History Main / SavingTheOrphanage

* In a ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' episode, the kids save the town park from developers.

* The third act of ''Film/{{UHF}}'' sees R.J. Fletcher buy U62 and threaten to close it down. So, the station holds a telethon to sell shares to the public. [[spoiler: They succeed, but just barely, when the bum buys the remaining shares.]]

* This turned out to be the reason behind [[spoiler:Phantom Thief G, a.k.a. Timothy's crime spree]] in ''Manga/DGrayMan''. [[CrapsackWorld This being DGM]], of course, the obviously-supernatural methods attracted enough attention that it went FromBadToWorse. In the end, the Black Order wound up paying to save the place anyway.
* Gleefully abused in an episode of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', in which the saintly nurse Clara claims that she took on the role of master thief Psiren in order to obtain the funds to save the hospital where she works from being closed down and demolished. And then the hospital gets demolished anyhow... as do the church and the orphanage and probably a couple of other struggling establishments that follow it. This example may be considered a DoubleSubversion, since at the end of the episode it's revealed that the city in which it takes place is dying a slow death and Psiren's exploits are drawing in much-needed tourism. AlternativeCharacterInterpretation suggests that Psiren was just coming up with another lie. And it worked.
* The reason Naoto Date aka Manga/TigerMask betrays the Tiger's Cave and starts to get hunted by them is to save the orphanage where he was raised: the orphanage owed money to the Yakuza, and Naoto had to choose between paying them or his dues to Tiger's Cave.

* ''{{ComicBook/Orphanimo}}'': The series resolves around an old Victorian style orphanage which is the last original building standing in a city that has been turned into a concrete jungle of skyscrapers by BigBad Hari Vallalkozo, who has his eyes set on the orphanage so he can use the land for his latest project.
* The 1990 ''ComicBook/{{Superman}} ComicBook/{{Batman}}:World's Finest'' miniseries is about Midway Orphanage halfway between Gothan and Metropolis, which Lex Luthor wants to demolish so he'll have a new headquarters from which he can control ''both'' cities.

* ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'', of course! When Jake and Elwood Blues attend church service at a black church, Jake sees the light and gets his MissionFromGod: [[HeyLetsPutOnAShow get the band]] [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether together]], and save the orphanage from getting closed. In this example, the orphanage supposedly has to pay "back taxes", which actually fails the logic test since orphanages, as non-profits, don't pay taxes. However, at the time the film was in production, the state of Illinois was debating legislation that would have required some religious buildings to pay property taxes - though by the time the film was released, this had been struck down.
* In ''Film/TheDevilsBackbone'', an orphanage full of children is threatened by the Spanish Civil War. [[spoiler: They end up killing the bad guy with spears.]]

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "The Miracle Job", the team of former crooks tries to save a church from being bought by a real estate developer by [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome faking a miracle]].
%%* There was a plot or three of this in ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}''.

* Lucha Libre International, better known for it's athletic commission Universal Wrestling Association, had a wrestler known as Fray Tormenta, a priest who took advantage of the prominence of [[MaskedLuchador masks]] on the Mexican circuit to hide his identity and make money for an orphanage he worked at. His real life story would see {{homage}}s in ''Manga/TigerMask'', ''Film/NachoLibre'' and ''Videogame/{{Tekken}}'', while later luchadors Wrestling/{{Mistico}} and [[Wrestling/{{Hunico}} Incognito]] would have {{the gimmick}} of being orphans from the facility he saved(Wrestling/{{CMLL}} first tried the gimmick with El Sagrado but were unsuccessful).

* A more direct attempt at destroying The Orphanage occurred in the video game version of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness.'' It worked.
* King the First in ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' is a masked wrestler who fights to raise money to save his orphanage.
* ''VideoGame/TheThreeStooges'' videogame on the NES (yes, this actually existed) was all about trying to raise money to save an orphanage. [[ExcusePlot (Well, sort of.)]] Predated the movie based around the same trope by decades.
* In chapter 3 of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'', the heroes must raise money to rebuild a razed orphanage; fortunately a local politician offers to keep the kids housed in the interim.
* [[BountyHunter Hayato's]] goal in the first Videogame/StarGladiator game.

