It’s What’s for Breakfast
Jerry Seinfeld makes his directorial debut with ‘Unfrosted,’ a film that’s more than just empty calories
Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. It’s also long been a fixture of Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy — from “The Tonight Show” routines about Cookie Crisp to the Honeycomb and Raisin Bran boxes lining the shelves of his cupboards on “Seinfeld.” His directorial debut, “Unfrosted,” brings the obsession full circle, chronicling the s origins of Kellogg’s Pop-tart.
“It’s really just candy disguised as a meal,” he says of the appeal of breakfast food. “And I really just want candy.”
Seinfeld juggles a lot of, ahem, bowls on the Netflix film. He not only directed but also co-wrote, produced and stars in “Unfrosted,” which evolved from a joke told about the venerable toaster pastry in his Netflix special “ Hours to Kill.” Ahead of the movie’s May debut, the comedian reveals his inspirations for its heavily fictionalized story — and contemplates which cereal might prompt a return to the director’s chair.
In telling the origin story of the Pop-tart, when did you decide that printing the legend was a better route than telling the real story? Well, as a comedian, the last thing that would interest me would be the truth.
Were there speci c s brand icons or people that you wanted to highlight — even if you were going to make fun of them? I remember reading when JFK assembled his Cabinet after he was elected in , he said, “I don’t care if they’re political — I just want the best minds in America.” I thought, that’s a ’ s problem-solution idea, so we thought, who were the greatest minds of the ’ s? And the only people we knew who were bigger than Chef Boyardee were Jack Lalanne and whoever invented Sea-monkeys, who turned out to be this ex-nazi.
How tough was it to get permission to use their actual names? Parody protects you with most of it. Thurl Ravenscroft was the real name of the guy who played Tony the Tiger — I knew I wasn’t going to beat that. Harold von Braunhut did invent Sea-monkeys. But what did this lawyer tell us? “If people are dead, it’s much harder for them to sue you.”
How do you decide which projects you want to devote months or years of your life to? That’s pretty simple. You just have to fall in love with it, and this was easy for me to fall in love with because I really did love it — the idea of returning to the ’ s as an adult, but you’re still in this silly kid’s world. That’s what I like to do.
A cornerstone of so much of your work is this cheerful misanthropy about the world. That is a very good description.
How much is that a persona that you’ve cultivated through your work? I have to spruce it up for public consumption, but that’s really me. Larry David used to always say I don’t get enough credit for my misanthropy.
Coincidentally, this comes out right after the end of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” How does it feel for the “Seinfeld” nale to be so controversial that Larry David felt compelled to re-litigate it more than years later? I don’t think we cared about the controversy, but if there’s a scab, we’re going to pick at it — I think that’s the tendency. I think it bothered him, what people thought of the “Seinfeld” finale. It bothered me too. But I let it go.
What discontinued cereal would you like to bring back? I think I’d give Rice Krinkles another shot. That was a real ’ s cereal. And then there was another one that was kind of frosted flakes with raisins and some other things in there.
Crispy Wheats ’n Raisins? That was a great cereal. Outstanding recollection there — and a brilliant alchemy of ingredients.
If there was another food product from the past that you could tell the story of, what would it be? You really got me going with Crispy Wheats ’n Raisins. I’m going to give that some thought.
Well, if you end up making a Crispy Wheats ’n Raisins story, I’d like a story credit, please. You got it, Todd.