Fascinated by retro frozen dinners? From Mexican enchiladas to fish and chips, these are the retired TV dinners we wish we ...

But the nearby sign explaining who invented the TV dinner is another matter. As Swanson celebrates the 50th anniversary of its famous frozen meal, there is no shortage of people taking credit.

From the Swanson TV dinners of the 1950s to the Realgood frozen foods of today, the freezer aisle's stalwarts have evolved over the last several decades.

Whatever their origins, TV dinners were a hit. In their first full year of production, 1954, Swanson sold 25 million of them.

Swanson took full advantage of this trend, with TV advertisements that depicted elegant, modern women serving these novel meals to their families, or enjoying one themselves.

Culinary Arts How America Tuned In to the TV Dinner The illustrator Koren Shadmi chronicles the half-baked history of the once beloved Swanson meal-in-a-tray.