''Definition'' is a Canadian

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

, which aired on CTV from September 9, 1974, to March 10, 1989, and recorded at its flagship studios of

CFTO-TV CFTO-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Barrie-based CTV 2 flagship CKVR-DT, channel ...

9 Channel Nine Court 9 Channel Nine Court (alternatively known as the CTV Toronto Studios, CFTO-TV Studios, Glen Warren Studios or Bell Media Agincourt and temporarily known as 9 Dave Devall Way) is an office and studio complex owned by Bell Media (formerly CTVglobem ...

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

.Stephen Brunt, "Definition turns 10 with pride". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', March 3, 1984. For most of its run, it was hosted by

Jim Perry James Perry may refer to: * James Perry (journalist) (1756–1821), British journalist and newspaper editor * James Franklin Perry (1790–1853), early Texas settler (with wife Emily Austin Perry) * Jimmy Perry (1923–2016), English actor and scr ...

History

Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, the creators of ''

The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show. Newly married couples compete against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created ...

'', created ''Definition'', resulting in the show being syndicated for some international audiences as well. The series was produced by Glen-Warren Productions for CTV. Dave Michaels hosted the pilot for ''Definition''. Michaels had previously announced the Nicholson-Muir game show '' Matches 'n Mates'' with

Art James Art James (born Arthur Simeonovich Efimchick; October 15, 1929 – March 28, 2004) was an American game-show host, best known for shows such as '' The Who, What, or Where Game''; '' It's Academic''; and '' Pay Cards!'' He was also the announce ...

and later anchored news for

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station mai ...

WXIA-TV WXIA-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL (channel 36). The two stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north end ...

, and

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

during the first

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

. For the first four weeks, the show was hosted by Bob McLean, with

as announcer. Beginning with the fifth week, and continuing until the series concluded, Perry moved in front of the camera to take over as emcee, with veteran

weatherman

Dave Devall David Devall (born 1931) is a Canadian retired broadcaster and meteorologist. He served as the chief forecaster at CFTO-TV in Toronto for more than 48 years beginning in 1961, and was recognized as having had the "longest career as a weather f ...

filling the vacancy in the announcer's booth. Devall also served as Perry's stand-in whenever he was absent. Definition was one of the longest-running game shows in Canada and helped secure venerable host

his iconic status. Only about 850 of its 1,950 episodes still exist, due to a then-common practice known as

wiping Wipe or wiping may refer to: Hygiene * Toilet paper or wet wipes, or their use Arts and media * Wipe (transition), a gradual transition in film editing * Wipe curtain, a kind of theater curtain * ''Wipe'' or ''Screenwipe'', a television series ...

. Beginning in the 1980s, ''Definition'' encouraged viewers to send in their own puzzles via mail, with at least one chosen per episode. Viewers would have their definitions acknowledged on air by Perry if they were chosen.

Rules

''Definition''s format was loosely based on the word game Hangman.Peter Kenter, "My Definition of loss". ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'', November 28, 2008. Two teams of two competed, originally a contestant and celebrity and from 1986 on two pairs of regular contestants. The teams would take turns guessing

letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet * Letterform, the g ...

s in a phrase for which Perry had offered a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

as a clue. The game is similar to '' Wheel of Fortune'', which debuted around the same time. The challengers began the game with one teammate "giving away" a letter to their opponents that they believed was not in the puzzle. If they were correct, the other teammate "took" a letter that they believed was in the puzzle. If this guess was also correct, all instances of the letter were revealed and the team could try to solve the puzzle. A team lost control if any of the following occurred: * They failed to guess the puzzle. * They took a letter that was not in the puzzle. * They gave away a letter that was in the puzzle. In this case, the opponents could take a free guess before starting their turn. If, at any point in the game, there were no more letters that could be successfully given away, each team would simply take a letter and offer a guess until one of them solved the puzzle. The first team to solve two puzzles – changed to three in 1986 – won a prize and advanced to a bonus game. For this round, the champions faced one final definition in which the letters would be revealed one by one in alphabetical order. Solving the puzzle awarded $10 for every unrevealed letter, while failing to do so awarded $10 as a consolation prize (if time was called in the middle of a bonus round, the champions were automatically awarded whatever money was still up for grabs at that point). After every fifth consecutive win, the champions earned the right to play for a larger bonus prize, such as a refrigerator. When civilian/celebrity teams played, the civilian member of the champion team switched celebrity partners for the next game. The show was frequently mocked, as were most Canadian game shows at the time, for the cheapness of its prizes, which were typically courtesy gifts such as small appliances. Only in its annual "Tournament of Champions" did the show typically offer major prizes such as new

