Same... While there were some "high school" cliches like Sally Avril, (even she had moments), it helped that a majority of them felt like real people to me...
While Gwen was going to live throughout all of Spectacular's proposed 5 seasons (with the series ending on Peter's graduation). I definitely feel that her death was one of those things that they would have adapted for a DTV. I mean prior to Spectacular, most adaptations either flat out ignored Gwen or made her an afterthought. (Nowadays she's only thrown in due to having powers, but prior to Spectacular I don't recall Gwen Stacy ever being a significant character outside of comics...)