History BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS07E21JeSouhaite Je Souhaite]]", Mulder meets a female genie who can grant anyone three wishes... but she is forced to interpret the wishes rather literally, causing her much frustration at the stupidity of people who don't think things through. It is revealed that she used to be a poor peasant woman in the Middle Ages, who found the original genie and squandered her first two wishes asking for a mule and a magic sack of turnips that never ran out. For her third wish, she asked for great power and eternal life: the other genie promptly turned her into a genie, too. The downside: She is now bound to act on the decisions of whichever idiot unrolls her from the carpet she is mystically connected to, and she cannot grant wishes to herself. When Mulder wishes for "peace on Earth", his wish is granted... by making every other person in the world disappear except him. The genie tells him it is impossible for her to change the minds of 6 billion people, but making them disappear was within the rules. Mulder uses his final wish [[spoiler:by giving it to her, granting her the ability to make her own decisions and become a mortal woman again]].

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': In Season 4, Dr. Radcliffe and Aida created an entire virtual world called the Framework to keep agents docile while they are replaced by Life Model Decoys. Aida was instructed to fix the single greatest regret of every new entry, and had to reboot the simulation several times to reconcile them all together. The problem is, she allowed these "fixes" to play out to their logical conclusion, so instead of the agents being themselves just minus their greatest regret, they are completely different people, living in a world where [[spoiler:HYDRA won, and their emblem is emblazoned on the side of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters]]. Later episodes detail the specific changes:
** May killed a little girl because she was a crazy Inhuman with brainwashing powers who [[EmotionEater gets high off the suffering of other people]]. All May wanted was to save the girl. In the Framework, she did. [[spoiler:Except the girl was still a crazy Inhuman with brainwashing powers, and went on to cause a very public incident at the Cambridge, Massachusetts school she was placed in after being brought to America. HYDRA happily capitalized on this incident to get themselves in power by stoking anti-Inhuman sentiment sky-high and presenting themselves as the only solution to the Inhuman menace. May now regrets ''not'' killing the girl far more than she ever regretted killing her, and blames herself for allowing the Cambridge Incident to occur. She now loyally serves HYDRA as an Inhuman hunter]].
** Coulson always wondered what his life would have been like if he hadn't joined S.H.I.E.L.D. In the Framework, he turned down Nick Fury's offer and became a high school history teacher instead. [[spoiler:He's also a coward who repeats HYDRA's lies whole-heartedly despite not believing any of them for a second, even allowing them to take "subversive" students directly out of his class. It's implied that his absence is what allowed HYDRA to rise in this reality, as he was always a stabilizing influence on S.H.I.E.L.D. in general and May specifically]].
** Fitz's father walked out on him as a child. In the Framework, he never left. [[spoiler:Except he's still a giant asshole who thinks VirtueIsWeakness and outwardly showing emotion of any kind is for pussies. He beat all empathy out of his son, resulting in Fitz becoming a MadScientist TortureTechnician who would make Mengele blanch]].
** Mack's daughter, Hope, died as a baby, resulting in him splitting with his wife. In the Framework, she lived. [[spoiler:That worked out mostly okay for Mack, though his wife is missing and he never got around to joining S.H.I.E.L.D. He mostly keeps his head down around HYDRA, but when they push too hard he joins with S.H.I.E.L.D. because he is worried he is setting a bad example for his daughter. ]].
** Mace is a FakeUltimateHero who just wanted to do some real good. In the Framework, [[spoiler:he is a real Inhuman instead of just using a SuperSerum, and he leads the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. as "the Patriot". He ultimately dies saving a kid from a collapsing building, mirroring the event in the real world where someone mistakenly believed he had saved someone from a collapsing roof and it got blown out of proportion. This also kills him in the real world since YourMindMakesItReal. Like Mack, Mace probably considers this a good deal in the end]].

* Throughout the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode "Legion of Doom", Malcom Merlyn and Damien Dhark are pissed because Eobard Thawne isn't treating them as equals and is withholding information from them, so they trap him in a vault with them until he spills the beans, having deduced that he can't stay in one place for too long or something will come for him. Then they all hear [[TheDreaded The Black Flash]] screech as it approaches. Thawne immediately notes that Merlyn and Dhark are about to get what they wanted: They're all going to be ''equally'' dead.
** In "Fellowship of the Spear", Mick is talked into [[FaceHeelTurn betraying the Legends to the Legion]], partly because he's promised a world where he and Snart can go back to being the [[CardCarryingVillain carefree criminals]] they used to be before their CharacterDevelopment kicked in. However, the following episode, "Doomworld", shows that in the rewritten reality, Snart owns all the banks the pair are stealing from, and has a [[VillainWithGoodPublicity reputation]] as a harmless eccentric who likes to pretend to be a bank robber, so the police always let the two of them walk away without a fight. And while Snart himself loves this, it denies Mick the thrill of true theft, taking all the fun out of the situation.

* In the third season of ''Series/Lucifer2016'', [[spoiler:Cain, the first murderer,]] spends much of the season looking for a way to finally die. It finally becomes possible, and he is now desperate to stay alive.

* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'':
** In "[[Recap/SmallvilleS07E18Apocalypse Apocalypse]]", Clark wishes he hasn't existed as he brought so much pain and suffering. [[spoiler:ItsAWonderfulPlot, as he discovers that without him, ComicBook/LexLuthor would be [[PresidentEvil the President]] and, along with Brainiac, would unleash [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt a nuclear holocaust]].]]
** In "[[Recap/SmallvilleS08E17Hex Hex]]", Chloe wished to become like her cousin [[ComicBook/LoisLane Lois]]. LiteralGenie ComicBook/{{Zatanna}} complies. HilarityEnsues.
** Early in Season 8, Chloe notes that [[DarkActionGirl Tess]] certainly seems like a Luthor-wannabe, and while Tess isn't the one saying it, it's pretty obvious that it's true. In Season 10, Tess finds out that [[spoiler: she ''is'' a Luthor, Lionel's bastard daughter]], and let's just say that she is ''not'' happy about it.
** In "[[Recap/SmallvilleS09E14Persuasion Persuasion]]", Clark temporarily gains a CompellingVoice and he unwittingly controls [[ComicBook/LoisLane Lois]] when he wishes for a "traditional relationship". Which makes her [[QuittingToGetMarried quit her job]], dress up as a {{Housewife}} with a StayInTheKitchen attitude and even ''[[CordonBleughChef tries]]'' to cook for him.

** G'Kar, when asked, says he wants nothing more than the utter ruin of the Centauri Republic, but when Morden follows it up with AndThenWhat he has no answer. So Morden leaves G'Kar alone from then on, [[spoiler:G'Kar does get his wish... but only after the Centauri once again conquer his people, devastate his homeworld, and come dangerously close to committing genocide on his race.]]

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': This is Mr. Morden's [[DealWithTheDevil modus operandi]]. [[ArmorPiercingQuestion "What do you want?"]]

*** He eventually gets everything he asked for, [[spoiler:and ends up Emperor of the Republic for good measure]]. The process takes the next three seasons to fulfill and leads to several major galactic wars and millions of casualties. [[PuppeteerParasite And he is left with no freedom at all]], and must watch powerlessly as his world, the thing he loved above all else, is laid to waste. As soon as Londo starts getting what he wants, as the Centauri become a resurgent imperialistic power, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he's horrified]] at seeing the massive amounts of bloodshed, treachery, and destruction that are required to reclaim the "glory" of the [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe good old days]], and he spends the rest of his life regretting that he ever said those words to Morden.
** G'Kar, when asked, says he wants nothing more than the utter ruin of the Centauri Republic, but when Morden follows it up with AndThenWhat he has no answer. So Morden leaves G'Kar alone from then on, [[spoiler:G'Kar does get his wish... but only after the Centauri devastate his homeworld with mass drivers.]]

** ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'': While confronting [[Series/KamenRiderZeroOne the Ark]] in episode 3 [[spoiler:and before being ambushed by [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Banno]] in the same episode]], Horobi vows to personally destroy the Ark, along with all the malice associated with it. The following episode, Horobi made good with his promise, [[spoiler:albeit ''[[GoneHorriblyRight more than what he bargained for]]'' thanks to [[Series/KamenRiderBlade Tachibana]], who manages to finish off the Ark, after being weakened from its earlier battle against Kamen Rider Zein, leaving Horobi badly injured]]. The real kicker: with the Ark rendered off the grid comes someone far worse taking its place, none other than [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong Zein]]]] itself.

** ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'': While confronting [[Series/KamenRiderZeroOne the Ark]] in episode 3 [[spoiler:and before being ambushed by [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Banno]] in the same episode]], Horobi vows to personally destroy the Ark, along with all the malice associated with it. The following episode, Horobi made good with his promise, [[spoiler:albeit ''[[GoneHorriblyRight more than what he bargained for]]'' thanks to [[Series/KamenRiderBlade Tachibana]], who manages to finish off the Ark, after being weakened from its earlier battle against Kamen Rider Zein, leaving Horobi badly injured]]. The real kicker: with the Ark rendered off the grid comes someone far worse than it is taking its place, none other than [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong Zein]]]] itself.

** ''Series/KamenRiderOutsiders'': While confronting [[Series/KamenRiderZeroOne the Ark]] in episode 3 [[spoiler:and before being ambushed by [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Banno]] in the same episode]], Horobi vows to personally destroy the Ark, along with all the malice associated with it]]. The following episode, Horobi made good with his promise, [[spoiler:albeit ''[[GoneHorriblyRight more than what he bargained for]]'' thanks to [[Series/KamenRiderBlade Tachibana]], who manages to finish off the Ark, after being weakened from its earlier battle against Kamen Rider Zein, leaving Horobi badly injured]]. The real kicker: with the Ark rendered off the grid comes someone far worse than it is taking its place, none other than [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong Zein]]]] itself.

** Cordelia actually has this happen to her ''twice'' -- given the opportunity in the ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS03E11Birthday Birthday]]" to wish [[ForWantOfANail she had never reunited with Angel]] and gotten the visions which were killing her, she found herself in a world where Angel was insane, Wesley was missing an arm, and Fred was nowhere to be found.

* ''Series/SesameStreet'':
** The Amazing Mumford and Abby Cadabby lack both the skill to control their magic and the ability to undo their mistakes. A number of episodes are based on this.
** In "Film/ElmoSavesChristmas", Elmo wishes for it to be Christmas every day. He gets his wish but after a year of non-stop Christmases, the Christmas trees have run out, the carol singers have lost their voices, the Count is bored of counting the Christmases, a lot of things are broken because the fix-it shop is closed (and Maria and Luis have been out of practice), there's nothing on TV but ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (which people are bored of), Big Bird is sad because he misses Snuffy, who's been away visiting his grandma for a whole year, and eventually, Santa has retired to Florida. [[spoiler: Eventually, he resets it by going back in time.]]

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'':
** In "Super Twins" (one of three episodes part of Creator/DisneyChannel's "Wish Gone Amiss" weekend), Zack and Cody wish that they were superheroes. After having to defeat now-supervillain Mr. Moseby (AKA the Meanager), the twins learn they'll have to fight evil 24/7 and give up all their free time. This prompts them to try and fix things by running fast enough to travel through time, to before they made the wish.
** Though not an actual wish, in the episode "The Suite Smell of Excess" Zack and Cody get a chance to go to an alternate world where everything is reversed and they can play around as much as they like and do whatever they want when they want. However after a few days of excess, they realize that the "preferred" alternate universe Tipton is NOT the perfect place they thought it would be.
* While not part of the weekend, they did this concept in a Halloween episode of ''Series/ThatsSoRaven''. Raven and Chelsea use a wishing spell to get invited to Alana's party and win the costume contest, but accidentally drop a "Save the Cows" button into the wishing spell. While they get their wish, they also ended up accidentally turning themselves into cows in the process. [[spoiler: Thankfully, it all ends up being a vision, Raven prevents it from happening and saves them from a lifetime of mooing and milking]].

