Empire Records: There's a scene showing several people in different listening booths at the store, one of them being a teenage girl listening to a Carpenters album and crying.
In High School High, as Mr. Clark arrives at the school, he is listening to "Top of the World", but it soon involuntary changes into a gangster rap song that ends up playing on all of the stations.
In Parenthood, after Susan dumps Nathan, he goes to her school and serenaded her in front of her class with their wedding song "(They Long to Be) Close to You".
Juno: At one point, Mark plays Sonic Youth's cover version of "Superstar" for Juno, from the "If I Were a Carpenter" tribute album.
In Tommy Boy, when Richard and Tommy are riding to Detroit, they tearfully sing along to the radio playing "Superstar". Then the hood flies up.
In I Think I Love You, Petra remembers singing "Rainy Days and Mondays" and "Close to You" with Sharon. She thinks that the Carpenters' music has more staying power than their cooler contemporaries.
In The Love Boat episode "The Perfect Match," a woman requests that the pianist play "Close To You," which she knows is her Chosen Conception Partner's favorite song.
Married... with Children: One episode mentions that "We've Only Just Begun" was Al and Peg's wedding song.
Red Dwarf: In "Queeg", when Holly is about to be erased he decides to finish on a song, and is singing "Goodbye to Love" as the erase takes place.
Veronica Mars: In the season two episode "Driver Ed", Veronica gets into a conference room at the sheriff's department (so she can call from there, pretending she works there, to track down a phone number) by pretending to apply for a job there. When Sheriff Lamb, whom she doesn't get along with (the feeling's mutual), discovers she's there, he goes into the conference room and orders her out. She lies and says she's applying for a job there just to be near him, and asks, "Seriously, why do birds suddenly appear every time you're near?"
In "The Way We Was", when Homer first viewed Marge, "Close to You" is heard in the background. Later, Artie Ziff sings her an off-key version after they're crowned Prom King and Queen.
As a Call-Back to this moment, The Simpsons Movie reveals that Homer and Marge danced to this song at their wedding.
In "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons", a Hindi version of the song is being sung at Apu and Manjula's wedding reception.
In "Colonel Homer", when Lenny is convinced Homer's great bowling game is because he's singing to his ball, he begins to sing their version of "There's a Kind of Hush".
