A Pop-Tart Comedy From Jerry Seinfeld

A race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast

In a time when milk and cereal ruled breakfast, a fierce corporate battle begins over a revolutionary new pastry. Jerry Seinfeld is starring in, writing, and directing a film about the Pop-Tart. Yeah, you read that right.

Jerry Seinfeld has been thinking about the Pop-Tart for a long time. As far back as a Late Show appearance in 2010, the comedian and actor has been stewing on the rectangular Kellogg’s snack. In 2018, he tweeted that he’d been thinking about “an invention of the [Pop-Tart] movie.” Soon, the idea spread into his work.

“Co-writer Spike Feresten and I, as a joke, would say to each other, ‘Let’s make a movie about Pop-Tarts,’ ” Seinfeld told Netflix. “And then when the pandemic happened and we had nothing to do, he said, ‘Let’s really write this as a movie.’”

With Unfrosted, that long-joked-about movie is now a reality. Set in Michigan in 1963, the year before Pop-Tarts hit grocery store shelves and shocked young Jerry Seinfeld into a 60-year trajectory toward this very moment.

“My first memory of Pop-Tarts is, once I tasted it, I assumed they would not continue to make other types of food,” Seinfeld recalled. “It would no longer be necessary to eat anything else.”

For the record, Seinfeld’s favorite Pop-Tart flavor is brown sugar cinnamon. Toasted, to be clear.

“I do not like Pop-Tarts untoasted,” Seinfeld said. “The flavors come together in the toaster. There’s something sad about a cold Pop-Tart. It’s soulless. It’s devoid of emotion. Incomplete.”

Seinfeld directs, co-writes, and stars in the new film, which tells the story of the cutthroat and breakneck race to invent the Pop-Tart. In his last comedy special, 23 Hours to Kill, Seinfeld called the Pop-Tart a “perfect vision of the future from Kellogg’s.” But at what cost? We’re about to find out.

Kellogg’s and Post, sworn cereal rivals, race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast forever. A tale of ambition, betrayal, sugar, and menacing milkmen, Unfrosted stars writer-director Jerry Seinfeld.

Part of the genesis of Unfrosted was the simple fact that a serious boardroom meeting about cereal is, well, not very serious.

“We love the idea of grown-up men in suits talking about cereal all day,” Seinfeld said. “The silliness of how they look and what they talk about just seemed like a fantastic world to be in. You want to put Jim Gaffigan in a tight suit and a blustery kind of face [shouting], ‘And you gentlemen better take this work more seriously!’ But it’s about crinkles and puffs and sprinkles and pops, and they’re adults.”

Is Unfrosted based on a true story?

Well, yes. And no.

“This really did happen in Battle Creek, Michigan, where Kellogg’s and Post were located, and they did compete to come up with this product,” Seinfeld said. “But the rest of it is complete lunacy.”

In other words, take all of this with a grain of salt (or maybe sugar).

“We’re going to tell you a story, but if we want to do something funny that doesn’t make any sense, we’re going to do that too,” Seinfeld said.

Jokes aside, the framework of Unfrosted is borrowed from a few beloved classics.

“The film that inspired us the most was the Philip Kaufman NASA movie The Right Stuff,” Seinfeld recalled. “That was the basic template. But we stole from a lot of different movies. We stole from The Godfather, we stole from Mad Men, we stole from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. So, when you watch the movie, see if you can count how many movies we ripped off.”

Alongside Seinfeld, the film will feature a host of fellow comedians and actors, including Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Jim Gaffigan (Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster), Amy Schumer (Amy Schumer: The Leather Special), Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral), Max Greenfield (New Girl), Christian Slater (Heathers), Bill Burr (Old Dads), Daniel Levy (Good Grief), James Marsden (Enchanted), Jack McBrayer (30 Rock), Thomas Lennon (A Futile and Stupid Gesture), Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live), Adrian Martinez (The Guilty), Sarah Cooper (Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine), and Fred Armisen (Portlandia).

“It’s a huge cast. I don’t know how it got so big,” Seinfeld said. “I remember that we had nobody for a long time. And then Hugh Grant called and said he heard about the movie, and he wanted to be Tony the Tiger. Then, the next thing I knew, everybody was in it, and it was incredible.”