TV ACRES: Genies > John Ales as Genie the Genie (You Wish)

Genie the Genie - An outrageous, curly-haired 2,000 year-old genie featured on the fantasy comedy YOU WISH (GENIE) /ABC/1997-98. Genie once lived in ancient Persia until he made the mistake of falling love with his last female "master". For his crime, Genie was imprisoned inside a rug and left to languish through the centuries. Then one day in the 20th century, a single, divorced mom named Gillian Apple decides she wants a new rug for her bathroom and so she visits a Los Angeles curio shop owned by Madman Mustapha. Checking over his inventory, Gillian unfurls an old-looking purple rug only to find a genie named Genie inside. Thankful for his release, Genie pleads with Gillian to be his new master. If she did, he would grant her every wish. After some trepidation, the normally self-sufficient, Gillian (with some urging from her kids) relents and accepts the services of Genie who becomes a member of the Apple family - which includes Gillian's daughter Mickey (14), and her son Travis (11).


Mickey Apple	Genie & Gillian Apple	Travis Apple

Although Gillian allows Genie to live in her house, she is still reluctant to cash in her "wish" chips. But, the best laid plans, as they say, soon go asunder when a very busy Gillian wishes that there were more than one of her to manage her hectic daily schedule of raising kids and going to work. The wish made, Genie creates a clone of Gillian who ultimately competes with the real Gillian as the Head of their home. Another time, Gillian wishes she could read minds, to determine whether her son, Mickey was lying or her or not. Genie, of course, grants her wish.

Holidays were a popular time for Genie to weave his magic. On Halloween, Genie turns Mickey into a real witch to impress her date and newcomer to their house, Grandpa Max brings Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy decorations to life to roam the neighborhood. And when Genie can't decide what he wants to be on his "first" Halloween, Gillian wishes that he can become human for a day.

On Thanksgiving, Genie shrinks Gillian but can't return her to full-size. In steps Grandpa Max, who takes her to a magical festival called "Klunderbuk" for a cure.

And on Christmas Genie gives each of the Apple kids a wish as a present. Mickey wishes for snow in LA but a greedier Travis wishes it was Christmas all year long. This imbalance in the universe is soon rectified after Santa Claus himself arrives to find out who made such a stupid wish.

Other visitor's to the Apple home included Estelle, Genie's caustic mother who didn't like the fact that her son was living with a "non-wisher"; Salem the black cat owned by Sabrina the Teenage Witch who pops in for a visit and accidentally transforms the Apple's into 1950s sitcom family type with Genie acting like a poetry reading beatnik; Victoria, a beautiful genie in training from Genie Academy whom Genie had to teach all the tricks of the genie trade within a week; and Malevola, Genie's jealous fiancée whom he left standing at the altar 2000 years earlier; and, of course, Genie's Grandpa Max, a 50,000 years old genie recently decommissioned who moves into the Apple home..

Add to the mix, Genie's ability to see the future (where Mickey is married to a computer nerd); Genie's time portal, which an upset Mickey used to run away from home to be a pirate); and Genie's conjuring up a romantic suitor for Gillian - namely the real Don Juan and, at its core, the Apple home is a lot more fun since Genie arrived on the scene.

Cast Credits
John Ales	as	Genie
Harley Jane Kozak	as	Gillian Apple
Jerry Van Dyke	as	Grandpa Max
Alex McKenna	as	Mickey Apple
Nathan Lawrence	as	Travis Apple
John Rhys-Davies	as	Madman Mustapha
Karen Lynn Scott	as	Malevola, Genie's fiancée
Jessica Walter	as	Estelle, Genie's mother