An upcoming episode of NBC’s Community will feature the Greendale Seven (now Eight with Chang) in puppet form.  Titled “Intro to Felt Surrogacy,” the episode takes the study group on a balloon ride that crashes in the mountains where they make the acquaintance of a friendly mountain man (played by guest star Jason Alexander).  Returning to campus feeling a bit awkward about their experience, the Dean (Jim Rash) suggests they act out their story in puppet form.

Community airs Thursday nights at 8pm on NBC.  Hit the jump for the full press release and an image of the cast as puppets.

We’ve got a couple of TV-related casting stories to share this morning.  First up, Sean Bean has signed on to replace Brendan Fraser as the lead in TNT’s espionage pilot Legends.  The series is based on a novel by Robert Littell and follows a former CIA operative now acting as a private detective who has the unique ability to turn himself into a different person for each assignment.  Fraser exited the project after he and showrunner Howard Gordon didn’t see eye to eye on how to approach the lead character, and now Variety reports that Bean is stepping into the lead role.

Bean’s characters have a tendency to, well, die unexpectedly, but I think he’s safe here as he’ll be toplining the series (at least I hope…).  Legends is one of a number of new projects 24 veteran Gordon is spearheading following the immense success of his Showtime series Homeland.  Hit the jump for casting news regarding a Seinfeld alum visiting Community.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an editorial chastising those who were upset at Netflix’s recent price hike.  I explained that the company needs to raise their prices in order to stay competitive and that no one owes you cheap movies nor are you obligated to stay a Netflix subscriber.  Total strangers disagreed with me in the comments section and now I have seen the error of my ways.

That’s why I’m so glad Jason Alexander has done a PSA for the Netflix Relief Fund.  I was so ignorant to think that having to pay six to ten extra dollars wasn’t the same kind of suffering endured by non-middle-class white people the world over.  So please, drink deep of this white whine and together we can refuse to pay a little more for movies where Jason Statham plays a hitman.

Most TV shows are worn out by their seventh season.  Curb Your Enthusiasm isn’t one of them.  If anything, the show has become stronger.  I would argue that the show’s real turning point came in season four when Larry was hired to play Max Bialystock in The Producers.  Since then, Curb has found a way to keep an over-arching plotline that helps to balance season-long B-plot with the A-plot of Larry David’s continual comedy-of-manners and errors.  Season five had Larry looking for ways to avoid giving his kidney to Richard Lewis, and season six introduced The Blacks and a beautiful layer of racial humor to the show.  Larry also separated from his wife Cheryl (played by not-his-real-wife Cheryl Hines) over one of the best mismanagements of priorities of all-time.

By this time next year, you’ll be seeing Disney’s take on the old German fairy tale Rapunzel in theaters, but for now you can analyze this new image from the film. Walt Disney Animation studios promises that with Rapunzel, “you will be transported to a world complete with iconic tower, an evil witch, a gallant hero and, of course, the mysterious girl with the long golden tresses”. Like so many animated features these days, Rapunzel has a stellar voice cast including Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Matthew Gray Gubler, David Schwimmer, John Goodman, David Cross, Jason Alexander, and Carol Burnett.  Hit the jump for more: