic design history and letterpress printing resulted in his popular columns "Heavy Metal Madness" and "Scanning Around with Gene" here on CreativePro.com.
  • SpottedWabbit says:

    Yikes we are dating ourselves. Didn’t ever have the TV trays but remember them well.
    Pretty much always eaten in front of the TV though. And like you have 2 spoiled dogs so keep my food close to me. Fun article.
    Pete
    DreamSpeaker Graphics

  • Andrew K says:

    Thank-you Gene for another great stroll down memory lane. Must be getting long in the tooth as the other day my friends and I were trying to member old commercial jingles while sitting around the campfire… We laughed and laughed… remember Hi-Karate???

  • GrayLensman says:

    Gene, I remember the set of four my parents owned, on the their stand and everything. I think theirs were fiberglas – there was a translucent quality to the tops.

    For us, it was really special when we could eat TV dinners while “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” aired. Now there’s three things in one sentence that date me…

  • Anonymous says:

    We used to get Swanson TV dinners that had three courses. Soup, Entree, and Dessert. Does anyone else remember those? We were very low income, and that’s what we had for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think they cost around $ 1.39 at the time.

  • Anonymous says:

    Where can I buy tv trays in metal or plastic or fiberglass that have folding legs? I am also looking for ones that have a compartment on the tray where yoiu put glass or cup and also utensils. I live in Des Moines Iowa area and I bought a plastic in black somewhere in this area aboiut three years ago. my email: [email protected]

    Thanks

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