The Magnificent Marble Machine

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The Magnificent Marble Machine
Genre	Game Show
Creator(s)	Merrill Heatter & Bob Quigley
Starring	Art James as the host; Johnny Gilbert as the announcer
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	undetermined
Production
Running time	30 minutes (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	July 7, 1975 – June 11, 1976

The Magnificent Marble Machine was an American television game show that was based on pinball, and starred Art James. The show ran on NBC from July 7, 1975 to June 11, 1976, but was interrupted for about two weeks in January, due to scheduling changes on the network. It aired in both half-hour slots between Noon and 1 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. and Noon Central. Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley packaged this program. Robert Noah was the executive producer.

[edit] Game play

Two contestants (one a returning champion) competed, each paired with a celebrity partner, in this two-stage game.

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. First, the players were shown blanks on the bottom line, denoting the number of words and letters in the answer; then a clue would crawl across the upper line. If no team buzzed in once the clue was revealed, letters of the answer then filled in at random as time progressed.

(Sample questions: "He's center and he's square./#### #####" Answer: Paul Lynde. "An athlete's supporter/###" Answer: Fan)

Often, the host would preface the clue with an additional clue: (e.g., the blanked-out answer "### ### #####" would appear, and the host might ask, "What does this man pull out?", then the clue, "A showy organist," would appear. Answer: all the stops.)

For any given question, only the contestant or the celebrity would be 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, and five points allowed the winning team to advance to the game's second stage – playing a giant pinball machine (20 feet high and 12 feet long, located in the middle of the set) that served as The Magnificent Marble Machine's centerpiece.

Each team member manipulated one flipper button (each controlling two flippers), and it was the team's goal to keep the ball in play for as long as possible within a 60-second time limit while accumulating points by hitting bumpers, noisemakers and lights. Hitting one of seven of the large numbered bumpers won the contestant prizes; hitting bumpers numbered 2 and 3 in combination won a larger announced prize (such as a car or trip). Play on a ball ended if it fell into one of the two "out holes"; the flippers were disabled when the allocated 60 seconds expired, ending the game then also. At some point, a bonus was added for hitting all seven numbered bumpers at least once. In the original format, each bumper scored 500 points while any noisemaker scored 200 points. Producers audited the score by watching the tape, to insure that each scoring feature had registered. Apparently, as the machine aged (week by week), the scoring errors increased, so the producers changed the rules to have any of the seven "thumper bumpers" counting 500 points, with nothing else scoring.

If a team reached a target score after playing two balls (15,000 for each new champion, minus 1,000 for each return visit), the team played a bonus "gold money ball," where the player earned money ($200 for each noisemaker, later $500 for each numbered bumper). Each numbered bumper had a prize associated with it, while hitting both bumpers 2 and 3 awarded a large prize such as a car or boat, and if all seven bumpers were hit in the round, a bonus prize was awarded to the contestant.

[edit] Ratings

The Magnificent Marble Machine was one of the most hyped game shows on NBC's daytime schedule, as programmers were hoping to cash in on the pinball craze. However, critics and viewers roundly panned the show; modifying the rules and changing the format to all celebrities (with guests playing for home audience members, and a studio audience member playing the bonus round) in January 1976 failed. Soap operas on CBS and the game Showoffs and the soap All My Children on ABC defeated MMM in the ratings.

Although the last original episode aired in March 1976, NBC aired reruns until June, because of a technical strike affecting the network. This was one of the first instances of a network employing repeats of a first-run game show to fill a time slot. The network canceled the program when its replacement series, The Fun Factory, was ready.