TV Dinners with Swanson - Life in America 

Im in my 60's same story except it was Batman and the Munsters.

To the way way back machine, we got this .

I did the very same thing, eating Swanson’s Salisbury Steak dinners & watching Steve Austin. Good times!

@@irvan36mm fried chicken.

Man I ate a many of these delicious meals growing up. We had a well stocked and organized freezer . Thanks mom and dad for the luxury of life. Couldn't have done it without you.

If they were microwaved dinners your favorite would not have been fried chicken. Natural oven heat makes crispy chicken, microwave makes rubber chicken.

The fried chicken was my favorite too.

@@MelodyMeanFace We didn’t have microwave ovens back in the 1960s when we ate them.

Great memories.❤️

We loved them too! On the rare days my mother didn’t cook from scratch lol we thought is was a real treat to pick our own TV dinner. Even though my mother was a great cook. I’m 60 and we very rarely ate fast food ( only on a trip) and we didn’t really have pizza or Chinese until the mid 70s.

Aw gee and what if SHE wanted to work outside the home?

@@olivegreenpants7153 then she could be the breadwinner and father can stay home and take care of the family…smarty pants. I don’t think she would like the stress that goes along with the responsibility of supporting a family, mortgage, home and car insurance etc.

The good old days 😀

I may have saved one of the foil trays. If so, it's far back in a closet.

America has become more expensive and more greedy, that's what happened

Growing up I ate Swanson tv dinners a lot, especially the Hungry Man version..😁👌

Eating your tv dinner on the tv tray !

My mother was a widow and had to work. We had a live-in babysitter that I'm sure we were a handful for. I think in order to get some peace, she used to feed us in the living room on TV trays. We rarely had TV dinners. When I look back on that time, what I remember is eating sliced up hot dogs (no bun, just sliced on a plate) while watching the Three Stooges. I'm sure we ate other things, but that's the memory that sticks in my mind.

We got them only when my parents had an event and dumped a babysitter on us. Which was only once or twice. Loved them... back then. Haven’t had one in decades... but would probably. I DO still buy and eat Cpt’n Crunch a couple times a year, but never just before a dentist visit... he’d wonder if I have been eating fiberglass.

We lived on a farm, and these instant dinners were considered a special treat, just like homemade butter was considered inferior to margarine. Yikes. All that milk and eggs, and those ghastly Monarch puddings was what we got.... what a strange time it was.

Yes but now that I'm older and a widower I miss the home cooked meal😥

Nope. Nothing like home cooked food. Processed food tastes like crap compared to home made.

@@SnoopyDoofie bullshit //// sodium was ur friend back then hahahaha

Yes, a very weird metal-on-soft metal feeling! I remember that vividly!

@@natehawkins2910 yes! Perfect description!👍🏼

i do ! and my tube socks as well !

@@soulfly4076 ha ha! Yes!

Oh, thank you for that! I had forgotten all about that!

Same with us! Too many kids for TV dinners ( 7 of us all together & 3 adults) so either my mom or Nana cooked! Definitely no fast food until I got a job @ 16 at the Burger King in the nx city! Then they would come through & get a bunch! My stepdad got job as manager of Arthur Treacher’s & loved their fried fish!

I had to get a job in tenth grade and take the bus from school to work so Burger King became dinner and place to do some homework, but before that I remember these crazy dinners in a box. It seemed like just enough for a small child lol.

Actually, home made is best. And the healthiest.😉

@@danityvanityinsanity Yup, now it's not all covered with a bunch of sodium to preserve it and they also cheapened the ingredients so it doesn't taste as good

Exactly the same in our house!

@C. W. Sayre I love their stuffed peppers too & actually have a box in my freezer right now! 🤣Only thing is, they have gotten very small considering the large, overstuffed peppers that you used to get in a pkg. Companies sadly everywhere have cut back on portion sizes & in many cases, quality of product!

It’s strange the things I remember. I recall an interview with Garry Trudeau, the creator of the comic strip “Doonesbury”. At the time he was still a bachelor. He described the success of Doonesbury by saying that when it came to meals, he went from Swanson’s to Stouffer’s. I think he meant that his frozen dinners improved in quality!

4 stuffed peppers=2 lbs I don’t consider that a small portion

Stoffers is owned by Nestle.

Ey

That's either a great story, or a really sad one.......

@@charlesshreeve319 Mom and Dad are gone now but for years and years we all laughed about those TV dinners. Life is made if fond memories.

Those meals were super hero status. Family glueman to the rescue. Lol go out side dig a hole with a stick dinner in 30min then back out wait who has homework do it while I cook and leave me alone I'm busy here.

Trust me... The TV dinners saved many a marriage.. My friends mother could not cook for shit..I think his dad married her for her looks..

Nice story. Greetings from Germany. 🙋‍♀️

I hated pot pies. Granted they were good but they are just above nuclear fission🤣

@@robertwilliams450 I ate many, many of those in college because they were so cheap. I haven't had one in the 40+ years since.

I have never met a pot pie that I ever liked. That dislike goes back to my childhood in the 50s. Ugh!

