The Magnificent Marble Machine was an American television game show that featured a giant pinball machine as its centerpiece. The program premiered on NBC on July 7, 1975 at 12:00 pm ET, replacing the short-lived game show Blank Check. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley packaged the program, with Robert Noah as executive producer. Art James served as host, and Johnny Gilbert was the announcer. This is one of the few Heatter-Quigley programs that Kenny Williams was not involved with. Gameplay Two contestants competed, one a returning champion, each paired with a celebrity partner. In the first half of the game, the teams had to identify the name of a famous person; place; thing; or title; frequently involving puns or other wordplay, that were displayed on a large electronic marquee, similar to one found on a pinball's backbox display. The players were shown blanks on the display's bottom line denoting the number of words and letters in the answer. A clue then crawled across the display's upper line. If no team buzzed in once the clue was revealed, letters of the answer then filled in at random as time progressed. For example, with the clue "He's center and he's square", and blanks displaying "#### #####", the correct answer is "Paul Lynde". James occasionally gave an additional clue before the main clue scrolled across the marquee. For any given question, only the contestant or the celebrity was eligible to buzz in. This alternated with each question, and was indicated by lighted panels in front of the eligible player. Correct answers each scored one point. Five points won the game, and the winning team played "The Magnificent Marble Machine" in the bonus round. Later in the show's run, the rules were changed,so it took only four points to win. Bonus round The winning team played the show's centerpiece: a giant pinball machine measuring 20 feet high and 12 feet long. To start each bonus, a plunger was pulled to launch a giant pinball into the machine. The team member who launched the ball would also man a button on the right side of the machine while the other would do so on the left side. These buttons controlled the machine’s flippers, of which there were four (two at the bottom of the machine and two in the middle). Two pinballs were played, with the champion launching the first ball and the celebrity launching