I just finished a Wordplay marathon - Some thoughts:
1) I noticed for the first time how the set was staged - am I wrong or did it pretty much mean the studio audience (if it even had one) had a pretty narrow view?
2) The writing got better as the series progressed, however you could quickly spot the episodes where they wrote the comedy for any celebrity and not for the celebrities on the stage. That coupled with the varying ability of the celebrity to read the prompter, and do comedy determined the quality of the episode. Bert Convy, Abby Dalton, and Bill Rafferty were the trifecta of terrible here.
3) The game strategy is way more complex than it seems like it should be. Assuming both players know the definition of all 9 words, the challenging player has an advantage since they play the last word. This appears to be mitigated by the returning player taking the 3 outlier words (the word in each column that only has 1 possible connection).
4) Almost every episode in my sample set had a bonus round irregularity - typically delays in revealing the clues. There were a couple of instances where the bell didn't ring immediately after a correct response, which also caused a delay in revealing the next clue. This caused contestants to rush the bell, which prompted Tom to slow them down.
Overall I found the show oddly enjoyable, depending on the particular week of celebrity. A 'B' tier show in my opinion that had a decent run. I wouldn't mind seeing the concept dusted off.