- In Crooklyn, the children happily watch the show.
- Dead Presidents: As the police raid the home of Skip to arrest him and find him dead of a heroin overdose, the show is playing in the background.
- This Christmas: The Dance Party Ending has the cast doing a "Soul Train line".
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: The episode "Sooooooul Train!" has Phil and Vivian invited onto the show for its 25th Anniversary due to them being among its memorable guests (he proposed to her on the show) and the subplot of both Will and Carlton competing to be Don Cornelius' co-host.
- In Living Color!: One skit titled Old Train featured a geriatric and absent-minded Don Cornelius and the Soul Train Dancers.
- The series American Soul was about the popularity of the show and Cornelius' (played by Sinqua Walls) rise to fame.
- The "Soul Train Music Awards" is named after the show and highlights Black music and entertainment.
- Saved by the Bell: In "Aloha Slater" after Zack's antics make Slater frantically sneeze and scratch himself (to the point of looking like dancing), their annoyed teacher yells out, "Hey, this is study hall, not Soul Train!"
- The Golden Girls: In "Mixed Blessing" when it's discussed how people are treated fairly regardless of race, Rose surprisingly calls that a bunch a baloney. When her shocked friends ask her to elaborate, her example is whenever a White person dances down the line on the show.
Music
- In the music video for David Bowie's "Fame '90", his Soul Train performance of the original version of "Fame" is one of the many clips featured on the border of the screen.
- The Simpsons:
- At the beginning of "Radio Bart", Lisa watches and dances to a Soul Train like series. When Homer first objects to some of the dancing, he is then mesmerized by it himself and the beautiful dancing women.
- "Rosebud" has Mr. Burns, desperate to get his beloved teddy Bobo back from Homer, interrupting several television shows he watches, including an Expy of the show called the Soul Mass Transit System.
- In "Bull-E", Otto has a hallucination that uses the show's theme song and a similar art style, called "School Train". He also ends up crashing into Thomas the Tank Engine and meets Ms. Frizzle in space.
- Dexter's Laboratory: The episode "Sister's Got a Brand New Bag" has Dee Dee trying repeatedly to show Dexter a cool dance she likes from an expy of the show called Groove Train.