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S4E14OfLateIThinkOfCliffordville Of Late I Think of Cliffordville]]": A ruthless, aging businessman desires to return to his hometown in the time when he was a young adult, [[GraysSportsAlmanac so he could make a business deal for land that he knew was valuable in the present.]] He's sent back, but forgot a couple of details: (1)he didn't ask for his money to be converted to older currency, so when he tries to make the deal, it's dismissed as counterfeit; (2) although he wished to look like his younger past self, his physical body is still that of an old man (which he learns the hard way after getting into a fight.); and (3) The land in question is valuable because of oil deposits, but the technology to dig deep enough to get it won't be invented until the 1930s...and he's been sent back to the 1900s. Fine and good...but, as his organs and muscles are still 70 years old (and given that this is a 20th Century businessman, probably well abused by alcohol and tobacco), he almost certainly won't live 30 years more to see it pay off. Well, what did you expect from a DealWithTheDevil, even one played by Julie Newmar? (Although this devil is more sympathetic, and lets him return to the present [[BreakTheHaughty at the cost of his fortune.]])

* From ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E15ShoreLeave Shore Leave]]" has the story conclude with the Caretaker of the strange planet the landing party is on explain that it's an essentially a giant recreation area where anything they think of will be created. He invites the crew to live it up for a while, as long as they follow this trope.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E14Tapestry Tapestry]]", Picard dies from his artificial heart failing him, and he encounters Q in what seems to be the afterlife. After much prodding by Q, Picard reveals he regrets getting into a fight with Nausicaans ([[ContinuityNod mentioned in an earlier episode]]), in which he suffered a near-fatal wound to his heart, necessitating his artificial heart. [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong So Q takes Picard back to that time so he can avoid the brawl]]. He does, but this new, "play-it-safe" Picard doesn't have the same drive that made him captain of the ''Enterprise'', instead being stuck as a lowly science officer with no career prospects. Picard regrets this, so with some pleading, Q takes Picard back to that time again to let him get into that fight once more, believing that if he has to die, he wants to die as someone who did something with his life. He does, but in the present, he ends up recovering from his artificial heart's problems, [[PetTheDog perhaps a token of appreciation by Q]].
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
** Starfleet security officer turned Maquis rebel Eddington framed his conflict with Sisko as [[InspectorJavert Valjean vs. Javert]]. Once he went too far by using a bioweapon to drive Cardassians from one of the contested worlds, Sisko got tired of the song and dance and ''rendered an entire Maquis world uninhabitable for human life'', and was going to keep going if not for Eddington's surrender.

