In Dogs Don't Talk, Emily tells Ben that she's heard The Old Man and the Sea is good, and suggests that she and Ben both read it. Ben says he's more into contemporary writers.
On Arrested Development, this is the book Maeby needs to do a book report on. She tricks an assistant at a film studio to write the report. The book report gets mistaken for a movie treatment, landing her a job as a movie producer.
Sesame Street: A "Monsterpiece Theater" sketch is entitled "The Old Man and the C". In it, Grover plays an old man in a rowboat, talking about his love for the sea, which is on a giant letter C.
The Simpsons has spoofed the book's title several times with episodes such as "The Old Man and the Lisa", "The Old Man and the C Student", and "The Old Man and the Key".
In the South Park episode "D-Yikes!" Mrs. Garrison makes the boys write an essay on The Old Man and the Sea. The boys pay a group of Mexicans to write their essays for them, but the Mexicans misunderstand the instructions and write letters to their éses instead.
An episode of TaleSpin is titled "The Old Man and the Sea Duck".
Rose is Rose, Jimbo explains to his wife how he wakes Pasquale by holding his foot up each morning, citing this book as the reason.