Overture, dim the lights, this is it, three nights of nightsand so go the Gemini Awards, year in, year out.

It’s more than a bit of a challenge to produce three nights of awards ceremonies for one community and not have the participants, audience members and even the winners resent the breadth of the event. The fact that the show is not one continuous revelry but divided into two festivities helps, with nights one and two (March 1,2) as industry ceremonies and three (March 3) as a more formal, broadcast affair.

Now in their tenth year, the Geminis have been called the marathon of awards shows, but considering the peak ratings for night three for the last two years – chronologically rated at 1.4 million and 1.25 million viewers – they can safely be labeled the darling of their producer, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. No question: the shows, especially the broadcast night, fulfill the mandate ‘to promote Canadian television.’

Veterans Joe Bodolai and David Rosen have between them 16 years’ experience with the Geminis, and produced the last two banner broadcast shows.

What’s their secret? Bodolai says, ‘First and foremost, it’s a comedy show.’ Rosen echoes the sentiment, pegging ‘the entertainment value’ as top of the list. Add to the mix a strong group of Canadian personalities, a solid writing team, and knowing what you want, and voila: the Rosen/Bodolai recipe for the Geminis.

‘We had been involved with other (Gemini) shows prior to 1994 and we were always dealing with other people’s ideas,’ says Rosen. Bodolai continues: ‘A lot of (our direction) comes from frustration at having done other people’s shows and wishing all along we could do it our way.’

In 1994, Bodolai and Rosen caught Valerie Pringle and Albert Schultz in the net to host the program. There was much acclaim. Last year, it was Tina Keeper and Paul Gross who won over audiences.

‘We’ve been vindicated for the last two years, I think,’ says Bodolai, reflecting upon the dictum that proclaims Canadian awards shows boring.

Surprises, such as last year’s appearance of Peter Mansbridge with a David Lettermanish top 10 list, and the song (earnest and yet very funny) that Gross launched into (complete with a Mountie chorus) kept ‘people talking for months,’ says Rosen. Knowlton Nash and Lloyd Robertson also graced the broadcast night, adding more cache to the program.

‘There’s a lot of contra deals and people pitch in for the good of the tv industry. You know, we don’t have anybody working for us other than the hosts so we rely on the goodwill of the industry,’ says Bodolai.

This year, Rosen says while he’s still chasing down talent for the show, he is also getting pitched by a number of agents. ‘People now want to be on the Geminis. It’s the hot show to do if you’re in tv.’ Bodolai says they also get offers from crew members who ‘want to be part of the evening.’

By and large, crew members are not celebrated on the broadcast night, something that has been a bone of contention at the Academy for years. While some directors and writers are feted for the tv viewers to see, most of the craft and technical awards are handed out on the industry nights.

‘Three nights and only one on tv means only some awards can be broadcast. Quite frankly, audiences watch the show for the people they know and love. In the past there has been a feeling the show should be more of a convention. Our feeling is to give the tv viewing audience what they want,’ says Bodolai.

In addition to satisfying the award recipients, there are other challenges. First is putting a show together on what Rosen calls ‘one-one-hundredth’ of the budget for set construction and decoration and ‘one-tenth’ of the lighting and the sound budgets their competitors (the Emmys, the Junos) are blessed with.

Then there’s the thorny issue of satisfying the press, what Bodolai calls a ‘thankless task.’

But thin budgets and criticism aside, the main obstacle to creating an entertaining show that will keep an audience satisfied is simple: ‘You have to give out awards,’ bemoans Rosen.

A minute-by-minute study of the audience numbers shows that people flip from the show ‘during long acceptance speeches and long commercial breaks,’ says Bodolai. Like dealing with the law of gravity when learning to fly, the two producers acknowledge that speeches are just part of the beast and there’s not much they can do about them.

What’s up for this year? ‘We’ve got to change all the time,’ says Rosen. ‘The worst thing is to sit on your laurels and get into sequel disease.’

At press time, the show is still at the formative stages, but Bodolai ensures another ‘elegant and optimistic’ celebratory set that evokes luxury and declares ‘the Gemini is a desirable thing to win.’

Director Michael Watt, a veteran of awards shows who has directed the last four Gemini awards, will be back.

There is change in direction this year for the industry galas. In place of producer Eric Wiegand, who has been producing the two galas for three years, is David Kitching, fresh from writing and producing this year’s Genie Awards. This year is not Kitching’s first experience with the Geminis; he has written the last two Gemini broadcast programs with Mark Ferrel, Elvira Curtain and Earl Morgenstern.

Kitching says he intends to change the nature of nights one and two ‘to a very live, interactive type of show. I want to treat it more like a theater show for the house as opposed to treating it like a tv show. We’ll be looking at ways to incorporate the audience.