Writer of Seinfeld’s Pop-Tarts Movie Talks Jan. 6, Mad Men

[This story includes spoilers for the Netflix movie Unfrosted.]

The excitement round Unfrosted is heating up, with Jerry Seinfeld‘s closely fictionalized Pop-Tart origin story now streaming on Netflix.

Seinfeld, who stars within the comedy film that marks his function directorial debut, additionally co-wrote the venture’s screenplay. Contributing to the script was Spike Feresten, who labored with Seinfeld on the legendary NBC sitcom Seinfeld, with Feresten having penned one of many present’s most beloved and quotable episodes, “The Soup Nazi.”

Throughout a dialog with The Hollywood Reporter, Feresten mentioned a number of the most memorable moments for the movie that’s set in 1963. This features a plot level involving the Kellogg’s cereal mascots boycotting the corporate out of concern that the Pop-Tart will make them irrelevant, which results in a sequence during which the mascots storm the corporate’s workplaces à la the assault on the U.S. Capitol Constructing on Jan. 6, 2021.

Feresten defined that the sequence felt like the proper match resulting from a wide range of elements. He famous that Thurl Ravenscroft, the actor who initially voiced Tony the Tiger and is performed within the movie by Hugh Grant, got here near hanging in actual life resulting from feeling that he was underpaid.

“Whereas we had been writing it, there was an precise strike at Kellogg’s happening,” Feresten says. “After which, in fact, there was the rebel, and we thought, ‘Why don’t we now have our personal mascot rebel?’ However actually, what it was about was costumed creatures doing violent issues. We thought that will be a humorous picture set of photos. We didn’t actually suppose the rebel was humorous, however we thought, ‘If we are able to pull off violent strikes with mascots, that may very well be a humorous scenario.’”

In line with Feresten, the first impetus for the sequence was to assist push the story ahead. “It was by no means, ‘We wish to do a Jan. 6 factor,’” he continues. “While you’re constructing a narrative, you’re simply placing piece on high of piece. And that story led us there, and we thought, ‘If we do that rapidly and we make it humorous, possibly the viewers will get pleasure from it.’ And that was actually the purpose of all the things within the film: instructing jokes and scenes that’ll brighten folks’s day, even when it might mirror one thing that was ugly.”

One other memorable second entails Mad Males alums Jon Hamm and John Slattery showing as their characters from the Emmy-winning AMC sequence as they try to pitch Kellogg’s on a salacious Pop-Tarts promoting marketing campaign. Feresten remembers that Seinfeld was rewatching Mad Males through the pandemic because the Unfrosted workforce was engaged on the script, and that the writers would watch episodes over lunch.

“There was this nice scene with Jon Hamm pitching a lipstick producer, and he’s so imply to him,” Feresten says. “And Jerry mentioned, ‘I don’t get it. They’re simply writing advertisements. Why are they being so imply?’ Then somebody mentioned, ‘It’s ’63. In idea, these guys might come pitch Kellogg’s the Pop-Tart.’ And we went, ‘Oh, my God, can we try this? Is that too meta — a fictional film, however an actual TV sequence?’”

Feresten explains that everybody was rapidly supportive about revisiting the drama sequence. “We wrote the scene, after which we fell in love with the scene, after which it needed to occur,” he says. “Hamm and Slattery had been on board proper from the very starting. That scene nonetheless provides me chills once I watch it as a result of for Jerry, should you had requested him if there have been any drama he’d ever wish to be in, he would go, ‘It might be Mad Males.’ A few of the furnishings within the scene is from Mad Males. That’s actually Jerry residing out one in every of his fantasies.”

Moreover, Feresten praises Netflix for supporting the artistic workforce all through the method, provided that the writers hadn’t gotten permission from any of the manufacturers that they included of their script. “This wasn’t Barbie,” he quips. “We didn’t have Mattel on board. We’d type of written this secretly through the pandemic, by no means anticipating to make it. So we employed a clearance lawyer, Michael Donaldson, and he mentioned, ‘Nobody has an expectation of fact from Jerry Seinfeld. They’ve an expectation of humor, so go forward and do it. Quite a lot of the oldsters you’re speaking about are lifeless. We’ve a saying in clearance: the deader, the higher. You don’t should ask the permission to Walter Cronkite.’”

Feresten provides, “Right here we’re. After which Netflix mentioned, ‘Don’t fear about it.’”