With 16 years’ experience on the Geminis between them, the pair have worked as writers and producers on the show and Rosen started out as a production manager. From their minds’ eyes come experiences both triumphant and disastrous, all part of the joy of working on live tv.

Ironically, this year Bodolai is in the running with the show’s guests; he has been nominated for two Geminis – one for the 1995 Gemini Awards and the other for Comics!

The first year

By Joe Bodolai

It’s been 10 years since the first Gemini Awards show, which I worked on as a writer. It was a memorable time. There was labor unrest, a change of broadcasters at the eleventh hour, and all sorts of chaos and confusion in the transition.

Three of the original sctv cast were on hand to host. A writing team of myself, Robert Boyd, Bruce McCulloch and Paul McGrath were brought in by producers John Brunton and Nigel Napier-Andrews. This was back in the days of typewriters and cut and paste meant manual labor, not keyboard commands.

We worked 24 hours a day in the final week or two leading up to the show – literally falling asleep in mid-sentence. One night back at the production offices, we all fell asleep on the floor. The receptionist woke us up with a scream when she arrived the next morning to find six bodies on the floor – victims not of mass murder, but of an awards show with growing pains.

The teleprompter system was just becoming computerized – and it almost worked. It seemed that what was on the prompter was about one or two drafts behind us, and now it was show time!

Robert Boyd and I sat in the hallway outside the theater, writing the show on computer and then running in with the discs to the prompter operator, about one commercial break ahead of where we were in the show. We were seeing double by this time, since we hadn’t slept since Thursday and this was the big night, Sunday.

I remember Robert being summoned to the dinner because he was nominated for an award himself for his outstanding comedy documentary The Canadian Conspiracy. Not only did he not have time to put on his tux, he hadn’t showered or changed clothes for two days. What a way to accept a Gemini! But winning is still better than not winning.

I had the flu through all this, but didn’t really know it. I went home and woke up Wednesday morning.

The 1989 Gemini moment

By David Rosen

1989 was the year that Martin Short was our host. I was the line producer for the show and my role was simply to take all of the creative ideas and make them happen.

There was one sketch which featured Marty as Ed Grimley at home watching the Gemini Awards show and wishing he could be live at the show in the audience. The sketch would continue with Ed somehow falling out of his apartment window and landing on Louis Del Grande. Ed becomes Louis’ date for the Geminis.

Seems simple enoughhalf day night time exteriorand the rest would be live on stage!

Unfortunately, things don’t always go well.

Since this sketch called for Marty to fall out of the window, it was necessary for him to hang about 20 feet off the ground. It was 35 below that night and unfortunately Marty’s blood had thinned while in Los Angeles. Believe me he was freezing!

After that shot, while Marty was thawing out in his trailer, we set up for the next shot. It seemed simple enough, Marty and Louis were to stand on the sidewalk while a cab rushes by and splashes some mud.

For the connecting line of dialog to work, the mud was only supposed to hit Louis and not Marty. Special effects assured us that this would be the case but the little splash of mud would be a one-time effect.

Well, when the effect happened, the ‘little splash of mud,’ which was fired from an air canon, not only drenched both Louis and Marty, but also sprayed the front of an apartment building 30 feet away. Needless to say, Marty couldn’t say the line but thanks to the editor and a little bit of music, we would be able to get through that part of the sketch.

The beginning of the sketch was to happen live on stage. Since a set was needed to represent Ed Grimley’s apartment, we would use a 15-foot diameter turntable to reveal Marty on the set.

There we were, live on air, and the Ed Grimley dancers were finishing their intro to the sketch. This was the cue for the turntable to start its journey. Unfortunately, one of the dancers kicked the plug out of the wall which was providing power to the turntable. It just didn’t move!

After what seemed to be about 45 seconds, I was almost run over by Marty running past me towards the stage as Ed Grimley.

I looked at the television monitor and he went on stage to the very polite applause of the live audience. Marty simply paused and said as Ed Grimley, ‘This is live tv you knowdoes anyone have any questions?’ The audience roared with laughter.

To my knowledge, that was the last time a turntable was used for the Gemini Awards.