In Ron Howard’s awful movie, the baby Grinch showed up on the doorstep of two elderly spinster Who sisters.
***Three Men and a Baby ***(I’m not sure about the original French film it was based on).
Tom Jones
Kris Kringle was a foundling left on the elves’ doorstep in Rankin-Bass’s animated TV special*** Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.***
Quasimodo was a foundling in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Heathcliff was a foundling in Wuthering Heights.
Barney Rubble’s son Bam-Bam was left on his doorstep.
So was Skeezix in the long-running comic strip*** Gasoline Alley.***
The Jungle Book.
Roger Zelazny’s Changling and Madwand.
There was a foreign movie a few years ago about a young guy that steals a car and finds a baby in the backseat. I can’t remember the name though, anybody?
Not exactly “finding” per se, but Louis L’Amour’s novel O’Reilly’s Luck involves a young child being dumped on a wandering gambler.
The French film, 3 Men and a Cradle (3 hommes et un couffin), is so wildly superior to the American film, the American film would make you angry if you saw the French film first.
Kolya, 1996 Best Foreign Language Oscar (Czech, with a little Russian)
Monsters, Inc.
The last episode of the 2013-2014 season of Law & Order: SVU has Detective Benson (Olivia) gets an orphan baby placed into her care. I guess that’s the start of a new story line, yet to be resolved.
There Will Be Blood, arguably.
I remember the movie now. It was Tsotsi, and won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2006.
Not a book or movie or TV show, but, Gasoline Alley.
Already mentioned in post #23
Lobsang Ludd and Jeremy Clockson in Terry Pratchett’s The thief of Time start as guild foundlings.
In the Super Marios Bros movie, I believe that Daisy (Princess Peach) was a foundling, raised by a church. I have a feeling like Luigi may also have been adopted by Mario.
It makes me a little sad that I’ve read or seen at least half of these… good suggestions, though.
Rand in the Wheel of Time series. Found on Dragonmount by Tam.
For that matter, the Dragon in the Eragon series is a foundling, or a found-egg.
My fantasy is to dance with 27 year old Ginger Rogers, the Bachelor Mother. I’ve not seen the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian film it was based on, Kleine Mutti, but I don’t look down my nose at inspired silliness.
Meet The Robinsons-
The main character is abandoned on a orphanage door, he eventually decides it was for the best because otherwise it would change his whole life.