* ''Film/TheCountryBears'' ripped off ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' wholesale - except instead of needing to save an orphanage, they had to reunite the band to save Country Bear Hall in an {{Anvilicious}} bit of product placement. The only distinct part is that the developer (played by Christopher Walken) isn't bulldozing for any reason except that he hates the bears and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vEFFpOwEIo spends all of his free time destroying models of the building]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In the episode "The Sweaters", two preppy students of Sarah's old school, "Carlton" and "Troy", believe Darwin and Gumball have a reputation of being "hardcore". They show up out of the blue in front of Elmore Junior High, throw family friendly insults at them and pose cheesily in a parody of generic 1980s movie tropes. After Carlton, Troy, and their coach harass Gumball and Darwin in various ways, they eventualy threaten to "Crush them tomorrow at 4:00", when Gumball refuses Carlton says that if they aren't in attendence he'll tell his dad to level their school and build a golf course right on top. To make the parody more blunt he tells Mr. Small "They said we have to fight them at 4:00 tomorrow or their super-rich dad will bulldoze the school and build a golf-course on it. I mean, When I say that out loud it's like the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard". Every supporting character fervidly encourages the fight, blatantly mocking the "Save the (blank) trope". Gumball accepts the fight after Penny (the love interest stand-in for this trope parody) exclaims to Gumball how heroic she thinks he is for fighting for such a noble cause.

* ''Literature/JuniperSawfeather'': In ''Whisper of the Woods'', June's uncle Nathan, who lives on a Chinook reservation, wants to sell an old growth cedar forest to developers. June and her activist parents protest. The tallest tree in the forest turns out to be a {{treant|s}} who was turned from a man into a tree centuries ago because he wished to be immortal and help his people. Partly inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill's memoir, June climbs about 150 feet into the tree, with its help, and spends several days tree-sitting. People on the ground use a bucket to send her food and other supplies. Two men try to climb the tree to take her back down, but the tree damages their rope, forcing them to descend without her. [[spoiler:Once Nathan discovers that his vanished sister Amelia has been living inside the tree, he agrees to stop it from being logged. The tree finally allows June to descend.]]

* ''Literature/JuniperSawfeather'': In ''Whisper of the Woods'', June's uncle Nathan, who lives on a Chinook reservation, wants to sell an old growth cedar forest to developers. June and her activist parents protest. The tallest tree in the forest turns out to be a {{treant}} who was turned from a man into a tree centuries ago because he wished to be immortal and help his people. Partly inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill's memoir, June climbs about 150 feet into the tree, with its help, and spends several days tree-sitting. People on the ground use a bucket to send her food and other supplies. Two men try to climb the tree to take her back down, but the tree damages their rope, forcing them to descend without her. [[spoiler:Once Nathan discovers that his vanished sister Amelia has been living inside the tree, he agrees to stop it from being logged. The tree finally allows June to descend.]]