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

s. A 2008 article in the ''

'' by Canadian television historian Peter Kenter claimed that most prizes were in fact overstock products from a retail warehouse; according to Kenter, who was a contestant on the show in 1987, he did not actually know what his prize would be until it was delivered to his home several weeks after taping, as even the producers had no knowledge of what the prizes would be during production, and the on-air prize announcement was actually a later overdub.

Theme music

The show's theme song was taken from "

Soul Bossa Nova "Soul Bossa Nova" is a popular instrumental, composed and first performed by American musician Quincy Jones. It appeared on his 1962 ''Big Band Bossa Nova (Quincy Jones album), Big Band Bossa Nova'' album on Mercury Records. Jones said that it ...

", an instrumental

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

piece by

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

. Later seasons of ''Definition'' used a new arrangement of the song which was not as readily recognizable. The program's use of "Soul Bossa Nova" led both to the Canadian hip hop band Dream Warriors sampling the song for their hit "My Definition of a Boombastic Jazz Style", and to comedian

Mike Myers Michael John Myers, (born May 25, 1963) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His accolades include seven MTV Movie & TV Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2002, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood W ...

using the song as the theme tune to his James Bond parody film series ''

Austin Powers ''Austin Powers'' is a series of American satirical spy comedy films created by Mike Myers, who stars as the British spy Austin Powers as well as his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil. The series consists of '' International Man of Mystery'' (1997), ' ...

''.

Adaptations

A British version of ''Definition'' aired on the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

network from 15 July 1978 until 27 August 1985, produced by

HTV West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to broadcast by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named " ...

and was originally hosted by Don Moss and then by the late

Jeremy Beadle Jeremy James Anthony Gibson-Beadle MBE (12 April 1948 – 30 January 2008) was an English television and radio presenter, writer and producer. From the 1980s to the late 1990s he was a regular face on British television, and in two years ...

. Theme music was provided by guitarist

Wout Steenhuis Wout Steenhuis (23 February 1923 – 9 July 1985) was a Dutch multi-instrumentalist. Biography Steenhuis was born in The Hague, Netherlands. As a student in occupied Holland he listened to black market jazz records - banned by the Germans as "d ...

. British audiences were also able to witness the Jim Perry-hosted version when it aired on UK cable station,

Living TV Sky Witness is a British pay television tv channel, channel owned and operated by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel primarily broadcasts procedural dramas from the United States aimed at the 18–45 age demographic. Sky Ital ...

(formerly UK Living) in the 1990s. Don Moss also appeared as a celebrity guest player on Canada's original version.

Home Game

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with Milton Bradley Company, his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased ...

produced a home game for ''Definition'' in 1981. It used many of the same components as their two adaptations of the US game show '' Wheel of Fortune'' (the game board, cardboard letter tiles, prize cards & play money) but replaced the puzzle book and "wheel" spinner with a set of game puzzle cards and a plastic card holder with translucent red window for the "host" to read the puzzles. The box lists it as the "English Edition", but there is no proof that a French-language version was produced.BoardGameGeek entry for the home game
/ref>

References

External links

* {{IMDb title 1974 Canadian television series debuts 1989 Canadian television series endings CTV Television Network original programming Television series by ITV Studios Television series by Bell Media Television series by Nicholson-Muir Productions Television series by Glen-Warren Productions Television shows filmed in Toronto 1970s Canadian game shows 1980s Canadian game shows British English-language television shows Television shows produced by Harlech Television 1978 British television series debuts 1985 British television series endings 1970s British game shows 1980s British game shows