** Martok, holding a grudge against aging Klingon warrior Kor for trying to ruin his career before it began, would like nothing better than to see the living legend slip up. When a bout of senility finally gets to the old man mid-battle, though, Martok can't take any pleasure in it. All he sees is a man losing a battle to the one enemy no Klingon can beat: time.
** Sisko wishes the Romulans would join the war against the Dominion. The Starfleet-backed plan he enacts to deceive them [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone takes a serious toll on his conscience]], and to get that outcome Garek goes behind his back, blowing up the Romulan diplomat's shuttle to frame the Dominion, and killing the forger they hired to cover their tracks. Sisko got the alliance he wanted, but will have to live with the guilt of what he took part in, [[IDidWhatIHadToDo which he ultimately accepts]].
** In the tie-in novel "Behind Enemy Lines" Ro Laren, after seeing her home devastated by the Dominion, swears to fight until Cardassia is equally devastated. In a later book, she reflects on her previous wish and how horrified she is now of Cardassia's fate.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
** Invoked by Torres in "Blood Fever", after Paris tells her he didn't really mind her "scary" Klingon side and he might even like to see it again someday. In the end, Paris turns out to be right -- he doesn't mind at all.
** In "Learning Curve" a former member of the Maquis claims to Chakotay that he'd rather do things the Maquis way, rather than Starfleet's more regimented style. Chakotay then punches the guy to the ground, and tells him that Chakotay will keep punching him every day until he falls into line, because that's also the Maquis way.
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': In "Oasis", Trip asks T'Pol if she ever gets frightened. When she says no, he responds, "Too bad. Nothing like a good scare." In Season 3, T'Pol's fear that her loss of control would harm Trip is a major factor in why she keeps her distance from him after they have sex.
* The final episode of ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' offers an interesting [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] example as while the wish being granted carries with it a lot of unexpected complications the character ultimately does not regret it: [[spoiler: In TNG, Data had ultimately wished to experience the totality of humanity. In Picard he is effectively resurrected in a new body with a new positronic matrix that allows him to act and, importantly, feel in a much more human manner and he admits that he finds the transition difficult, challenging and "infinitely more complex".]]

** [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe A second season episode]] sees Dean attacked by a Djinn, a creature that poisons its victims into a hallucinating "perfect" versions of their lives, so they have no interest in waking up. Dean finds his mom alive, Sam and Jess married, and himself also married to a lovely woman and living an apple pie life. At first Dean is thrilled, but he quickly comes to realize that without their difficult childhood and him essentially [[PromotionToParent raising Sam]], his relationship with his brother is almost non-existent, not to mention that he appears to have no real direction in life, leading him to be the family drunk with Sam purposely distancing himself from Dean because of it. This gets Dean moving on finding a way out of his coma.
** There was [[Recap/SupernaturalS04E08WishfulThinking a fourth season episode]] with a whole town full of this because of a wishing well that worked, involving most notably (and hilariously) a little girl wishing for a giant talking Teddy Bear... who spent most of the episode drinking, watching porn, and trying to commit suicide. The girl's parents had wished to go on vacation at some point before the episode started, which ends up with her left alone at the house. A boy wished to be invisible so he could spy on girls in the shower, and got hit by a car that couldn't see him. The original wisher was a man with a magic coin who wished for his high school crush to fall in love with him, which naturally caused her to be manically obsessed with him to the point of being annoying.
** Throughout the series run, the good guys often wished that God would take an active role in the affairs of humans and put an end to all the monster attacks and demon possessions. In the final season they find out just how bad things can get when [[spoiler: God decides to take an active role, end the world and start a new one. When the Winchesters refuse to play along, He decides to make their lives as miserable as possible.]]

** "Only Sin Deep" features a prostitute who [[GoldDigger dreams of climbing up the social ladder]]. She trades her beauty with a strange pawn shop owner and gets noticed by a wealthy man, with the condition being that she is to return in four months to get her beauty back. She forgets the condition amid the gifts her rich boyfriend has lavished her with, remembering the promise only when she starts the RapidAging process, by which point she has missed the deadline by a day and the new condition set by the pawn shop owner is much more expensive. Her boyfriend returns home just as she's gathering all of the gifts he gave her, but, due to her RapidAging process, he doesn't recognize her and believes her to be a random burglar, and she kills him when he tries to call the police. When she returns to the shop, she realizes too late that she left behind plenty of evidence tying herself to his murder, having watched the news report of his murder case, so, in the end, she's lost both her riches ''and'' her beauty as the result.
** "Last Respects", another adaptation of ''Monkey's Paw'' which features three sisters. After one sister wishes for a million pounds, another sister dies in a car crash with the third sister (who survives). Guess what the insurance payoff was? When she wishes that the sister ''hadn't'' died in the accident, she gets a call from the morgue, and finds out that she was ''murdered'' before the accident. When the third sister admits to the murder and comes after her, she deliberately invokes the "Comes back as a Zombie" part to let her slain sister avenge herself.
** "Loved To Death", an episode loosely based on Creator/JohnCollier's "The Chaser", is about a scriptwriter who continuously fantasizes about his hot neighbor being sexually obsessed with him. His creepy landlord gives him a bottle of something to slip into her drink, which he does, and it works too well: she's now continuously badgering him for sex at every moment of the day, until he accidentally commits suicide while trying to kill her just to get away from her. Even that doesn't work because [[spoiler: she throws herself out the window to be with him, and her (now horrifically disfigured) ghost continues to nag him for sex]].

