Wish Bank

"Wish Bank" is the second segment of the fourth episode of the 1980s The Twilight Zone. It stars Dee Wallace. In this segment, upon finding a genie's lamp at a garage sale, a woman tries to cash in three wishes at the department of magical venues, a satire of the department of motor vehicles.

At only six minutes in length, it is one of the shortest The Twilight Zone segments.

Plot

Janice and Mary Ellen are out on a summer Saturday, visiting a garage sale. Janice picks up a brass oil lamp. She reads the inscription on the lamp: "Rub me and your wish will come true. Certain restrictions may apply."

When Janice rubs the lamp, she is transported to the Department of Magical Venues, which resembles a government office, and a broker named Mr. Brent types up her three wishes: $10,000,000, to look 10 years younger, and for her ex-husband Craig to suffer moderate sexual dysfunction for 18 months. Brent gives her a stack of papers to sign and tells her that she will have to pay taxes on the wishes. Then he directs her to stand in a long line at the validation window to get her wishes approved. Brent's supervisor, Mr. Willoughby, comes over and says that he wants to see him when he's finished about the botch he made of the "Noodleman" account.

The lines she passes hold people dressed in every conceivable era of the past 3,000 years, from Roman soldiers to antebellum belles. She finally gets up to the window, and is told by the clerk that she is missing a form and is directed back to her broker, only to find a supervisor has just fired Brent for an error he committed. The five o'clock bell strikes, and everyone closes up their lines and disappears. The supervisor tells Janice to come back tomorrow, and he disappears. Frustrated, she shouts "I wish I'd never seen that stupid lamp!" and is transported back to the garage sale. It is moments before she found the lamp, but this time she leaves for a sale at Fashion Square.