Unfortunately, many references to hamsters on TV and in movies are defamatory. The ones that aren't feature hamsters for a very small period of time.

 Hamsters have appeared in:

   The Simpsons: Something about a lab experiment done by Lisa, comparing the intelligence of Bart to the intelligence of a hamster. The hamster won.

   Kids in the Hall: Two pet hamsters of little kid Gavin.

   Late Night with Conan O'Brien:  References made to hamsters quite often. The best that I can think of: Andy Richter, the sidekick, brought a hamster up in a blimp to see if it would survive the altitude. It did.

   The Wonder Years: A hamster was sucked up in a vacuum cleaner.

   The Ren & Stimpy Show:
  Dear Dr Stupid,
    I've got a pet hamster called Dennis. When I come home from school Dennis is always fast asleep in his little house. It's only at night after I've gone to bed that Dennis comes out, then he climbs into his wheel and starts to trundle around in it for hours.
Why?

   What you have here, Gracie is a very rare hamster called the Austrian Rotation Hamster. It's a little known fact that at night the planet Earth starts to slow down. This is because the planet is solar-powered and after eight hours of nighttime the Earth is in danger of stopping completely. So every night after the sun goes down, the Austrian Rotation Hamster wakes up and starts to run around in its wheel. The combined energy produced by these hamster wheels all over the world is enough to keep the Earth spinning all night long!

   Weird Al Yankovic: Weird Al Yankovic has a song on his latest album about his pet "Harvey the wonder Hamster". Also an earlier album of his has a song called "Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet Near Mars".

   Brady Bunch: There was an episode of the Brady Bunch wherein the boys have a hamster named Henrietta in their room. (Not to be confused with the episode wherein Myron the science project mouse gets killed due to one of girls' practical jokes on Alice the maid.)

   Once upon a Hamster: On the Animal Planet is a great show called "Once upon a Hamster". There is no violence, and Hammy, the main character, which is a hamster, doesn't get hurt. His friends include Martha Mouse, GP the guinia pig, Turtle, Toad, and a whole bunch of other friends. They teach kids good values while having fun!

  Hamtaro: In 1999, Tottoko Hamutaro - a popular Japanese children's book - was made into an anime (Japanese for "cartoon"). The hero of this cartoon is an orange and white hamster named Hamutaro. The show recently hit US and Canadian shores as simply "Hamtaro." The premise is of a fifth-grader named Laura (or in the original version, Ryoko) Haruna moving to a new town. Unbeknownst to her, as she made friends, so did her pet hamster, Hamtaro. After their owners go to school, Hamtaro and his hamster friends, called "the Ham-Hams," help people and go on little adventures always home right before their owners so as not to get caught. You may visit the official English website at http://www.hamtaro.com/.