You Wish

1 9 9 7 – 1 9 9 8 (USA)
13 x 30 minute episodes

Created by Boy Meets World creator Michael Jacobs, You Wish was (like Teen Angel) supposed to capitalise on the success of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as another supernatural-themed television show.

The series was ABC’s attempt at a modern I Dream of Jeannie, this time with a male genie serving a single-parent household.

Single mother Gillian Apple (Harley Jane Kozak) and her two kids had wandered into Mustafa’s quaint little Los Angeles carpet store looking for a bathroom rug.

When she unrolled an old-looking purple rug, out popped Genie (John Ales), who had been imprisoned there for 2,000 years as punishment for falling in love with his last, female “master.”

Ebullient, curly-haired Genie was desperate to get out and begged the Apples to become his new masters. He would grant their every wish.

Gillian, a practical, no-nonsense ‘90s mother, didn’t want the “disruption,” but the kids pleaded, and she finally relented.

Happy, optimistic Genie could make wonderful things happen by snapping his fingers, and the kids thought he was great. Even Gillian eventually had to admit he could be fun.

Only seven episodes aired before the series was cancelled, with the seventh episode being a Sabrina crossover (and Sabrina reruns filling its spot in the lineup). The remainder of the 13 episodes aired six months later, burned off on  ABC’s Friday night TGIF slot.

Gillian Apple
Harley Jane Kozak
Genie
John Ales
Mickey Apple
Alex McKenna
Travis Apple
Nathan Lawrence
Mustafa
John Rhys-Davies
Grandpa Max
Jerry Van Dyke