Definition (TV series)
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Definition was a Canadian television game show, which aired on CTV from 1974 to 1989. The show was hosted by Bob McLean for its first season and by Jim Perry thereafter. Nick Nicholson and Roger Muir, the masterminds behind The Newlywed Game, created the series. Veteran Toronto weatherman Dave Devall was the announcer. Perry is the best known host associated with Definition and is his most successful television project of his career.
Like the later Wheel of Fortune (which Perry coincidentially appeared on as a celebrity player in 1980), Definition was essentially a variation on the word game Hangman. Two contestants appeared on each show, each paired with a celebrity guest. The contestant/celebrity pairs would take turns guessing letters in a phrase for which Perry had offered a pun as a clue.
Each match is a two-out-of-three games (later three-out-of five) affair. The challengers begin game one with one teammate "giving away" a letter to their opponents, usually a letter like Q, Z, or X. If the giveaway letter does not appear in the puzzle, then the other teammate then "takes a letter" that he/she believes is in the puzzle. A correct letter at this point gives that team a guess at the puzzle. If no guess is given or an incorrect answer is given, then the opposing team gets control of the puzzle.
In the event one team gives away a letter that is in the puzzle, the other team gets a free guess at the puzzle. Right or wrong, that team gets another turn.
The game ends when one team solves the puzzle. Two out of three games (later three out of five) wins the match and the champion meets a new challenger. In the bonus game, the team was given another definition, and when they solved it, the non-celebrity player received $10(Canadian) for every unrevealed letter (letters were revealed in alphabetical order). If the team couldn't solve it, they still received $10. Beginning in 1985, the celebrity/contestant pairings became two-contestant teams, with the same rules applying. The match also extended to best three games out of five.
The show, while popular in Canada, was also sometimes mocked for the cheapness of its prizes, which were usually small kitchen appliances, pen and pencil sets, or other small courtesy gifts. Only the show's annual championship tournaments offered the types of expensive prizes, such as a car or a resort vacation, that were commonplace on American game shows.
Each day a viewer-sent puzzle is played, which involves puzzles with clues pertaining to that puzzle sent in by viewers.
The show's theme song was taken from an instrumental jazz piece by Quincy Jones, "Soul Bossa Nova". It was sampled by the Canadian hip hop band Dream Warriors in their 1991 hit "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style", and was later also used as the theme music for Mike Myers' Austin Powers movies. (Later seasons of Definition used a new arrangement of the song which is not as recognizable as "Soul Bossa Nova" as earlier seasons.)
Definition was among the longest-running game shows in Canadian television, and made host Jim Perry a household name during the 1970s and 1980s in the same manner as his U.S. counterpart Bob Barker. Perry hosted Definition concurrently with hosting several American game shows, including Card Sharks and Sale of the Century, as well as another Canadian game show, Headline Hunters. Between 1978 and 1981, Perry presided over three game shows at once: Card Sharks, Definition and Headline Hunters; the first emcee in North American television to simultaneously host three different game shows. In 1983, he duplicated the feat by hosting Definition, Headline Hunters, and Sale of the Century at the same time (although the milestone doesn't really count, because Headline Hunters was airing strictly in reruns at the time).
A British version of Definition aired on the ITV network from 1978 until about 1986 produced by HTV West and was originally hosted by Don Moss and then by Jeremy Beadle. The American game show, Wheel of Fortune, debuted in 1975 and had a similar format, based also on "Hangman" but with a spinning wheel, bigger prizes, and no celebrity partners. Jim Perry however did appear on Wheel of Fortune as a celebrity player, playing for a member of the studio audience during the 1980 Game Show Hosts week.
