Mesmerizing, funny, gracious, bizarre, poignant – no way these tasty adjectives could all be heard in unscripted talk about the three marathon nights of Gemini Awards.

Way.

Too bad only the Sunday night, Nov. 7 show went out on national tv, with the first two hits cablecast on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6 courtesy Rogers Communications. Nevertheless, the preliminary Nielsen ratings for Sunday’s cbc broadcast are certainly decent, with average-per-minute audience at 632,000, pretty much the same as last year.

Here are some of our impressions. . .

Night One:

Anchors A-Sway

‘That Peter Kent can shake his ass!’ said Gemini presenter Clifton Joseph to a crowd still half mesmerized by the opening dance number. Yes, a dance number. Yes, at the Geminis. Yes, Peter Kent.

The Global news anchor stunned and delighted the audience at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre by storming the stage to open the night with a parody of Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca. Kent sang and danced and eventually ripped off his shirt, leaving the ladies swooning and the gentlemen open-mouthed in admiration of the undercover wild man who evidently lives in the clothing of a mild-mannered anchor.

It was Kent who set the standard for the fun and fast-paced evening featuring 75 technical and journalism awards – on paper the most staid of the three-night affair. With the help of the trusty Gemini 2000 (a wheel featuring pie slices of different award categories), Kent and his honorary wheel spinners introduced presenters to hand out sets of Geminis.

Graham Kerr, the former Galloping Gourmet, was among the wheel-spinners and thanked Canada and Canadians for making him feel welcome. ‘We’ve done 1,800 shows and it all started here in Ottawa,’ said Kerr. Upon realizing he was actually in Toronto, he did some charming back-pedalling, and was forgiven by all.

A highlight of the evening featured Pierre Berton receiving the John Drainie Award for lifetime contribution to Canadian television.

‘I may cry,’ said Berton as he took the stage following a two-minute standing ovation to accept the award from fellow Front Page Challenge panelist Betty Kennedy. Berton thanked Lister Sinclair, Charles Templeton and Elsa Franklin for helping him through various stages of his career.

David Studer received the Gordon Sinclair Award for his contribution to television journalism. And Bell ExpressVu’s vp of technology and gm of broadcasting and pay-per-view, Terry Snazel, accepted the Outstanding Technical Achievement Award on behalf of the service.

Night Two:

Or could Ken Finkleman

use this for a show?

In the category for Best Writing in a Dramatic Series, the envelope named Ken Finkleman along with Chris Haddock and Leonel Luna. The problem is Finkleman writes for Foolish Heart while Haddock and Luna penned ‘The Quality of Mercy’ episode of Da Vinci’s Inquest.

‘I’ve never seen this man before in my life,’ Finkleman said, Gemini in hand, eyeing Haddock who joined him at the podium to accept the award.

Turns out Haddock and Luna were the winners and Finkleman had to hand over the trophy. ‘This is embarrassing,’ Haddock said to begin his acceptance speech. ‘You’re embarrassed?’ asked Finkleman, as he moved to the side.

Finkleman, who stuck it out where a celebrity of a more fragile ego would have slouched to his limo, was rewarded two categories later when he won for Best Direction in a Dramatic Series. A good-natured Haddock made coy and joined Finkleman on stage to hand over the director’s award.

‘That wasn’t embarrassing,’ Finkleman said.’ What would have been embarrassing is if I had not been here now to accept this.’

In other categories, Canadian animation giant Nelvana went three for four, taking Best Animated Series, Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series and Best Writing in a Children’s Program, all for the series Rolie Polie Olie.’ We had three nominations, so I thought we’d get at least one award,’ said Rolie director Mike Fallows after the presentations. The biggest surprise, he said, came in the music category in which Rolie beat out a collection of live-action series.

This Hour has 22 Minutes also took home an armful of hardware, including Best Direction and Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series.

The quote of the night came from comedian Sean Cullen as he presented the Best Animated Series award:’ I owe a debt to television,’ he said. ‘Without it, as a child, I would have stared for hours at the wall.’

Night Three:

In which Real People

stole the Show

Some funny, several pertinent and many as-you’d-expect type remarks hit the airwaves night three, featuring the most-anticipated acting, directing and writing categories.

Just the same, it was a captivating moment of uncomplaining honesty from a real person, David Milgaard, that stopped the show. Onstage with principals accepting one of six awards for Milgaard, the story of David Milgaard’s wrongful conviction and eventual exoneration, the man himself talked about what’s important in life. Talked about knowing the difference between right and wrong. And agreed in media interviews offstage when his mother said the film was a vindication of all she and her son had set out to prove.

Back in the regular flow-of-show, host Rick Mercer seemed to lift a line from his mock-anchor character on This Hour Has 22 Minutes when he said Canada was taking heat, lately, for the amount of American work being produced up here. But that would only be a problem, he added, if the Americans complaining can figure out where Canada is.

Da da da da da.

With files from Cheryl Binning and Susan Tolusso.