"Homeland" and "Modern Family" Win Top Emmys Lucy Nicholson/Reuters "Homeland" was honored as best drama series at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday. LOS ANGELES - It's never easy to be a freshman television show vying for an Emmy Award against the most popular upperclassman. But the Showtime thriller "Homeland" pulled it off on Sunday night, not once but four times, piling up writing and acting awards and winning the biggest one of them all, best drama, and thereby denying AMC's "Mad Men" and its creator, Matthew Weiner, a place in the television history books. Heading into Sunday night's show here, the television industry collectively wondered whether "Mad Men" would become the first television drama ever to win the top award five times. "Homeland" assured that it would not; further, it ushered Showtime, the premium cable channel owned by CBS, into a new realm. "I want to start by congratulating Showtime on its first best-series Emmy ever," said Alex Gansa, one of the show's executive producers, as he accepted the best-drama award. "It's been a long time coming, and "Homeland" stands on the shoulders of a lot of great shows over there: "Dexter," "Weeds," "Nurse Jackie," among them all." The "64th Primetime Emmy Awards" did play like a TV repeat in another way, however, when ABC's "Modern Family" won the best-comedy award for the third straight year, beating out several sitcoms on HBO and other networks. Earlier in the evening the HBO movie "Game Change," the FX mini-series "American Horror Story" and the History channel mini-series "Hatfields & McCoys" shared wins in the movie and mini-series category, reflecting the increasing variety of prize-worthy programming on cable. While the broadcast networks came away with a few noteworthy Emmys - Jon Cryer of CBS's "Two and a Half Men" won for lead actor in a comedy and Maggie Smith of PBS's "Downton Abbey" won for supporting actress in a drama - it was cable programming like "Homeland" that clearly wowed Emmy voters, continuing a long creative drift away from broadcast. After "Homeland" won for writing, the series won for lead actor in a drama, for Damian Lewis's gripping portrayal of a war hero turned terrorist, and for lead actress, for Claire Danes's even more gripping portrayal of the bipolar C.I.A. agent chasing him and sometimes sleeping with him. Ms. Danes, who was the early favorite in the category, thanked the writers for "subverting our expectations in the most masterful way." She said Mr. Lewis had performed a magic trick of "turning a villain into someone so human and someone we feel so deeply about." The timing could not have been better for "Homeland," since that show's second season is set to begin in a week. The shut-out of "Mad Men" - it won no major awards on Sunday night - surprised some in the audience. But Mr. Weiner had effectively managed expectations on the red carpet earlier in the day, saying: "No one is expecting to win tonight. Don't be crazy. It's never been done before. AMC's other critically acclaimed drama, "Breaking Bad," was recognized when Aaron Paul won for best supporting actor in a drama. Mr. Lewis's win as best actor broke the "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston's three-year winning streak in that category. Presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Emmys are the most prestigious prizes for television achievement in the United States. Winners are selected by the academy's more than 15,000 members, a subset of whom vote in each category. In the comedy categories, Mr. Cryer of "Two and a Half Men," Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the winner in the lead-actress category for the new HBO sitcom "Veep," and Louis C. K., the winner in the writing category for his FX series "Louie," were the three big exceptions to the "Modern Family" sweep.