Thanks for sharing with us all about this marvelous evening. Outside of a presidential inauguration, this seems second in sweeping grandiosity. Wow! Quite a list of folks who showed up and one can only imagine all the time and effort that went into organizing and displaying Cosby's past offerings, deeming him worthy of this Mark Twain Award.
Unfortunately, it is very sad that Culp was not there. Their friendship, close at times and problematic at times, seemed to be glued together solidly enough to have lasted forty years. Given Culp's magnanimous personal generosity in the past, having him be happy for Cosby's three Emmy's for "I Spy"--when we all darn well know Culp should have won one himself instead--I would hope that Culp would seem to also be honestly congratulatory to Cosby regarding this Award. It's too bad that it seems something occurred between them, keeping Culp away from this evening and the honoring of one of his closest friend's in his life. I hope their relationship, if it needs healing up, does do so, for both of them!