( EW ) -- The study group is about to become felt and foam . NBC will air an episode of `` Community '' this spring in which Jeff Winger ( Joel McHale ) and his friends are re-imagined as puppets , it was announced at a PaleyFest panel for the show on Tuesday night . PaleyFest 2013 : 'Community ' cast talks paintball , puppets and graduation . In the installment , the gang embark on a balloon ride , crash in the woods and encounter an amiable mountain man ( guest star Jason Alexander ) . Dean Pelton ( Jim Rash ) winds up getting the gang to discuss their adventures in the wild and work through their issues through the use of hand puppets ; and in flashbacks , we see larger versions of the puppets . This is n't the first time that the comedy has transformed its cast into another form for the bulk of an episode : Jeff and co. were seen as stop-motion animation creations in season two′s `` Abed 's Uncontrollable Christmas , '' and as 8-bit video game characters in season three′s `` Digital Estate Planning . '' ( Also , this briefly happened in the season 4 premiere . ) 'Community ' : James Brolin on playing Jeff Winger 's dad . The puppets — which were previewed at the panel — are designed and operated by Scott Johnson and Drew Massey , who gave similar treatment to David Boreanaz in an episode of `` Angel . '' See the original article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
` ` ' '' will have a puppet - themed episode this week . The puppet versions of the cast were previewed at midnight on Tuesday . This is n't the first time the cast has been in another form for the bulk of the episode .