*** "Top Billing" is of the actor variety. A down-on-the-luck actor wishes to be chosen for a ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' production and kills his competitor when said competitor gets picked for it, only to find out too late that the production team is a group of murderously insane mental patients and the role being auditioned for is for [[AlasPoorYorick Yorick, the skull Hamlet monologues to]] instead of the lead role as he assumed. He calls the police for help, but [[YouAreTooLate the police are unable to arrive in time to save him before the "show" takes place]].
*** The protagonist in "Beauty Rest", a struggling model, kills her competitors for a beauty pageant (once [[AccidentalMurder by accident]] and once on purpose), only to meet her end for the sake of the modeling show, as it turns out that said pageant is for "Miss Autopsy", where the chosen model is presented on stage posthumously, with her chest cut open and her internal organs being the "features" of the show.
** "Split Personality" features a con artist, whose goals in life are to [[GoldDigger make one score big enough to set him up for life]] and [[TwinThreesomeFantasy have sex with twins]]. He sees his chance upon discovering a mansion inherited by twin sisters and learning that said twin sisters have inherited their father's $2 billion fortune, and sets out to woo both of them via a FakeTwinGambit to do so. Unfortunately for him, his scheme would lead to his own death, once said twin sisters uncover part of the disguise he uses to present his "twin brother", overpower him when his guard is down, has him strapped to a bed, and proceed to [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cut him up in half]] so they can "share him equally".
** "As Ye Sow" has a businessman who, after suspecting his wife to have been in an affair with a church cleric, hires a hit-man to kill said cleric. Unfortunately for the businessman, the hit-man mistakes him for the intended clerical target upon spotting the businessman in a clerical outfit when said businessman goes into the church to try to catch his wife confessing to infidelity, resulting in the hit-man killing the businessman.
** "Came The Dawn" features a thieving woman on the run, who gets picked up by a man when he spots her on the roadside due to her vehicle breaking down. The woman initially plans to leave soon, but she changes her mind after realizing the man is rich, and, during their conversation, she tells him that she "loves surprises" when sweet-talking to him. She gets her share of surprises as the TwistEnding comes along, as he turns out to be a CreepyCrossdresser with a SplitPersonality -- he's a well-mannered man, but his alter ego is a jealous and possessive woman with a murderously insane attitude, which is shown at the end of the episode as said alter ego murders the thief.
** "Surprise Party" stars a man who has his heart set on inheriting a plot of land with a burned house on it so much that he kills his own father upon discovering that his father had decided to donate the plot of land to charity, burning his father's will for good measure to make sure of it. After the deeds are done, he goes to the burned house, where he finds himself in a house party. It turns out to be a NastyParty, as the attendants are the ghosts of the party-goers that died in a house fire that left the house in its currently burned state, and they've been waiting for the chance to avenge themselves on the man's father, who [[FieryCoverUp set the house on fire to cover up]] for his crimes of murdering one house guest in an altercation and [[LeaveNoWitnesses one other for being a witness when the initial crime took place]]. They reenact the scenario to gauge the man's behavior at first, but after it turns out that [[LikeFatherLikeSon he behaves exactly the same way his father had done under the same circumstance]], [[SinsOfOurFathers they settle for him as their revenge target]] and [[KillItWithFire kill him by burning him alive]].

