The Magnificent Marble Machine is an American television game show based on the arcade game of pinball. The show ran on NBC from July 7, 1975 to March 12, 1976, but was interrupted for two weeks in January due to scheduling changes on the network and aired repeats from March 15 to June 11. It aired in both half-hour slots between Noon and 1:00 PM, Eastern (11:00 AM/Noon, Central). Two contestants (one a returning champion) competed, each paired with a celebrity partner. In the first half of the game, the teams answered general knowledge questions, frequently involving puns or other wordplay, which were displayed on a huge electronic marquee, similar to one found on a pinball's backbox display. First, the players were shown blanks on the display's bottom line, denoting the number of words and letters in the answer; then a clue would crawl 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. (e.g., "He's center and he's square/#### #####", with the answer "Paul Lynde"; or "An athlete's supporter/###", with the answer "fan"). James occasionally gave an additional clue after the initial clue scrolled across the marquee. For example, the blanked-out answer "### ### #####" would appear and James would say "What does this man pull out?" followed by "A showy organist". (The answer is "all the stops".) 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 were worth one point. Five points won the game and the winning team played "The Magnificent Marble Machine" in the bonus round. The winning team got the chance to play the show's centerpiece: a giant pinball machine — measuring 20 feet high and 12 feet long — that sat in the middle of the set for cash and prizes.