What’s worse? Not being able to outlive your earlier fame, or having never been famous at all?

I hopped aboard this particular train of thought after viewing “Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies” (9 p.m. today, HBO), a wildly uneven comedy special and Carvey’s first for the network since 1995.

Carvey’s days with the “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1990s and his “Wayne’s World” collaboration with Mike Myers continue to define his career. And “Monkeys” offers a few reasons why.

For starters, the awkward title provides the punch line for a long, belabored riff on the strangeness of religious beliefs. Carvey’s political commentary often feels stale and like an excuse to fall back on impressions. But even these seem rather rusty. His takes on Barack Obama and John McCain remain unconvincing and merely an afterthought on the way to meet up with old friends, including both presidents Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, a meteoric political oddity not much heard from since 1996.

¢ Whoopi Goldberg hosts the 62nd Annual Tony Awards (7 p.m. Sunday, CBS), a salute to the best on Broadway that will include performances from new, recently departed and revived favorites from “Rent” to “In the Heights” to “Sunday in the Park with George.”

¢ On a similar if less-exalted theme, Vanessa Williams hosts the 6th Annual TV Land Awards (8 p.m. Sunday, TV Land). Television stars past and present, from Dick Van Dyke to Steve Carell, are on hand to honor Mike Myers with something called “The Legacy of Laughter” award.

¢ The link between television and the Internet’s many social networking sites can be seen with the “Rate My Space” (9 p.m. Sunday, HGTV) phenomenon. The popular site on HGTV.com has attracted a reported 150 million visitors since 2007.

Today’s other highlights

¢ Round 3 of the U.S. Open golf tournament (3 p.m., NBC).

¢ A Beverly Hills stylist returns to his New Jersey roots in the season finale of “Split Ends” (5 p.m., Style).

¢ Scheduled on “48 Hours Mystery” (7 p.m., CBS): the death of “the girl next door.”

¢ The voices of John Goodman and Billy Crystal animate the 2001 animated comedy “Monsters, Inc.” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams star in the 2004 weepy flick “The Notebook” (8 p.m., CBS).

¢ Twisters roil the city that never sleeps in the 2008 shocker “NYC: Tornado Terror” (8 p.m., Sci Fi).

¢ A florist needs help on the season finale of the small-business makeover series “Peter Perfect” (8 p.m., Style).

Sunday’s other highlights

¢ The final round of the U.S. Open golf tournament (2 p.m., NBC).

¢ Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): the science of sleep; contentment in Copenhagen.

¢ The “Independent Lens” (7 p.m., PBS) presentation “Deep Water” recalls a ’round-the-world sailing competition that brought out the best and worst in its participants.

¢ “When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions” (8 p.m. and 9 p.m., Discovery) recalls the triumph of Apollo and the anticlimax that was Skylab.

¢ Mechanical failures abound on “Ice Road Trucker” (8 p.m., History).

¢ Joan faces a difficult call on “Army Wives” (9 p.m., Lifetime).