* On ''Series/ToddAndTheBookOfPureEvil'', the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Book's]] magic will ''always'' twist the user's intent into something that causes mass misery and death. With only a few exceptions, most users of the Book will come to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone regret what they've done]] (and remorseful or not, most users end up dead, anyway).

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]", starring Burgess Meredith. He wanted to be left alone so he could read and wound up the lone survivor of a nuclear war...[[CruelTwistEnding with broken glasses]].
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E38TheManInTheBottle The Man in the Bottle]]": A hard-up antiques dealer gives an equally destitute old woman a couple of bucks for an empty wine bottle she found in the trash. The bottle turns out to house a genie, who grants him four wishes. After using the first wish to have the genie prove his power by fixing a cracked glass display case, the shopkeeper uses the second to wish for a million dollars cash; after he and his wife have gotten the money and given a fair chunk of it away to their friends and neighbors, the couple are presented with a tax bill from the IRS, which leaves them with a mere $5. The shopkeeper then wishes to be made the leader of a powerful, modern foreign country, one who cannot be voted out of office; he finds himself turned into UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler in his bunker at the end of World War II. He then uses his fourth and final wish to return to his old life, which now looks better to him than ever before... even after he accidentally re-breaks the glass case, leaving him completely back at square one.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E116OfLateIThinkOfCliffordville Of Late I Think of Cliffordville]]": A ruthless, aging businessman desires to return to his hometown in the time when he was a young adult, [[GraysSportsAlmanac so he could make a business deal for land that he knew was valuable in the present.]] He's sent back, but forgot a couple of details: (1)he didn't ask for his money to be converted to older currency, so when he tries to make the deal, it's dismissed as counterfeit; (2) although he wished to look like his younger past self, his physical body is still that of an old man (which he learns the hard way after getting into a fight.); and (3) The land in question is valuable because of oil deposits, but the technology to dig deep enough to get it won't be invented until the 1930s...and he's been sent back to the 1900s. Fine and good...but, as his organs and muscles are still 70 years old (and given that this is a 20th Century businessman, probably well abused by alcohol and tobacco), he almost certainly won't live 30 years more to see it pay off. Well, what did you expect from a DealWithTheDevil, even one played by Julie Newmar? (Although this devil is more sympathetic, and lets him return to the present [[BreakTheHaughty at the cost of his fortune.]])
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E70AGameOfPool A Game of Pool]]": Jesse Cardiff wishes to play against a dead pool champion so that he can become the new best player. He gets the chance, and even bets his own life on the game. Ultimately, he wins, and is acknowledged as the best. But he has to keep proving it, over and over, even after his own death.
** Invoked in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E114IDreamOfGenie I Dream of Genie]]", which features a GenreSavvy wisher who is granted one wish by a genie, and featured {{Imagine Spot}}s of each such wish...as well as the ways they could go wrong. He eventually decides to make an "original" wish: [[spoiler:to [[BecomingTheGenie become a genie himself]] and [[SelflessWish himself grant such wishes to those down on their luck]]]].
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E125TheLastNightOfAJockey The Last Night of a Jockey]]" has Mickey Rooney as a washed-up jockey, banned for race-fixing, who wishes to be "big" so everyone else would look up to him. He wakes up to find that he's now 8 feet tall. It's then that he gets a call from the racing board informing him that he's been given another chance, only to realize that there's very little demand for 8-foot-tall jockeys...

