Is Unfrosted Based On A True Story? (2024)

Netflix’s Unfrosted takes some of its inspiration from a true story, but not all of it. The movie is directed, co-written by, and stars comedian Jerry Seinfeld, so it’s clearly a real passion project for him. It follows Seinfeld’s character, Bob Cabana, as he recounts a story about the origin of the breakfast food pop-tarts when he is picked as the team leader to develop a new food for Kellogg.

In addition to Seinfeld’s involvement in the movie, there is a whole host of talented comedy actors that appear as well, including Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Max Greenfield, and Amy Schumer, so the audience could tell they were going to get a more comedic spin on a movie instead of something like a dryer biopic. That means that Unfrosted can be rooted in reality while still telling a funny and fictional tale.

The Truth And The Fiction That Inspired Unfrosted

Most Of Unfrosted Is Actually Fiction

Unfrosted features so many gags and jokes that it might seem like it’s impossibly far-fetched. There is, however, a kernel of truth to the story. Pop-tarts were invented by Kellogg in the 1960s to compete with Post’s Country Squares, for example. According to 2013’s Whole Pop Magazine, they also did much better on the market than anyone expected, selling out of grocery store shelves in just two weeks, prompting Kellogg to run an ad apologizing for running out of inventory.

While that bit of truth might provide a tipping off point for the movie’s story, it’s not entirely what inspired the movie. The true story provides a nice framework. The movie was also inspired, like Seinfeld’s sitcom before it, by one of Jerry Seinfeld’s own jokes. When Seinfeld crafted a stand-up comedy special for Netflix, one of the bits in the special involved him discussing how impressed he was by pop-tarts as a child. He remarked:

How did they know that there would be a need for a frosted fruit-filled heated rectangle in the same shape as the box it comes in, and with the same nutrition as the box it comes in?

That joke led to him penning a script with Spike Feresten, Andy Robin, and Barry Marder, and Netflix greenlighting the project in 2021.

How Unfrosted Made It To The Screen

Seinfeld Admitted Unfrosted Became A Pandemic Project

In 2017, Jerry Seinfeld signed a production deal with Netflix. That deal included bringing new stand-up specials to the streamer as well as his interview series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. In 2020, when film and television productions shut down all over the world as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a focus on public health and isolation, Seinfeld was quarantined like so many others. It was while isolating that Seinfeld wanted to make something that would make people smile.

He told Deadline:

Stuck at home watching endless sad faces on TV, I thought this would be a good time to make something based on pure silliness. So we took my Pop-Tart stand-up bit from my last Netflix special and exploded it into a giant, crazy comedy movie.

Seinfeld has always built his stories about what will make people laugh, and he did the same with the idea of a pop-tarts origin story. The script was initially sent to auction to see which studios would be interested in making an offer, but per Deadline, the fact that he had an established relationship with Netflix is what helped the movie get the greenlight.

Netflix committed to filming the movie in 2022, and it premiered on the streamer in 2024.

How Unfrosted Differs From The Real Story

There Are Many Differences Between Unfrosted And The Truth

The rivalry that existed in the 1960s between Kellogg and Post is one of the few true aspects of the story. That and pop-tarts selling out in record time. Most of the rest of the movie is fictional, right down to how the idea for pop-tarts came to be.

There was no looking to Post’s dumpsters to see what new products they were working on. Instead, Post actually announced their creation of Country Squares months before the product was ready to hit supermarket shelves (via Chicago Tribune). That gave their competitors a chance to develop their own breakfast treat. They then hired William Post (no relation to the rival cereal company) to head up the project, giving him a deadline of four months to create the new product (via WWMT News).

Though pop-tarts went through a lot of names after they were developed, the company decided on pop-tart as a nod to the pop art movement of the 1960s (via Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat). That idea does get a nod in the movie, though a more satirical one, as Andy Warhol supposedly despises the idea that a breakfast food is taking attention away from his art.

No reports of any negotiations going on with heads of organized crime for sugar exist, and the dairy farmers were not actually running their outfits like gang leaders, both of which the movie uses as a way to satirize business operations. Pop-tarts did, however, grow to be hugely popular with dozens of flavors created after the initial four that debuted in 1964.

What Happened To The Man Who Inspired Bob Cabana

Bob Cabana’s Inspiration Lived To Be 96 Years Old

Seinfeld’s character is Bob Cabana, hired to make a rectangular fruit-filled pastry a reality. Cabana is inspired by real-life Kellogg employee William Post, who had previously worked for the Hekman Biscuit Company. Post had been working for the Hekman Biscuit Company since he was 16, rising to the role of plant manager before he was approached by Kellogg about working on a new project for them (via NY Times). They wanted him to use his plant to craft their new pastry.

He did lead the team that created the pop-tart for Kellogg's and he is actually the person responsible for adding icing to pop-tarts in 1967 (via Washington Post). He eventually became the vice president of Keebler’s until he retired from the food industry. After retiring, Post still worked as a brand consultant until 2003.

William Post died in February 2024, just a few months before Unfrosted premiered on Netflix.

4/10

Unfrosted

PG-13

Biography

Comedy

History

Unfrosted is a 2024 biographical comedy directed, written, and starring Jerry Seinfeld. The film takes place in 1963 Battle Creek, Michigan, where Kellogg's and Post are fighting to create a new world-changing breakfast pastry.

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Director

Jerry Seinfeld

Release Date

May 3, 2024

Writers

Jerry Seinfeld , Spike Feresten , Andy Robin , Barry Marder

Cast

Jerry Seinfeld , Melissa McCarthy , Jim Gaffigan , Hugh Grant , amy schumer , Max Greenfield , Christian Slater , Bill Burr , Daniel Levy , James Marsden , Jack McBrayer , Thomas Lennon , Bobby Moynihan , Adrian Martinez , Sarah Cooper , Fred Armisen

Runtime

93 Minutes