Yeah that was tough. My family NEVER reacts to movies or TV shows verbally, but when they showed his head, there was a cacophony of "awe no.....noooo.....ah man" all within a second or two. (Daryl and Hershel were our favorite characters)
I knew they really stirred up a bit of a hornets nest with killing off Hershel when my dad stopped by the house the day after that episode. He's a very 'hard'/stoic person. One of those tough as hell 'mountain folk' types, and he was REALLY pissed about it. Said he may never watch it again. lol I'd heard there was a big uproar on social media/Internet, but I never bother with it(Twitter, Facebook, ect...ect).
I sometimes read a Walking Dead forum, and even the liberal posters there who initially dismissed Herschel as a Southern Bible-thumper came to love him, and were upset over his death.
According to Talking Dead, Scott Wilson really didn’t want to leave the show. I wish they had let him stay.