** "The Leprechaun-Artist": Three young boys get a wish apiece from the leprechaun they capture. It goes badly, and the boys end up [[spoiler: under arrest by the police before the leprechaun takes pity on them and re-sets everything to normal.]]
** "The Library": A woman gets a job in a magical library, the books of which can re-write people's lives. She can't resist the temptation to meddle, again things go badly before [[spoiler: again (hopefully) being re-set to normal.]]
** "Cold Reading": An egotistical old-time radio director named Nelson Westbrook rhetorically wishes that all the sound effects from his current jungle-adventure program ''Dick Noble, African Explorer'' came from something real. Unfortunately, he is indeed holding a real voodoo relic as he does so. HilarityEnsues as a vulture, monkeys and African tribesmen appear in the studio as the actors perform the script. A thunderstorm even breaks out indoors. Through some very quick rewrites, Westbrook manages to avoid a plane crash, an elephant stampede and an earthquake but a FlyingSaucer crashes in the studio when the promo for the following week's episode is read by the announcer.
** "Act Break": An unsuccessful playwright wishes for a better writing partner than the one he currently has. He finds himself sent back in time, where he meets Creator/WilliamShakespeare. He ends up with every line that Shakespeare ever wrote stuck in his memory, and is forced to become Shakespeare's ghost writer, without getting any of the credit or accolades.
** "Examination Day": Dickie Jordan wishes on his birthday to do well on the government exam. He does [[spoiler:and it turns out people who do too well are killed.]]
** In "Tooth and Consequences", Dr. Myron Mandel is a severely depressed dentist who hates his job. He wishes that an attractive patient named Lydia Bixby will fall madly in love with him and that his other patients will respect him and look forward to their appointments. The ToothFairy grants his wish but Myron is soon just as miserable as he was before, if not more so. He doesn't have a moment's peace as his patients hound him at every turn and Lydia's love for him is suffocating. Myron eventually runs away and hops a freight train...which is filled with hobos who turn out to be former dentists who suffered the exact same fate.
** In "Memories", Mary [=McNeal=] believes that if everyone had [[PastLifeMemories memories of their past lives]], people would be kinder to each other as they would be able to remember being less fortunate than they are now. The next morning, she wakes up in an AlternateUniverse in which everyone remembers all of their past lives. Many of them are miserable because they are weighed down by their memories of the grudges and traumatic experiences that happened decades or centuries earlier. Others are miserable because their past lives were happy and full, in contrast to their current ones.
** In "The Trunk", the desperately lonely Willy Gardner uses the titular object to wish for all kinds of material possessions in the hope that they will make him popular and well-liked. After only a few hours, however, it becomes clear to him that people such as Candy are merely [[FalseFriend pretending to be his friends]] so that they can take advantage of his kind nature and get him to do things for them. Willy is more depressed than before at this revelation and tells his party guests that they can take whatever they want. None of them hesitate to do so. Worse still, the situation leads to him being attacked by the hoodlums Danny, Rocco and Cap, who want the money that they believe he must have stolen.
** In "Cat and Mouse", Andrea Moffatt is an extremely lonely woman who longs for TrueLove and a man who is "strong, handsome and exotic" like the heroes of the [[RomanceNovel romance novels]] that she reads. It appears that all of her dreams have come true when she meets a suave, charismatic Frenchman named Guillaume de Marchaux, who [[ForcedTransformation is trapped in the form of a cat by day]], and they become lovers. However, after several days, it becomes clear that Guillaume is petty, cruel, self-obsessed and has no real feelings or even respect for Andrea.

* ''Series/HannahMontana'' -- Miley wishes she was just Hannah Montana all the time. It is granted and her dad married a GoldDigger, her best friend became AlphaBitch, and her brother became a hobo.
* ''Series/CoryInTheHouse'' -- Cory Baxter wishes that he was president of the U.S.A. After it's granted, Cory uses his authority to get rich, and slacks off on his presidential duties. This leads to being completely unprepared for an alien invasion, and a literal ResetButton is pressed at the end.

** Zack and Cody wish that they were superheroes. After having to defeat now-supervillian Mr. Moseby, the twins learn they'll have to fight evil 24/7 and give up all their free time. This prompts them to try and fix things by running fast enough to travel through time, to before they made the wish.