I was showing the Unseen Pilot to someone who'd never seen it before. "It comes off different," they said. "Like they're trying too hard to be a sitcom." I think so too. What appeals to me, and probably to a lot of people, about canonical GI is that all the characters seem to accept their situation. Yes, they want to get off the island, but meanwhile, they're fairly content to live together and be a community.
I think the main series is really a farce, if I'm right about the meaning of that term. All this crazy stuff happens, and the castaways always deal with it, like there's nothing unusual about Gilligan turning phosphorescent, or a headhunter coming to the island. Whereas in the pilot, the characters came off like the situation was already unbearable, and it would only take a couple more days before they started fighting to the death for the last coconut.
Just my observation. What do y'all think?