Drastically Different Debuts: Salem and Signed Sealed Delivered

On April 20, two very different dramas will debut on WGN America and Hallmark Channel.

First, the family-friendly, comedic drama Signed, Sealed, Delivered will debut on Hallmark at 8 PM. This series is based on last year’s made-for-TV movie of the same name that will follow the lives of four postal workers who transform themselves into an untraditional team of detectives to track down intended recipients of undeliverable mail.

The team includes charming Oliver O’Toole (actor Eric Mabius from Ugly Betty), a genius postal detective and the group’s leader; new team member, Shane McInerney (actress Kristin Booth from The Kennedys), a technophile who brings 21st century sensibility to the group; free-spirited, “girl next door” Rita Haywith (actress Crystal Lowe from Primeval: New World) who has a photographic memory and lovable Norman Dorman (actor Geoff Gustafson also from Primeval: New World), a master in conventional research methods.

Special guest appearances on Signed Sealed Delivered will also include veteran actor Dick Van Dyke and actresses Valerie Harper and Valerie Bertinelli.

On the other spectrum, the horror-laced new series Salem will debut at 10 PM on WGN America. The thriller will be set in 17th century Massachusetts (all the while being filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana), amid the Salem Witch Trials. But the series will take a completely different look at the trials rather than the revisionist history most of us were taught in school.

The cast of Salem includes Janet Montgomery (Human Target and the short-lived Made in Jersey) as Mary Sibley, Salem’s most powerful witch, whose secrets and desires threaten her position of power in the town; Shane West (Nikita) as John Alden, a war hero and Mary’s former love interest, who has returned home in the middle of Salem’s witch panic; Seth Gabel (Fringe and Arrow) as Cotton Mather, leader of the witch hunts, a man who preaches from the bible by day and sleeps with women from a brothel by night (and a childhood friend of John’s); Ashley Madekwe (Revenge and Bedlam) as Tituba, seemingly ageless, she is Mary’s loyal accomplice, but also has mysterious powers and secrets of her own; Tamzin Merchant (Pride & Prejudice and Murder on the Homefront) as Anne Hale, a talented young artist who rebels against the town’s puritan way of life, who is attracted to John Alden and Xander Berkeley (Nikita) as Magistrate Hale, Anne’s father and chief politician in Salem.

Again, these two drastically different debuts will happen on Sunday, April 20 (Happy Easter folks!): Salem at 10 PM on WGN America and Signed Sealed Delivered at 8 PM on the Hallmark Channel. Check your local listings for where to find WGN America.