Massachusetts Native Is Jerry Seinfeld's Secret Writing Weapon

Jerry Seinfeld isn't always in our faces. One of the world's most successful comedians, he impressively manages to keep a low profile. A billionaire, he doesn't seem desperate to make money.

He is selective about the work to which he attaches his name and Seinfeld is a name you can trust.

That's why hopes are high for Unfrosted, Seinfeld's mostly fictional tale about the origins of the Pop-Tart. The movie, coming to Netflix on May 29, features Seinfeld as a triple threat: first-time director, actor and writer. He can do it all, but in this case, he didn't do it alone. He had help from three longtime writing collaborators, including Massachusetts native Spike Feresten.

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Seinfeld and Fall River-born Feresten have known each other since at least 1995. That's when Feresten joined the writing staff of Seinfeld. The hugely popular sitcom was in its seventh season on NBC and Feresten came in hot, quickly writing what's considered one of the show's all-time great episodes, "The Soup Nazi."

"No soup for you," one of the most-quoted lines in television history, is all thanks to a guy who was 31 when he wrote it. By then, Feresten, raised in West Bridgewater, had been crushing it in the biz for years. He first went from receptionist to writer at Saturday Night Live, where younger brother Wally Feresten has made cue cards since the early 1990s and is a star in his own right. He then wrote for David Letterman's late-night shows, shortlived The Dana Carvey Show and The Simpsons before landing at Seinfeld.

He's mostly been a behind-the-scenes guy since Seinfeld wrapped but hosted Talkshow with Spike Feresten on Fox from 2006 to 2009.

Feresten's family has deep roots on the SouthCoast. His father Michael Feresten was raised on Rock Street in Fall River. Grandfather Dr. Morris Feresten was chief of obstetrics at Fall River's Union Hospital. Feresten's mother, New Bedford native Mary Jo Feresten, was a nurse at that same hospital. Feresten graduated from West Bridgewater High and briefly studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Comedy took him in a whole different direction, and it has led him to a big Netflix movie.

In Unfrosted, co-starring Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant and Amy Schumer, Feresten helps tell a story inspired by an old Seinfeld joke and real life. It documents a 1960s rivalry between Kellogg's and Post in the race to make the perfect breakfast snack. Comedian Bill Burr, a fellow Massachusetts native, is listed among the many funny people featured in the film.

Unfrosted is a wild new story and yet it likely feels like familiar territory for Feresten. He collaborated with Seinfeld on another big-budget film, Bee Movie, in 2007.

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