Community‘s gone downhill somewhat in season four, but if there’s one phrase that can get me excited about a show again it’s “puppet episode.” Watch the study group hum along to the smooth sounds of Daybreak in this teaser for next week’s “Intro to Felt Surrogacy.”

(Apologies on behalf of Hulu if you’re geoblocked; their vids are U.S. only, and this one’s not on YouTube. Nothing we can do about it.)

(via: Paste)

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I will never get tired of watching behind-the-scenes dinosaur footage from Jurassic Park. Never. There’s a reason the special effects of that movie have aged so well, and that reason is puppets. The Stan Winston School, which made the dinos we all know and love so very much, previously released a video about the making of the Velociraptor. And now the spitting dinosaur (or Dilophosaurus, if we’ve being technical) that kills poor Nedry gets its turn in the spotlight.

Favorite part: “This is one of the coolest tongues I’ve ever done.”

(via: io9)

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Community‘s fourth season ratings have not been the greatest. In fact, the Halloween episode grabbed the lowest ratings the show has ever had. And while I wouldn’t preface this statement with “in response,” this is not a situation in which I’d fault the folks who run Community these days for bringing out the big guns:

All. Puppet. Episode.

Have you ever wondered what goes on inside the brain of Neil Patrick Harris? Especially after he created the web series Neil’s Puppet Dreams? “Visually we wanted to show Neil’s insides as the inner workings of a puppet. We knew right away we wanted to do it all practical, and include the Henson Alternative puppet parts,” said the folks at Digital Twigs. “So we proceeded by building the inside of Neil’s head/brain out of meat and felt. It got a little smelly but it was worth it.” And there you have it.

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Just hearing the names Jim Henson and Frank Oz together in the same sentence makes me giddy so you can imagine my excitement upon finding this video. The appearance was made at the Puppeteers of America national festival at MIT in Boston in 1989 and an introduction tagged on by Oz a few years after Henson’s death. In their informal conversation they cover everything from Sesame Street to The Dark Crystal to Little Shop of Horrors. It’s a long video but certainly worth the watch if you’re a fan of either of these talented men.

(via Forces of Geek)

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Alisa Stern, creator of the Doctor puppet resembling Matt Smith from Doctor Who, swears she started work on this video before the BBC announced “The Snowmen” Christmas Special (which, if you live in the U.S. you’ll be watching soon!). It’s got a familiar look to it that will inspire memories of Christmases past and has a happy ending. What more could you ask for?

(via The Doctor Puppet’s Tumblr)

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We previously showed you a behind-the-scenes look at Neil Patrick Harris’ new webseries on The Nerdist YouTube channel, Neil’s Puppet Dreams. Here’s the first episode. There are puppets. And singing. And Neil Patrick Harris. You can look forward to a new episode every Tuesday through the end of January with guest stars like Nathan Fillion and True Blood’s Joe Manganiello!

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I mean, I’m already offended by the presence of Brian Henson, who I still haven’t forgiven for spoiling all the good jokes at the beginning of every episode on my The Muppet Show DVDs. That’s right, Brian. You’re lucky you made The Muppet Christmas Carol and Treasure Island to balance it out.

While the Muppets now belong to Disney, The Jim Henson Company is still working on its own projects, and to prove it, they’ve released concept art from a new project called The Happytime Murders. From the looks of it, it looks like a cross between Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Peter Jackson‘s Meet the Feebles, but probably with slightly less, um, we’ll call it “adult content.” The R-rated film, said to be a comedy, is still in the early stages of production, but one name floating around to play one of the non-puppet roles is Katherine Heigl. Hmm. So, someone finally stopped her from making stupid, stupid romantic comedies! That’s good to hear.

It’s been Muppet-mania around town these last few weeks. Jim Henson’s wonderfully hilarious fabric creations are once again heading to the big screen along with Jason Segel, Amy Adams and a slew of other humans so it’s no wonder the Jim Henson Co. is bringing puppets back to primetime television. This is awesome news but yes, I said puppets, not Muppets. Half-sad face.