I quit watching well before MG died. I think it might have been on opposite another show I wanted to watch. But I sort of "kept up" with the show through Entertainment Weekly, so I knew of Goren Visnick (whatever), and Maura Tierney and Parminder and the rest joining the cast.
I got sucked in by watching the retrospective. Man, the show was good back in the day. I found myself getting choked up by small scenes, especially when Elizabeth Greene was re-introducing herself to people. The scene where the fat older nurse dude realized who she is...that was some damned fine acting. His expression almost made me lose it.
I DID lose it watching the scenes with Ernest Borgnine. I was watching it with LG, and when he said, "I'm not ready to let her go", tha't it, cue the fucking waterworks.
It says a lot about a show when you can watch an episode after a 10-year break, and still be moved.
And it was pretty cool that they pulled back and showed the entire hospital for the first time, something LG tells me they had never done before.