Pasadena, Calif. -- Is it better to be "Kidnapped" or to turn up "Vanished"?

	Dana Delany stars in NBC's "Kidnapped." Click photo for larger image. Related article Rob Owen's Tuned In Journal

If you're a TV viewer, NBC's "Kidnapped" is the more promising of these two fall pilots. Like Fox's "Vanished," "Kidnapped" follows a kidnapping case from multiple points of view.

In "Kidnapped," premiering Sept. 20, Dana Delany and Timothy Hutton star as wealthy parents whose 15-year-old son is taken. A professional investigator (Jeremy Sisto) and an FBI agent on the cusp of retirement (Delroy Lindo) try to find the boy.

Delany's character makes a mysterious phone call in the pilot, leading viewers to wonder if she knows more about the kidnapping, or at least the motivations, of the abductor(s).

Executive producer Jason Smilovic said the series has a 22-episode arc planned.

"In each episode we're telling a mystery that will resolve itself within that episode and then chip away at the larger mystery," he said. "Now, the larger mystery is slowly revealing itself. And every time the audience thinks that they know what the show is, thinks that they understand the mystery or the motivation or the mechanism, we change it up."

Frank Ockenfels, Fox Former Pittsburgher Ming-Na says portraying agent Lin Mei in "Vanished" is her favorite TV role to date. Click photo for larger image.

In "Vanished," premiering Aug. 21, the wife (Joanne Kelly) of a U.S. senator (John Allen Nelson, who played Walt Cummings last season on "24") vanishes from a charity dinner. FBI agents Graham Kelton (Gale Harold, "Queer as Folk") and Len Mei (former Pittsburgher Ming-Na) begin the search for her, which is complicated by a nosy TV reporter (Rebecca Gayheart) and secrets held by every member of the senator's family.

Like "Kidnapped," "Vanished" will have mystery elements, but it also includes a "centuries-old conspiracy," according to Fox promos, although that wasn't readily apparent in a pilot screened for critics.

"We've laid in a couple of clues in the pilot that will make more sense over the course of the series," said "Vanished" creator Josh Berman ("Killer Instinct," "CSI"). "When they [will] become relevant to the investigation is not something I want to get into yet. ... Our conspiracy is based on real historical events."

While the producers of "Kidnapped" say that, if a success, the series will continue with the Sisto and Lindo characters investigating a different kidnapping in season two, the producers of "Vanished" don't have a concrete plan for the future. The show could go on to follow the FBI agents and reporter to another case or it might stick with the family.

Whatever the future of "Vanished," Ming-Na said playing Len Mei is her favorite TV role to date.

"I swear to you, I have never enjoyed playing a character so much," she said. "You know the character in 'Spy Kids'? I love that I'm the mom at home and I get to go to work and be this really cool FBI agent and carry around a gun and shoot people. ... She's intelligent, she's a hero, she's the antithesis of me. I would run in the other direction at the first sign of danger. She runs into danger. It's fantastic to pretend to be so brave."

Ming-Na ("ER"), a 1986 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, said she trained with a real FBI agent on a shooting range before filming began and she became a pretty good shot. ("It was all those years at the arcades," she said, laughing. "Geekdom rules!")

A year ago, Ming-Na appeared at press tour to promote the NBC series "Inconceivable," about fertility doctors, which lasted a brief time.

"I did feel a bit of resistance from a lot of the critics about the subject matter," she said of that series. "I was a little nervous they put us behind Amy Grant's [wish fulfillment reality show] 'Three Wishes,' because that wasn't our audience. I can say all that now. And I did have my concerns that the subject matter was a little too ahead of its time, and it was proven it was."

Rob & Amber redux

The former Amber Brkich, now Amber Mariano, won "Survivor: All-Stars," got the guy ("Survivor" star Rob Mariano), ran a competitive "Amazing Race," married on TV, and now she has another reality show in the works.

"The Rob & Amber Project," as it's tentatively titled, will premiere in January on Fox Reality, a cable channel on some Adelphia systems, DirecTV (Channel 250), DISH Network (Channel 190), but not yet on Comcast.

Rob, who loves to play poker, dreamed up the new show, which will follow the couple as they move to Las Vegas and Rob becomes a professional poker player.

"There are gonna be highs and lows," said Amber, who grew up in Brighton, Beaver County. "He's my husband, and I support him in everything he does."

But she did say they'll "probably talk about limits" in his betting.

"We'll see how supportive she is if I lose the first three," Rob added.

The pair have differing views of poker (she thinks it's a matter of luck, he thinks it also involves skill), but they don't think returning to the fishbowl of reality TV will harm their marriage as it did the now-divorced Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson of MTV's "Newlyweds."

"I was so upset to hear about Jessica and Nick, but I think we're two totally different couples," Amber said. "We've worked on other television shows before, and we're just not worried about that. We've been living in a fishbowl for the past five years, so this is nothing new to us."

Rob and Amber, who will also be producers on the new "Project," plan to keep their Florida home and rent in Vegas. She said their families remain supportive of their TV endeavors.

"They're excited about another show because they get to watch each week and have big parties at their houses," Amber said.

Their families may also be part of the series as the pair visit their hometowns and attend charity events, in addition to tracking Rob's poker career.

"I'm going to be at home handling all the bills," Amber said of her role in the new show.

"And spending all my winnings," Rob added, his wide grin ever-present.

After this series, don't expect another program called "Rob and Amber Have a Baby."

"We're not planning any babies right now," she said. "When it happens, it happens, but I doubt [we'd televise that]. We have to draw the line somewhere. That's probably something that will be sacred to us."

Channel surfing

Turner Classic Movies will air uncut, uninterrupted, TV-MA-rated versions of "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" on Aug. 6 beginning at 8 p.m. ... Fox has renewed "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Hell's Kitchen" for their third seasons, likely to air next summer. ... The online "Lost" game, "The Lost Experience," will supposedly reveal the meaning of Hurley's numbers from the show (4 8 15 16 23 42). To join the game and pursue the clues that will lead to the revelation, visit www.insidetheexperience.com/2006/07/fafasd.html. ... ABC's "Primetime" (10 tonight, WTAE) is scheduled to air a new installment on "Medical Mysteries" that includes Nicole Delien, 11, of Scott, who suffers from Kleine-Levin Syndrome, a rare disease that causes excessive sleeping episodes. Dr. Michael Rancurello from Allegheny General Hospital will be featured.