* A recurring plotline in the ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioBros'' cartoons. In "Mario and the Beanstalk" the gang has to come up with 100 gold coins to save the Mushroom Kingdom orphanage in 24 hours, this leads to the Literature/JackAndTheBeanstalk plotline giving them more than enough by the end of it. The episode "Tag Team Trouble" subverts this, Toad believes the money he was supposed to give to the orphanage was stolen, so he enters the Mario bros in a wrestling contest to get more. In actuality, the owner claimed the money after Toad fell asleep on the way there and didn't tell him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Hugh J. Magnate tried to destroy Dimmsdale Park.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In the episode "The Sweaters", two preppy students of Sarah's old school, "Carlton" and "Troy", believe Darwin and Gumball have a reputation of being "hardcore". They show up out of the blue in front of Elmore Junior High, throw family friendly insults at them and pose cheesily in a parody of generic 1980s movie tropes. After Carlton, Troy, and their coach harass Gumball and Darwin in various ways, they eventualy threaten to "Crush them tomorrow at 4:00", when Gumball refuses Carlton says that if they aren't in attendence he'll tell his dad to level their school and build a golf course right on top. To make the parody more blunt he tells Mr. Small "They said we have to fight them at 4:00 tomorrow or their super-rich dad will bulldoze the school and build a golf-course on it. I mean, When I say that out loud it's like the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard". Every supporting character fervidly encourages the fight, blatantly mocking the "Save the (blank) trope". Gumball accepts the fight after Penny (the love interest stand-in for this trope parody) exclaims to Gumball how heroic she thinks he is for fighting for such a noble cause.

* ''WesternAnimation/TweetysHighFlyingAdventure'' featured Granny waging against Col. Rimfire so she'd have enough money to save a park. Granny's victory depended on Tweety going Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays and collecting paw prints of eighty cats during the meantime. Sylvester provided the last print.

%%* ''Film/FieldOfDreams''

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[[quoteright:300:[[Film/TheCountryBears https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/country_bears_8655.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:He lives only to destroy their lives.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' did several episodes of this type. Firstly was "The Old Building" where Arnold is caught between boarder Ernie Potts and his Grandma over whether to save the Circle Theater or demolish it. "Save the Tree" is about Arnold and his friends attempting to stop Big Bob Pataki from tearing down Mighty Pete, the oldest (and only) tree in Hillwood. "Casa Paradiso" has Arnold and the boarders try to convince Grandpa not to sell the Sunset Arms boarding house and move him and his grandparents to a retirement community. WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie was about trying to save Hillwood itself from a greedy developer who wanted to turn the Neighborhood into a giant mall.

* In ''Literature/OneLastStop'' the characters put on a huge drag show fundraiser to save Pancake Billy's, the local diner and hangout where several of them are employed. It's also the one unchanged thing since [[FishOutOfWater Jane]] got unstuck in time 45 years ago... and the fundraiser makes a perfect cover for the time heist to save her.

* The 1990 ''Comicbook/{{Superman}} Comicbook/{{Batman}}:World's Finest'' miniseries is about Midway Orphanage halfway between Gothan and Metropolis, which Lex Luthor wants to demolish so he'll have a new headquarters from which he can control ''both'' cities.

* [[{{BountyHunter}} Hayato's]] goal in the first Videogame/StarGladiator game.

[[AC:WebComic]]

[[AC: WebComics]]

* The 2011 revival, ''Film/TheMuppets'', pretends as though the above never happened, and shows the theater having money troubles. In this movie, a greedy oil magnate wants to buy it, bulldoze it, and drill for precious oil underneath. [[spoiler:In this case, the Muppets actually fail to raise the money despite a charity telethon. However, they decide as a family that it's more important that they gave it their all and they can start from scratch again. Just as the credits start, Gonzo smacks the villain in the head with a bowling ball, causing him to finally gain the ability to laugh, so he gives the property back for free anyway]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madeline}}'': The episode "Madeline and the New House" sees Madeline and her friends preventing Lord Cucuface from having their boarding school torn down. Its LighterAndSofter than in the live-action movie, since there's no threat of Miss Clavel and the girls being separated, but they do have to leave Pepito behind and go to live in a small, cramped apartment with mean neighbors, so naturally they want their old house back.

* In ''LightNovel/TheAsteriskWar'', this is Julis' motivation for taking part in the Festa as she needs the prize money to keep the orphanage where she made a lot of friends from being closed.

* ''Literature/YouCabBeACyborgWhenYoureOlder'' by Richard Roberts: Vanity Rose gets involved in cyberpunk corporate warfare and high stakes theft (at age fouryeen) to prevent this happening to Ms. Understanding's orphanage. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, she's misread the situation and it was unnecessary.]]