Note that some of the board game suggestions, both mine and others', are going to be for games that came out 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago -- so you're probably going to get them used off eBay. Make sure the person you're giving them to knows that. Also, what age will the recipient be? That may affect what's good for them.
Again, Password always works. I've also found Concentration is a good game, because it doesn't have a lot of rules to explain. And usually Wheel of Fortune is a good option, since virtually everybody knows the rules.
I'm not a big fan of Jeopardy! as a home game -- the older versions have a lot of questions that are specific to the era, and if one person is more of a trivia buff than others (I fit in that category), it gets boring for the others. Figuring out who buzzed in first can be a problem in some of the less high-tech versions.
Stay away from the '70s versions of Match Game (the '60s versions are cool, and don't take long to explain). Heck, I'd stay away from almost any '70s Milton Bradley game except the ones mentioned above.
I haven't played the home versions of Family Feud very much -- what's the consensus on those?