10 TV Episodes Where People Didn’t Get What They Wished For
9. Hercules The Legendary Journeys: ‘Genies And Grecians And Geeks, Oh My!’ (S6 E85)
This entertaining tale focuses on Bruce Campbell’s character, ‘King of Thieves’ Autolycus, as he and salesman Salmoneus must team up to steal a genie’s lamp from the Sultan. The Sultan had been using the lamp as a trap to lure salesmen into a pit so he wouldn’t have to pay them for their wares but was unaware that it contained a genie.
The genie tells them they must share the wishes, so Autolycus wishes to be invisible and Salmoneus wishes there was a way he could get more done. These wishes don’t turn out as expected. Autolycus can no longer touch anything and two replicas of Sal are created, one tough and angry who gets in fights and is inappropriate with women, and the other timid and weak who trades the lamp for coffee. The situation is further complicated as the Sultan realises what has happens and tries to get the genie back.
Refusing to make their last wish, as they know it will go wrong, they are trapped by the genie as punishment for ‘breaking their contract’ and meet all the other men she has trapped in her lamp. The episode has a happy ending when they manage to escape and realise the genie was just lonely so they all agree to use their last wish to send other genies into the lamp to be her friends, and everything else returns to how it was.