Synaptic Snaps, Crackles & Pops

Pretty sure I'm in charge [Journalistic Intentions Rd 9]

Reasonable Authority Figure  

Pretty sure I'm in charge

For whatever reason, TV father figures from back in the day crowded right to the front of my thoughts on this. Perfect? No, but pretty close when you consider the backdrop of their era. For example, you had Chuck Connors in The Rifleman and Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons. A little further from perfect were the likes of the long-suffering Herbert Anderson in Dennis the Menace (he was a smart guy, so why couldn't he harness that kid's energy?) and, of course, Hugh Beaumont in Leave It To Beaver. He usually had a pretty good handle on things, but he nicknamed his kid Beaver; that's gotta be worth a few minus points.

All those fine specimens aside, though, one of the segments in the link's description fairly jumped out at me: "Often, they'll ask for proof and facts...". I immediately pictured Capt. Hiller (Will Smith's character) et al. arriving at Area 51 in the film Independence Day. The (possibly) senior gate guard says they need clearance, so Hiller shows him the captured alien. The guy's reaction is all the funnier to me, because the same actor played U.S. Air Force Major Kawalsky in the first two episodes of Stargate SG-1, which character was himself taken over by an alien. Admittedly, most of the aliens Kawalsky encountered were more human looking than the Predator wannabe in the back of the pickup. So here we have an authority figure who reasonably requests proof - clearance - and gets it in a manner he didn't expect at all, but it worked. He asked - he got - they went in.