Dinner Came With A Show
The foil trays. The tiny desserts. The excitement of getting to eat in front of the television. TV dinners in the 60s and 70s were practically an event. But some of the meals we looked forward to have disappeared completely. How many of these do you remember eating?
Morton Twinkie Supper
Yes, someone actually put a Twinkie in a TV dinner. Morton paired the snack cake with meals such as spaghetti and meatballs or a beef patty. Morton and Hostess’s parent belonged to the ITT corporate group, making this a cross-promotion, too. That’s one way to keep dessert in the family.
Swanson Mexican Style Dinner
An advertised 1967 version featured a beef enchilada and two beef tamales. Swanson’s international range responded to growing interest in food beyond familiar American dinners. The business idea was simple: give shoppers something different without giving them more cooking to do. You changed boxes instead of restaurants.
Screenshot from Swanson TV Dinner Commercial, C.A. Swanson & Sons (1963)
Swanson German Style Dinner
Swanson’s international lineup went considerably further than frozen spaghetti. Its German dinner offered beef in sauerbraten-style gravy, with spaetzle, a type of egg noodle. Some versions even included prune-apricot compote. That is quite a departure from the chicken nuggets occupying the freezer today.
Screenshot from Swanson TV Dinner Commercial, C.A. Swanson & Sons (1963)
Libbyland Pirate Picnic
Libby’s was known for canned foods, but its early-70s Pirate Picnic offered a hot dog, macaroni shells and meatballs, corn, potato puffs, and chocolate pudding. The carton opened into a serving tray with a game. The company was selling entertainment alongside dinner. Apparently, mealtime needed an activities director.
Screenshot from Libbyland Frozen Dinner Commercial, Libby, McNeill & Libby (1972)
Morton Ham Dinner With Raisin Sauce
Morton paired ham and raisin sauce with sweet potatoes, peas, and apples. It was old-fashioned Sunday dinner in a frozen tray. The brand’s later phaseout had a less homey explanation: local reporting attributed ConAgra’s decision to streamlining overlapping products. Even raisin sauce couldn’t escape corporate housekeeping.
Swanson Polynesian Style Dinner
Swanson’s Polynesian dinner combined sweet-and-sour chicken and pork, vegetable chow mein, rice, and an orange tea cake. How Polynesian was it? Let’s just say the company took considerable liberties. Still, compared with another turkey dinner, this must have looked like a vacation waiting in the freezer.
Screenshot from Swanson TV Dinner Commercial, C.A. Swanson & Sons (1963)
Swanson Corned Beef Hash Dinner
Corned beef hash wasn’t confined to breakfast. Swanson sold it as a full dinner during the 60s, with an advertised version including apple slices and peas. It was a familiar, filling dish repackaged for convenience. Whether the apples belonged beside it was apparently a question for another department.
Ruth Hartnup from Vancouver, Canada, Wikimedia Commons
Libbyland Safari Supper
Safari Supper offered fried chicken, alphabet spaghetti with little meatballs, and potato puffs. The adventure happened mostly on the packaging, with cartoons and activities giving children something to investigate. For younger Boomers, the box could be as memorable as the food. That was clearly part of the sales pitch.
Screenshot from Libbyland Frozen Dinner Commercial, Libby, McNeill & Libby (1973)
Chun King Shrimp Chow Mein And Pepper Oriental Dinner
Chun King’s 1975 dinner paired shrimp chow mein with Pepper Oriental, a beef-and-vegetable dish. Founder Jeno Paulucci had sold the company to R.J. Reynolds for $63 million in 1966. ConAgra acquired its frozen-food line in 1986. That little tray came with quite a corporate history.
Screenshot from Chun King TV Dinner Commercial, R.J. Reynolds Foods, Inc. (1974)
Swanson Three-Course Mixed Seafood Grill
Swanson advertised a Mixed Seafood Grill among its three-course dinners in 1965. The range promised everything from soup to dessert. Campbell had bought Swanson in 1955, and Campbell’s soup appeared in the lineup. A complete dinner for customers—and a convenient family business arrangement for the company.
Screenshot from Swanson TV Dinner Commercial, C.A. Swanson & Sons (1963)
Swanson Creamed Chicken Dinner
Creamed chicken was part of Swanson’s expanding lineup in the 60s. It had the comforting, sauce-heavy appeal of a dish someone’s mother might make, with the preparation already handled. It’s a less familiar name in today’s frozen dinner aisle, but it fit the era’s tastes quite comfortably.
Libbyland Sundown Supper
The cowboy-themed Sundown Supper included a hamburger on a bun, franks and beans, corn, fries, and chocolate pudding. A December 1971 newspaper item listed Libbyland dinners at 69 cents each. That bought food, a game, and Milk Magic flavoring for a drink. A busy evening came bundled in one box.
Screenshot from Libbyland Frozen Dinner Commercial, Libby, McNeill & Libby (1973)
Morton Three-Course Chicken And Dumplings Dinner
Morton’s 1969 dinner included chicken and dumplings, peas, potatoes, a brownie, and a separate marshmallow fruit salad. Quite an expansion for a company that began processing chickens in Kentucky in 1938. Somewhere along the way, someone decided chicken and dumplings needed a marshmallow starter. The 60s were certainly adventurous.
Swanson Chopped Sirloin Dinner With A Blueberry Muffin
Swanson promoted its chopped sirloin dinner with a blueberry muffin in 1968. Yes, a muffin alongside the beef. Those small extras helped distinguish one frozen tray from another, and the advertising made a fuss over this one. Breakfast had apparently wandered into dinner, and nobody asked it to leave.
Chef’s Pantry Sloppy Joe Meal
Chef’s Pantry advertised a frozen Sloppy Joe meal in 1965. The brand came from Ohio’s Grill Meats, founded in 1940 selling burger patties to restaurants. Oscar Mayer bought Chef’s Pantry in 1979. This forgotten freezer name had a substantial business behind it, even if the box doesn’t ring a bell.
Libbyland Sea Diver’s Dinner
Sea Diver’s Dinner brought fish sticks into Libbyland’s underwater adventure. These meals were aimed at children, so younger Boomers were the likely audience. The original line ran from 1971 to 1976. It was a short stay in the freezer aisle for boxes that people would remember decades later.
Helen Penjam, Wikimedia Commons
Swanson Fried Shrimp Dinner
Swanson’s 60s fried shrimp dinner came with butterfly-cut shrimp, cocktail sauce, fries, and peas. The advertising emphasized the quality of the seafood, making the tray sound rather more special than a routine supper. Shrimp night didn’t require a restaurant reservation. It required finding room in the freezer.
Swanson Beans And Franks Dinner
Beans and franks hardly needed an introduction, but Swanson turned them into a packaged dinner anyway. One 60s version added apple slices and a dinner roll. It was ordinary family food with the cooking already done. Sometimes the freezer aisle’s big innovation was simply sparing someone another pot to wash.
Which One Would You Bring Back?
Be honest: would you choose the dinner you remember tasting best, or the one with your favorite dessert? A brownie could do a lot for a tray of vegetables. And if your pick is the Twinkie Supper, at least you’re being honest about what you came for.
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