‘Community’ Airing Puppet Episode In April

NBC sitcom Community will be airing a puppet episode in April, the network announced at PaleyFest Tuesday night.

The episode will feature the cast working out the aftermath of a group outing gone wrong with hand puppets. In flashbacks, the cast will be portrayed as larger versions of the puppets.

The episode synopsis reads as follows:

“In the episode, the study group takes a wild balloon ride that crash-lands in the woods and they end up spending a little time with a friendly mountain man. As the study group recounts their adventures in the woods, which has left them all feeling a little awkward with one another, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) encourages them to speak about their experience with the use of puppets.”

According to Rolling Stone, the puppet episode, titled “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” will feature a guest appearance by Seinfeld star Jason Alexander as the “friendly mountain man.”

The series did similar transformations for its season 2 episode “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” when the cast was transformed into stop-animation characters, and the season 3 episode, “Digital Estate Planning,” when the actors were turned into 8-bit video game characters.

Community is currently in its fourth season, but the producers and cast have discussed the possibility of a fifth season. Joel McHale, who plays Jeff Winger, said that a renewal is the kind of news “no one ever lets you know … in advance.”

Yvette Brown, who plays Shirley, said there is still a lot to be proud of if the show ends with its current season.

“The show has made it four years, and that’s great thing,” she said.

According to UPI, the felt and foam puppets for “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” were manufactured by Drew Massey and Scott Johnson, who most recently worked on Muppets Wizard of Oz for the Jim Henson Co. and Warren the Ape for MTV.

Are you excited for Community‘s puppet episode?