It’s not uncommon for aspiring actors to start young, but there wasn’t any time wasted when it came to queer icon Jodie Foster. She started in commercials as young as three and made her television debut as early as six in an episode of “Mayberry R.F.D.” Long before she played the vulnerable defendant in “The Accused” or faced off against Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” the child prodigy slowly made her way into film with roles in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “Freaky Friday.” By the time she was 12, Foster was not only working on her second Martin Scorsese picture with “Taxi Driver,” but it was also the role that led her first of five Oscar nominations — and two wins.
In the interim before her big breaks, however, Foster was kept super busy when it came to guest appearances on a plethora of television shows. She did everything from “Adam-12” to “Bonanza” and even “The Partridge Family.” There were a few shows she returned to, such as “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” and “Paper Moon,” but it was the long-running CBS western “Gunsmoke” where each of her three guest appearances were all different characters.
Foster’s inaugural outing to Dodge City arrived in the season 15 episode “Roots of Fear” as young Susan Sadler. It’s not a very big role on the surface, but her presence is a substantial one. Her family is set to move into the farm they’ve always wanted for themselves, but all of the money they’ve saved to pay for it is suddenly trapped inside the temporarily closed Dodge City bank. To make matters worse, there’s another offer on the property ready to go.
The Sadler family makes the hard decision to break into the bank at night and take what’s theirs, but it only creates more trouble than they anticipated. Foster is critical as the innocent voice of reason, who implores one of the Sadlers not to pursue further violence when confronted by Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness). It’s a great episode about good people trapped in a bad predicament.
Young Jodie Foster played an orphan at Christmas
Foster would return to “Gunsmoke” in its 17th season with the episode “P.S. Murry Christmas.” It’s notable that this was the series’ second and final Christmas episode in its 20 season run, with its first (“Magnus”) having taken place all the way back in season one. Here, Foster plays Patricia, a young girl living at the Pawnee County Orphanage.
When Ms. Emma Grundy (Jeanette Nolan) abruptly dismisses the orphanage’s handyman, Titus Spangler (Jack Elam), over nothing, the children decide to leave with him to spend Christmas in Dodge City. What follows is a tender holiday episode that could have so easily leaned into mawkish sentimentality but actually brings depth to its central curmudgeon. Ms. Grundy diminishes the notion of Christmas in the eyes of the children because she doesn’t want them to experience the same heartache she faced. When she was younger, the orphanage headmistress grew up in a deeply religious community and grew to resent not getting the full experience more than once because of it. Ms. Grundy can’t even use the governmental donations to give them a good Christmas on account of them going to provisions.
Of her three “Gunsmoke” guest spots, this one has the least for Foster to do. She mostly blends in with the other six children. Although she’s gone on to become the most famous of the bunch, there are some other prominent names in the collective such as Erin Moran (“Happy Days”) and Willie Aames (“Eight is Enough”). The episode mostly rests on Nolan’s vulnerabilities coming out beneath her hardened shell, in addition to Elam’s warm-hearted generosity. There’s also a great running gag where he keeps escaping Deputy Festus (Ken Curtis) with no problem.
Young Jodie Foster believes a wild dog can be tamed
Last but not least, Foster marks her final “Gunsmoke” guest role only five episodes later with “The Predators.” Here, she plays Marieanne Johnson, the red-headed young girl of recurring character Abelia Johnson (Jacqueline Scott). The character had previously been played by Susan Olsen of “The Brady Bunch” fame. It’s worth noting that Brian Morrison, who plays her brother Jonathan, not only played an orphan in the Christmas episode, but he was also a recast for actor Mike Durkin.
In “The Predators,” Claude Akins plays a man named Howard Kane, who sets his sight on Dodge City after he tracks down the man who shot him years back. On the way to exact his revenge, he encounters the Johnson children trying to tame a wild dog they believe used to be one of their puppies that went missing long ago. Kane’s mission takes a detour when Jacqueline becomes smitten with him, inviting him to stay at the family farm for a while.
Foster gets more to do here as Marieanne is essentially having a parallel story with her mother. While Abelia is helping domesticate a rough man with a soft interior, she’s doing the same with the dog, Dobie. Throughout the episode, Marieanne and Jonathan attempt to show that there’s something good within a figure that has grapples with violence on its mind.
