Jerry Seinfeld ‘Couldn’t Stop Laughing’ About His Upcoming Pop-Tarts Movie
Jerry Seinfeld made it clear that he has no plans to return to scripted television. After the massive success of Seinfeld — which ran for 9 seasons — he went back to standup and even starred in Bee Movie. His Netflix TV show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee felt like homecoming too.
Fans may be surprised to learn that he’s putting on his director’s hat for a film about Pop-Tarts. That’s right, it’s as intriguing and funny as it sounds, and Seinfeld himself couldn’t stop laughing about the idea.
Jerry Seinfeld explains upcoming ‘Pop-Tarts’ movie
Seinfeld appeared as a guest on the Smartless podcast with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. As they dug into his career trajectory, he noted that he found happiness in standup and was content after retiring his TV show. But, the comedian explained that he veered into moviemaking again, and the new project is based on one of his comedy bits.
“During the virus [lockdown], one of my writers was looking at one of my standup bits about the Pop-Tart, and he said, ‘We should do a movie about the Pop-Tart.’ For five years, I just laughed at him when he would say that,” Seinfeld explained.
His writer asked for a meeting with one other writer, and Seinfeld agreed to a Zoom chat to hear them out. “We started talking about The Right Stuff. What if we did it like The Right Stuff — you know, Kellogg’s versus Post in 1964 like the U.S. versus Russia? And I started laughing, and the next thing we knew, we wrote this movie, and now we’re shooting it in a few months,” Seinfeld said.
Titled Unfrosted, he’s directing and starring in it, and the film will premiere on Netflix. Production begins in the spring.
The Post vs. Kellogg Pop-Tart saga has real history
Back in the day, Post developed its own creation for a toaster pastry in 1963 and announced it to the world as “Country Squares.” Part of their selling point was the distinct foil packaging they developed.
There was a media frenzy, and people got excited. However, the breakfast treat did not make it to market right away. As a result, Kellogg’s snagged the idea for itself, and deemed their product the “Pop-Tart.”
Within 6 months, Kellogg’s introduced four flavors, — all without frosting — and they couldn’t keep enough of the item on the shelves. Poor Post could only sell its marketing rights.
Seinfeld said they’re not ‘sugar-coating the story’
Seinfeld told the Smartless hosts that they’re doing a deep dive into the true Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts versus Post story. He shared that Marjorie Post owned the General Foods/Post brand, and she built the famous Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
While that’s noteworthy, he said the story will start with her, and then it gets silly. “We turned Kellogg’s into kind of a movie studio where Tony the Tiger is at the commissary; it’s very silly. It’s almost Mad Mad World-type of comedy,” he noted.
Meanwhile, fans can stream all 180 episodes of his beloved Seinfeld series on Netflix.
