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How That Surprise Cameo In Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted Came Together [Exclusive]

Unfrosted Netflix
By Ben Pearson/

This post contains spoilers for "Unfrosted."

As you might expect from its subject matter, Jerry Seinfeld's "Unfrosted," a film about the creation of the Pop-Tart, is an extremely silly comedy. It's also (very loosely) based on the real-world rivalry between Kellogg's and Post, and since the film chronicles the creation of a new product from a major company in the 1960s, the movie also contains a scene in which Don Draper and Roger Sterling from AMC's "Mad Men" drop by to pitch an advertising campaign for what would eventually be named the Pop-Tart. Yes, after dropping the mic in one of the most famous series finales of this century when "Mad Men" ended in 2015, actors Jon Hamm and John Slattery returned to reprise their most memorable roles in a goofy Netflix comedy.

So how the heck did Seinfeld and his team make this happen? I recently spoke with "Unfrosted" producer and co-writer Spike Feresten, and I asked him that very question. He explained how the idea initially came up:

"While we were writing this, we would take breaks and watch 'Mad Men' on YouTube just to make us laugh. We considered that really a sitcom. And Jerry had just rewatched the whole season again because of the pandemic. He goes, 'You've gotta see this scene. I don't understand why these advertising executives are so mean. They're just writing TV commercials!' and we'd watch the scene and roar and laugh at Jon Hamm and [John] Slattery's performance. At some point while we were writing, Jerry said, 'You know' — just out of the blue, I remember this so clearly, he goes — 'It is '63, and it is reasonable to assume that Kellogg's would have called the mad men to come in and pitch their product, because we don't have a name for it yet. They would come in and pitch the whole marketing campaign for us.' And we started laughing about, of course it would be weirdly sexual and inappropriate and we would say, 'This is a children's cereal company!' and he would berate them."

The Unfrosted Mad Men cameo was even more elaborate than it looked

Mad Men still Netflix

What started out as a jokey idea eventually turned to Seinfeld actually picking up the phone and calling Hamm and Slattery to ask them if they'd be interested in participating. Ironically, Seinfeld's pitch was pretty convincing. Feresten says once the two men agreed, the "Unfrosted" team prepared the movie's scene specially for the actors — even going as far as to incorporate lighting designs and other elements from "Mad Men" to make the joke even more elaborate:

"We had Bill Pope, our DP, kind of look at 'Mad Men' and look at the lighting. We had some of the actual furniture. One of our set designers, set decorators, had worked on 'Mad Men,' and said, 'I've got a surprise for you boys. This is stuff from Don Draper's office.' So that's in some of those scenes. And it all came together quick, thanks to Jon and John Slattery, and the scene crushes. It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie. And Jerry gets fantasy 'Mad Men' camp. He gets to be in a scene in 'Mad Men,' a show that we all love that he was never in."

I spoke with a couple of my colleagues about "Unfrosted" on today's episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which also contains my full interview with Spike Feresten. Check it out below:

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