I joined WW for the first time in 1972 (I was 8 years old) and WW always focused on eating as "normally" as possible - meaning as much like non-dieters as possible.
I collect cookbooks and I have a few from the 1970's and have several (most not diet) containing recipes about as appetizing. It's both sad and funny that these recipes are more characteristic of the 1970's than they are of Weight Watchers specifically.
I had one book (not a diet cookbook) that has at least a dozen casserole recipes calling for hot dogs, and apparently Velveeta was considered gourmet fare. Canned fish, dried beef apparently was also quite popular. And Durkee fried onions in a can went on just about everything except jello. (Now the jello cookbooks from this era are REALLY scary).
As a child of the 70's, I remember some odd concoctions my mom would make from cookbooks (some even containing tuna and Velveeta), but mostly she followed family recipes that were more classic.
Well, I don't know about the 70s but I still don't like their recipes. I sometimes check the cookbooks and magazines and hardly ever find anything that looks good, doesn't include artificial stuff or their products.
I don't think I tried a single recipe I really liked.
As aimeebell said: "then it would be so gross that she would throw it away, 0 calories"
That being said, they do actually have some pretty great recipes today. There's one my mom still makes sometimes, they're not even trying to lose weight. It's good, basically chicken breast and sliced onions cooked in an herby tomato sauce.