In the decade of the 1950s, society still clung to the nuclear family ideal and traditional gender roles. TV viewers by the millions watched idealized representations of the perfect family on shows like Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, and The Donna Reed Show (Spangler, 2008). But many women remained in the workforce even after the end of WWII, and working women felt guilty about leaving their families. Men also felt resentment that their wives were not around to provide the kind of home lives they were used to (Carmichael, 2012). TV dinners came to the rescue. Advertising capitalized on the desire to maintain the traditional nuclear family, and the guilt and resentment felt by both wives and husbands, by providing an all-encompassing solution. The TV dinner was the perfect answer.