- In Aloha, Bobby and Rose, Bobby and Rose make out in the car while "Just My Imagination" plays on the radio.
- In Music and Lyrics, Alex Flecther cites "My Girl" as an example of how a good pop song can be just as meaningful to someone as a more serious work of literature.You can take all the novels in the world, but none of them will make you feel as good as fast as "I've got sunshine, on a cloudy da-ay..."
- In One-Trick Pony, a radio DJ promises Motown memories, with "the tempting Temptations."
- Towards the end of Walk Hard, Dewey, having kicked a drug habit, says he won't give into the temptations. Cue him walking by... guess.
- Veronica Mars: In the second season episode "Blast from the Past", Wallace gets visited by his biological father, whom he didn't know was alive. When his father comes by the convenience store where he works, Wallace greets him by singing "Papa Was a Rolling Stone".
- In WKRP in Cincinnati, when a questionable interviewee mentions seeing aliens dressed in gold lame, Venus replies that it was either the Temptations or the Four Tops.
Music
- Talking Heads' "Stay Up Late" quotes the line "I know you wanna leave me" from "Ain't Too Proud to Beg".
