Well to respond to this post, since I've seen the B&W/color Password, Password+, and Super Password. I side more with the Password + version because that was the first Password I actually saw until one day I watched the program that came on 30 minutes before hand (remember on Saturdays on GSN at 3:30)...well I thought the original version was boring, cuz it was guessing words all day long until you got 25 points. I'm not a points person, I'm a dollars kinda guy. Also one thing that bothered me was you could win an additional $250 more in the lightning round for a total of $500 for a game. Maybe it's just me but that's not rocking my boat...however though, $500 for guessing words back in that time period was good money and it could buy you some things, on the other hand, wasn't Cullen's Price is Right the big money show of the G-T stable?
Like some of you, the show did eventually grow on me. I look back and I see that Password had some A-list celebs...something that celebrity game shows will never ever see IMO anymore, that was a plus. But my favorite versions are the NBC editions. It's something about Password Plus and Super Password that I like but can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the guessing the passwords which leads up to the Password Puzzle, which was the best thing that could have happened to Password, unlike this Password All-Stars format I keep hearing about, is what I like about the shows. It's like you finally get the word (provided you covered it up on your tv screen) and then you have to guess again to see how that word is linked to the other revealed/not revealed words for a person, place, or thing. I find it funny how in the 60s, you had to get all five passwords in 60 seconds at $50 a piece but in the late 70's you had to get double that at $100 a piece but win $5000 if you clear the board. What makes you go from 5 words to 10 words in 60 seconds? Were the people dumber back then, what gives? What I would like to see is the difficulty of words from the 60s played in the 70s/80s version for $5000+! Now that's working for you money.
On Super Password...there was nothing different about it except for the escalating Super Password round starting off at $5000+ and the Ca$hword round for $1000+ but for only one word (very difficult to convey) and only three clues. SP did bring back the switching partners element that the 60's version had. Other than the new set, new host, and MMS, that was the only "Super" thing about it. I'd call it super too, if I had the noon timeslot on NBC. But all versions (except for the PAS) is basically simple and fun to watch. I guess there's a market for people guessing words... Bob Stewart knew.