@@barbarak2836 Has your poor tongue finally recovered?

@@randallmarsh1187 I think so, but I never, ever want a pot pie again.

Me too.

I agree. The apple pie - potential mouth roof burner. Brownie was awful.

The chicken was good but I loved the Salisbury steak (or as my brother called it - a hamburger in gravy). The hot apples with cinnamon were good too.

I too loved the turkey dinner! My favorite actually was the turkey dinner, then I came the meatloaf dinner & finally the fried chicken , close third!

Stick to Italian. The Mediterranean diet is proven to be tasty and healthy

I ate a ton of those growing up

@@t-squared6406 I grew up on them too.

its where dumbass "karen" carlson's $$ came from stuff's crap

....yes, that one was a guilty pleasure.

I so remember that popcorn to & how it would get bigger on the stove! The best memories!

We could never master the Jiffy popcorn touch - it was always burnt on the bottom. I think we used a lot of a popcorn called "TV Time".

I do too! Best videos ever!♥️

Love that song from ZZ Top!

"I even like the truck if it is no a Ford " Ali Arshad

Tv dinners there's nothing left to eat🎸🎸

And it sucked when your teacher said you needed to bring one and you didn't have any. Their other favorite was empty oatmeal boxes for drums etc. It always happened right after my mom threw away an empty box and opened a new one. We didn't have plastic containers like we do now, so she would call around to see if a neighbor had a box that was almost empty, or we'd be eating a lot of oatmeal. Didn't like it then and can't eat it now without gagging.

Ha! Me and my brother also. Mom and Dad went to the mall and my brother and myself would watch any number of TV shows in reruns or prime time. Emergency, Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea, The Invaders, and on and on. Great memories.

Yep in the 60s mom and dad would go out on sat. Night to dinner and leave me at home with the babysitter and TV dinner.......the best of times

This reminds me, when I was in first or second grade, I was visiting a friend who was about to have lunch before his nap (He was 3 years younger than me). He told me his mother was fixing him a "beef Popeye". The way he described it, I pictured Popeye's face created out of beef! 😆😆😆 He claimed it was singing "I'm Popeye the sailor man" as it was cooking on the stove! Later on when I told my mother my friend had "a beef Popeye" for lunch, she explained he meant "beef pot pie". Denny's used to have a decent chicken pot pie. Wish they'd bring it back.

@@MisterMikeTexas 😄

You are certainly right about that. They were much better then.

Absolutely true & so much better “back then!” Loved the turkey( my favorite), meatloaf, fried chicken & Salisbury Steak dinners too.... my favorites!

@@karenstrycharz1499 they all were pretty much good. But I haven't seen any ham tv dinners in ages, do they still exist? And yep I fondly remember tv trays too. Probably stopped using aluminum trays cause who wants to wait for the oven when microwave ovens are faster.

@@karenstrycharz1499 fried chicken was one of my favorites besides ham. The good old days , gone but not forgotten.

Back when they used meat, not hydrolyzed soy protein fillers! I do however, remember the mashed potatoes as a bit granular and watery tho. But I loved them!

No gmo's then or frankenfood.....

Same here. Dad bought IGA brand or other store brand TV dinners, but I loved them. My friends (and I too now) are pretty all well off now, and most do complain a lot about what’s served to them. I remember how we couldn’t afford Pop Tarts or Fruit Roll Ups or Corn Pops cereal and went with generic or without. But I loved it anyways!

Lofl

i wish

TV dinners are still out there and pretty much taste the same as they always did. Actually there are a lot more of them since alot of people are wanting fast and various meals.

@@carolynmiles9281 no hotdog and beans with cornbread stopped making it

You can buy replica collectable metal trays... Oven Safe, but not microwave friendly! :-) And my, oh my, remember the little TV Dinner Tray tables ? Folding metal legs, and usually some wood or floral pattern on top... still some original ones available on e - bay . . .

There's not much Tom *won't* eat; he's had everything conceivable at one time or another.

I like his channel too.

And Don't Forget The Secrete Ingredient. 👍

Terrific channel. The meals combined with his recollections of his Hollywood years are just the right way to relax.

Oh gosh! I remember them too, 🤣now that you mention it. Remember eating some of these “exotic” meals! Ha!

Me, too. Not sure which company made it but I vividly recall the Veal Parmigiana dinner. Now that was considered something fancy.

@@zzydny Oh yes, I remember the veal parmigiana too, now that you mention it & loved that one, too! Forgot all about it until you just mentioned it but I remember my mom buying that one for my step-dad too. I really loved the Veal Parmigiana!!!

@@karenstrycharz1499 I got to choose which dinner I wanted as an encouragement to eat quietly alone in my room so that the adults could have dinner without being bothered by the brat! Oh my. Good thing I liked Veal Parmigiana. I remember trying all the international dinners.

@@zzydny Was that the one with green beans and Alfredo?

Meatloaf & mashed potatoes tied as my favorite with their turkey dinners!! I too loved meat loaf dinners!!!! Loved the mashed potatoes in the “tomato sauce gravy!!!” Yum! Yum!♥️

Exactly and we didn’t have much money so TV dinners, Kool Aid and jello or chocolate pudding. Very economical and pretty tasty.

