Emmys finally reward one of TV’s best shows

“Hello.”

Bob Newhart was answering the phone — pausing first, of course, because it wouldn’t be Bob Newhart without a stammer or a deadpan delay — and then he was off and running, leaving his office, criss-crossing Chicago bridges, hopping on an L Train and finally making it home to Suzanne Pleshette. It’s one of the great openings in TV history, even if Bob hopped off the train nearly seven miles from that apartment tower, something Chicagoans razzed him about for the rest of his life.

“Would you want a therapist who missed his stop every day?” Newhart, who died Thursday at age 94, once joked to Conan O’Brien. A master of comic timing and an expert everyman actor, Newhart will be missed.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter. Is it weird to watch “Elf” in July? I guess I’m going to find out this weekend.

‘Reservation Dogs’ finally gets its Emmy moment

Emmy nominations arrived Wednesday with “Shōgun” and “The Bear” leading the way. It was, as Times columnist Mary McNamara pointed out, a good day for FX and will probably prod a good many people to finally watch “Shōgun” after saving it in their queues for the last few months.

Among FX’s 93-nomination haul came five nods for its beloved “Reservation Dogs,” including for comedy series and lead actor D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. That the show — a coming-of-age dramedy following four Indigenous teenagers — has wrapped up after three seasons makes this long-overdue appreciation feel a little wistful. But wistfulness is a “Rez Dogs” vibe, so … kind of appropriate?

Times television editor Maira Garcia spoke with series co-creator and showrunner Sterlin Harjo shortly after the nods were announced. What’s the takeaway for Hollywood after the nominations and justified acclaim?

“People crave different stories, people crave new, fresh stories, people crave new faces, and [they] are willing to give people opportunities to tell their stories from their perspective,” Harjo said. “If you do that [and] you support that, like FX has, you’ll benefit from it. You can do some amazing stuff.”

Harjo added that he felt like “Reservation Dogs” was timeless. I agree. I’ve encouraged people over the years to start watching it, and I’ve never met anyone who didn’t fall in love with the show. Three seasons, 28 episodes. Watch one a night and you’ll have a pretty great month’s worth of viewing. (It’s on Hulu.)

Snubs and surprises of Emmy noms

After Emmy nominations were announced, I looked over my list of non-negotiables and saw that Television Academy voters had checked off most of the boxes.

Jon Bernthal, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bob Odenkirk all secured nominations for that episode of “The Bear” that set a new standard for emotionally exhausting family holiday gatherings. Jean Smart will be back in the house for “Hacks,” joined by Hannah Einbinder, who should absolutely be winning the Emmy for comedy supporting actress. And though the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was only pretty good, Larry David will return too. Good news if your jam is awkward red-carpet interviews.

Even with the usual deluge of submissions, the nominations managed to deliver a fair number of surprises, pleasant and otherwise. And, yes, there were omissions, which, for the sake of alliteration and search engine optimization, we’ll call “snubs.” Because when it comes to this kind of list, that’s a non-negotiable too.

Here’s the list. What did I miss among your favorites?

Nicole Kidman on marriage, marijuana and the making of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’

“Eyes Wide Shut” was Stanley Kubrick’s final film. He died four months before its release. It took its stars — Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, Hollywood’s most famous couple — off the market for nearly two years, as what was supposed to be a six-month shoot stretched on indefinitely, to the point where Kidman seriously began to wonder: Is this ever going to end?

Not that she was in any hurry to leave.

“I would have stayed a third year,” Kidman tells me. “Does that mean I’m crazy?”

The protracted buildup led to wild speculation and curiosity about the movie, which had been teased as a “story of sexual jealousy and obsession.” When it was finally released on July 16, 1999, the response was muted, tinged with disappointment. But its reputation and its mysteries have deepened over the years. Christopher Nolan calls it “the ‘2001’ of relationship movies.” He is not entirely wrong.

Kidman and I have talked about the film many times over the years. With “Eyes Wide Shut” marking its 25th anniversary, it felt like a good occasion to deepen the discussion. Pull up a chair, pour a glass of Champagne and give it a read. Masks optional. The password: Fidelio.