REGINA — Toronto-shot Slings & Arrows took home the most hardware, but prairie pride was front-and-center at the 22nd annual Gemini Awards held Sunday night in Regina, Saskatchewan where the homegrown comedy Corner Gas picked up three prizes.

‘This is the award I have been hoping to win,’ said Corner Gas coproducer and star Brent Butt, after the CTV series, produced with Verite Films of Regina, won best ensemble performance in a comedy. ‘These are the most talented group of people I could ever assemble and work with. They are really special.’

The hit sitcom also picked up the best comedy award for a third year in a row, as well as a comedy writing nod for Mark Farrell.

The exuberant cast said that receiving these awards in the city where their series is based made the wins that much sweeter. They dedicated their prizes to the Regina crew that has worked on the show for five seasons.

‘Our crew is fantastic and many of them are here celebrating with us this weekend, and that makes this extra special,’ said Corner Gas actress Nancy Robertson.

The long-gone Slings & Arrows, which was the big winner at last year’s Geminis, was once again the favorite amongst Academy voters, receiving four awards.

The series, which aired The Movie Network/Movie Central in its first window and on Showcase in its second, won best drama and best writing in a dramatic series for a second year in a row, as well as actor and actress awards for Paul Gross and Martha Burns (who also won last year).

Gross dedicated his award to the late William Hutt, who worked on the third season of Slings & Arrows, pointing out that it was seeing the actor in a production of King Lear as a child that inspired him to go into the business.

Unfortunately his impassioned acceptance speech (which included an invitation to Hutt’s nephew Peter to join him on stage) was cut off by a musical cue signaling that time was running out.

This sparked an outburst by Slings & Arrows director Peter Wellington in the pressroom.

‘It was a little tasteless,’ Wellington said. ‘It’s one of those things that makes you say, ‘Oh yeah, Canada right, we screw it up again.”

Producer Niv Fichman of Rhombus Media told the media that while Slings & Arrows has finished its three-year run, there may be a spin-off in the works.

‘We are thinking about developing an offshoot with some of the characters, we are in talks about that,’ he said.

The Gemini Awards broadcast gala kicked off with a half-hour star-studded ET Canada red carpet show featuring many of the high-profile presenters and guests, including Sarah Chalke (Scrubs), Jason Priestley (Side Order of Life), Corey Haim (The Two Coreys), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal), James Tupper and Anne Heche (Men in Trees) and Saskatchewan Roughrider Matt Dominguez.

This was followed by an hour of non-televised awards, then the 60-minute CBC broadcast, attended by about 1,500 people who packed the Conexus Centre.

This is the first time that the awards have been opened up to the public, who could buy tickets in the upper balconies of the theater.

The show had an edgier, more irreverent feel, thanks to host George Stroumboulopoulos of The Hour, who also exec produced and brought in his team from the CBC nightly talk show to work on the Geminis.

‘Awards shows are so earnest,’ Stroumboulopoulos told the media after the show. ‘We didn’t want that.’

The broadcast included a filmed mockumentary in which Stroumboulopoulos gets his butt kicked by cast members of Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie and even Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! for calling Saskatchewan ‘flat’ and a taped skit with puppets about to have sex.

But the biggest surprise of the evening was when Degrassi: The Next Generation star Miriam McDonald dropped an F-bomb during a presenter skit gone awry.

‘It was supposed to be cut out,’ she said in the pressroom afterwards, explaining that she had been told that her swearing would be bleeped out, but for some reason it didn’t happen. ‘I felt awful… but these things happen. You have to laugh.’

Other awards handed out Sunday night included best direction in a drama (Chris Haddock for CBC’s Intelligence), and best news anchor (CityNews at Six‘ Toronto-based Gord Martineau).

The Viewers’ Choice Award for a Canadian on a U.S. show went to Deal or No Deal‘s Howie Mandel.

CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie (Westwind Pictures) took home the Canadian Heritage-sponsored Canada Award, recognizing excellence in TV programming that reflects racial and cultural diversity, while the Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary went to Barna-Alper Productions’s Fatherland, directed by Manfred Becker.