What did the first Swanson brand "TV Dinner" also called "TV Brand Frozen Dinner" consist of?

The first Swanson-brand TV Dinner was produced in the United States in the 1950s and consisted of a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, cornbread dressing, frozen peas and sweet potatoes packaged in a tray like those used at the time for airline food service.

Swanson's TV dinner is a prepackaged, ready-made meal. In the United States and Canada it usually consists of a type of meat for the main course, and sometimes vegetables, potatoes, and/or a dessert. The main dish can also be pasta or fish. In European frozen meals, Indian and Chinese meals are common.

The term TV dinner, (the full name was TV Brand Frozen Dinner), was first used as part of a brand of packaged meals developed in 1953 by the company C.A. Swanson & Sons. The original TV Dinner came in an aluminum tray and was heated in an oven. In the US and Canada, the term is synonymous with any packaged meal or dinner purchased frozen in a supermarket and heated at home.

Today most frozen food trays are made of a microwaveable and disposable material, usually plastic or coated cardboard.

The meals became quite popular because the entire dinner could be removed from the outer packaging as a unit, the tray with its aluminum foil covering could be heated directly in the oven without any extra dishes, and one could eat the meal directly from the tray.

The original TV Dinner sold for 98 cents, and had a production estimate of 5,000 dinners for the first year.