'Unfrosted' writer Spike Feresten reveals why working with Jerry Seinfeld on Netflix movie felt like 'Seinfeld' Season 8, Season 9

In an episode of Spike Feresten's "Spike's Car Radio" podcast, Jerry Seinfeld described the Unfrosted movie on Netflix, co-written by Seinfeld, Feresten, Andy Robin and Barry Marder, as a film to watch "if you've been missing people making insane things." The Seinfeld star, who also directed and stars in Unfrosted, gave us the most accurate description of the movie you'll get.

Set in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1963, Unfrosted is about a fight for breakfast supremacy between cereal giants Kellogg’s and Post. The rival companies are racing to create this stuffed pastry that will revolutionize breakfast, ultimately leading to the Pop-Tart.

With the impressive cast including Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, Amy Schumer, Max Greenfield, Christian Slater, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Moynihan, Adrian Martinez, Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, Bill Burr, Daniel Levy, Tony Hale, Cedric the Entertainer, Fred Armisen and so many more actors, the comedy here is no surprise. But Unfrosted also navigates mixing real events and anecdotes into this fictionalized story. Because of that, it is really a movie you need to watch more than once to take it all in.

Watch: Netflix 'Unfrosted' co-writer on creating Pop-Tarts movie with Jerry Seinfeld

Why 'Unfrosted' felt like working on Season 8 and Season 9 of 'Seinfeld' for Spike Feresten

Unfrosted was a sort of pandemic project, it started as a way for Seinfeld, Feresten, Robin and Marder to socialize over Zoom.

"We just started riffing on this Pop-Tart story idea that we had been riffing on for, I think close to 10 years. Like, is this really an idea? Would we somehow make this? What exactly is it? We don't know, but we're having a good time. Let's just keep going," Feresten, who wrote particularly infamous episodes of Seinfeld, including "The Soup Nazi," told Yahoo Canada.

"At some point, I think it was Andy Robin who said, the structure of this movie is like The Right Stuff. And like Ford v Ferrari, Kellogg's versus Post. Suddenly, we started to see the structure of a movie that we could hang all of our stupid jokes on."

In Feresten's "Spike's Car Radio" podcast, the Unfrosted co-writer teased that working on this movie felt like working on Seinfeld Seasons 8 and 9 specifically. Feresten explained that it's reminiscent of that time on the '90s show because, "Jerry didn't have Larry [David] by his side."

"The show was a little more broad, it was a little more Jerry's taste in comedy," Feresten explained. "It's interesting, because we all just watched the two of them together on the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, ... Jerry walks into the show and suddenly it changed."

"The two of them start going, and everybody's like, 'Boy, that looks like a show.' Well, that was the engine that drove Seinfeld. ... And Jerry and I have a different alchemy. I wanted him to have a great time making this movie, so I pushed back a lot, but at the end of the day I always said to him, 'You have 51 per cent. If we're 50/50 we won't be friends at the end of this. I'm going to fight you on stuff, but you have 51 per cent and you can make a decision.'"

Spike Feresten gave up his on-camera cameo role in 'Unfrosted'

Someone who also found a specific rapport with Seinfeld was McCarthy, sharing most of her scenes with him throughout the Unfrosted, as the leaders of Kellogg's Pop-Tart development.

"Melissa, obviously way more experienced at making movies than we were, just came on and goes, 'Hey, guys, no, no, no, we're going to do it like this.' And we'd go, 'OK whatever you want Melissa,'" Feresten said. "She would surprise us every day with her improvising and her physicality, just making us laugh every take, in different ways."

"That was part of the the fun of making this movie, every day was that. We'd walk on and most of these folks I didn't know, I'd only seen them, like you, in a movie or a TV show. And Jerry the same. We were just delighted."

But fans of "Spike's Car Radio" will also know that Feresten himself was going to play a role in the movie, specifically the custodian who's a sort of spy with a camera in his mop. But ultimately the role went to Gregory Burke.

"Greg Burke, who was with us when we were writing the movie, on the Zoom, and who is an actor, I was so happy to give him that part," Feresten said. "I had been thinking about how to reward him for putting up with us in the room for so long."

"I had just gotten a text from somebody who said, I just watched the movie and Bill Burr, incredible as JFK, and whoever that guy was, the custodian with the camera in his mop. I went, 'Look at that Greg!'"

But Feresten does play a part in the movie: The voice of the baby ravioli featured in the Pop-Tart development.

With so many comedy icons in Unfrosted, who come in with a variety of different experiences, from movies to TV shows and Saturday Night Live, Feresten described it as "a masterclass in comedy acting."

"The two of us, but primarily Jerry was always like, 'How do we talk to this person and get what we need out of their acting?" he said. "You had to very quickly go, 'OK what kind of actor is Hugh Grant? What kind of actor is Melissa McCarthy?' The SNL guys, they do whatever you want. You can whisper to them after you call action and they're like, 'Yeah, I'm good.'"

"We just wanted a friendly, happy set. That's all we wanted. And that starts with being respectful of their process and figuring it out. We were happy to have that. It was another one of those unique experiences where it was just a happy place to be, where we were looking forward to going to work every day. Then we'd be sitting there giggling like children at the monitors watching our favourite funny people read our lines, and we hope that kind of comes across."