International Emmys honor Alan Alda

Television legends, "M*A*S*H" star Alan Alda and "All in the Family" creator Norman Lear, were honored at the International Emmy Awards held in New York last night.

In accepting the 40th Anniversary Special Founders Award, Alda, 76, paid tribute to the real-life medics including the Korean War veterans who shared their personal stories for the script, saying "the men and women in the hospital tents" often went unmentioned at award nights, CBS News reported. 

"These are the people who really lived through the stories we told decades later – the men and women in those hospital tents who went through the cold of winter and the blood and the pain, the loneliness, and seeing their patients die, some of who were only a couple of years away from being children," Alda said.

Ryan Murphy, the creator of Glee, was presented with the International Emmy Founders award by Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange.

"He has an uncanny intuition, an instinctive appreciation for understanding the current zeitgeist and acts on it in a way that to me is startling," Lange told the audience.

The International Emmys which honor excellence in television production outside the U.S. is usually dominated by Britain but this year the winners in the nine categories spanned six countries. Argentina, Brazil and Britain each won two awards; Australia, France and Germany had one apiece, AP reported.

The night's big winner was Argentina's "Television x la Inclusion," a drama which explored issues of social exclusion. It became the first series in the history of the International Emmys to sweep both acting categories.

Winning best documentary on a contemporary theme was Sir Terry Pratchett's BBC film, "Choosing to Die", about the author who after his Alzheimer's diagnosis travels to a Swiss clinic to look at assisted suicide procedures. Charlie Brooker's Twilight-inspired satire "Black Mirror" won best TV movie/mini-series, the BBC reported.