Forget Jello... my family was snutety high-class and ate Whip'n'Chill

Loved both!

It's "Haddock"

I’ve tried Salisbury Steak later in life and it never tasted as good.

"Not Great at Gaming", ME TOO! LOL! Great childhood memories.

It was my mom’s favorite too, along with the meatloaf dinner!

hot-dog-BBQ-beans was good

@@mars188 Actually, that too.

Life is short so be sure to eat dessert first.

I will eat the iPad dinners since I sit in front of my iPad to eat them.

I.laov.amarica.may.nam.is.a.a.sanwal.maqbool.in.pakestan.l.peles.jop.

She sounds like she was a great grandmother! Loved my Nana too & I think of her most ever day even though she has been gone almost fifty yrs! I am so well aware of the memories you leave behind with our own grandchildren, due to the fun, love & caring my Nana treated me with!♥️

@@karenstrycharz1499 Me too..everyday something I see or think about reminds me of Nana Lupe M.Leon..my mothers mom..RIP passed in 1985..

Grew up in the 60's and yes, going to McDonald's was a treat for us. A family of 4 could eat for less than a dollar. Hamburgers and fries were 15 cents. There was also no indoor dining, only a walk-up window (early-mid 60's). Always wished I could be older so I could work there and get to wear one of those goofy hats their employees wore. Those hats were considered a "badge of honor" back in those days. A teen was lucky if they could secure a job there.

It was my favorite too!!!

I was going to say that. They did have a unique taste.

“Everything’s better with Blue Bonnet on it!” That jingle sticks with me 35 years later. Lol Mom always used imperial margarine too, tho!

OMG RC Cola!!! When Coke came out with 'new' Coke, I switched to RC and never looked back!

Yes, remember the commercials where a crown suddenly appeared on the head of everyone who tasted Imperial margarine? 1960's...a great time to be a kid!

I think the quality diminished over the years. When I was younger (late 70's to early 80's) I remember eating them and thinking they were OK.

My mom was the same! Seven of us kids & she cooked every night or my Nana did. One thing though & I remember fish sticks with mashed potatoes & peas every Friday( with ketchup)! My husband was appalled when we got married & he asked me if I liked fish 🐠 & I told him “Yes, fish sticks!” He said “That isn’t fish, Karen!”🤣I told him I didn’t like any other kinds of fish but now, 49 yrs later we have been married, he has me eating all types of fish & I love it! Never had fish sticks again though after getting married for as I said my husband hated fish sticks. They have better quality now though!

@@karenstrycharz1499 - haha, yes, I have not had fish sticks/fingers since I left home many years ago. Maybe I tried to cook them once or twice when I first moved out, I have a vague memory of burning them and not being able to do them like mom did. So they went by the wayside. Sometimes at as kids on Fridays we got battered fish fillets and chips from the shop, slightly steamed from being wrapped in newspaper, with lemon slices and those little packets of tartare sauce.

Your mom sounds judgemental.

Ditto when my mom went back to college and my dad worked full time. I was a latchkey kid before there were latchkey kids.

There's something to be said for homemade hamburgers. We never appreciated them til we were grown.

Same here. No TV dinners for us; we never ate out; took one 3-day vacation during my childhood. We ate sandwiches from a cooler & meals @ relatives' homes that we visited over those 3 days... We was POOR! 😉

@@raallen1468 "we never ate out." Can I get an Amen?

Wonder Bread! There is another video idea:)

@@choward5430 And.... on our ONE family vacation, we slept in the car & on picnic tables @ a roadside park the 1st night, then slept on the wooden, uncarpeted floors @ relatives' houses we visited. 4 kids. We was POOR! 😉

Where can you get a TV dinner for $1.50?

I was thinking the same thing! $0.98 for a single serving meal when $1.00 bought 4 gallons of gas and minimum wage was $0.75 an hour. That's pricey enough to be a special treat!

Of course a $1.50 meal today tastes like hot garbage. But, you're right, that 98 cents is almost $10 today.

@@deanvoss7098 You can find them for $1 at most grocery stores, but those cheap one are even more awful than normal.

I think that was the price when they first came out. During the 1960s they were always on sale and I think you could get one for 29-49 cents.

I forgot about the veal Parmesan. I loved that too!♥️

YES!! Still great. In fact, I preferred Swanson's $1.99 version more than the unnamed national Italian eatery's version! The breaded veal is awesome! I still buy a dozen of them when they're on special.

I have to say Mark, that was indeed, very, very cool!!!!

Salisbury is one of the cheapest TV dinners. Perhaps your mom got it because it was the cheapest. I don't know if you noticed it but when a lot of grocery stores have a sale on TV dinners you will see the real popular dinners gone like hungry man Mexican because they put them in a freezer in the storage room because they know they sale good even at full price.?

Wow

@@briantruck2284 Just incase you didn't realize it, I was being funny!

Some truth in it though. They were very expensive indeed when launched.

Yep...and the brownie with corn kernals baked into the top