The TV dinner was presented to American consumers in 1953, but the true inventor of the TV dinner is still a hotly contested debate (Carmichael, 2012). The most popular, and certainly most entertaining, story revolves around several tons of unsold Thanksgiving turkeys. The Swanson Company had to solve the problem of what to do with the carcasses. As if right out of a prequel to the movie "Speed," the birds were riding the rails in refrigerated box cars in a desperate attempt to delay their decay (Carmichael, 2012). Gerry Thomas, a salesman for Swanson, is credited for designing the very first multi-compartment tray, which revolutionized the idea of frozen prepared food (Carmichael, 2012).