In today’s episode, everything settles back into normal space-time. As a fire militia has finally shown up to put out the fire, Mark and Cherry revert to their standard husband-and-wife/parent roles. This means Mark also regresses to his normal Clueless Mark persona.

Note that this “clueless” aspect of Mark’s personality generally reflects the “clueless dad” character found in family TV shows of the 90’s and beyond, such as “The Simpsons”, “Married with Children”, “Malcolm in the Middle”, and “Everybody loves Raymond”.

As a point of comparison, Vintage Mark Trail found his contemporary parallel in the “Wise Father Figure” of 1950s TV programs, such as “Father Knows Best”, “Leave it to Beaver”, and “Bonanza”. Of course, Vintage Mark Trail has been endlessly ridiculed for his apparent lack of Quality Time with Rusty. I’ll admit to making grand generalizations here, but I’m just looking for possible ambient influences in Rivera’s changes to Mark Trail, such as what she might have seen on TV while growing up.