He's in three shows this month, but Jim Beaver found time to write an affecting memoir as well

Broadcast industry looking for a new top lobbyist in D.C.

Two weeks ago at his group's annual convention in Las Vegas, National Assn. of Broadcasters President David Rehrs declared, "We are taking control of our future." Well, today the industry decided to take further control of its future and Rehrs won't be part of it.

After less than four years on the job, Rehrs, a Republican, announced his resignation. The group's chief operating officer, Janet McGregor, will fill in until the trade association finds a Democrat or a very moderate Republican who can jump-start relations with the Obama administration and Capitol Hill.

After replacing the larger-than-life Eddie Fritts, who spent more than 20 years as the industry's main mouthpiece, Rehrs suffered a string of defeats on the Hill and in regulatory matters, the most crushing of which was the failed effort to halt  the merger of satellite radio providers Sirius and XM.

-- Joe Flint

He's in three shows this month, but Jim Beaver found time to write an affecting memoir as well

If you’re a fan of the versatile character actor Jim Beaver, May is the month for you.

Beaver plays a small-town sheriff in the short-run murder mystery “Harper’s Island” (8 p.m. Central Saturday, CBS) which has been exiled to Saturdays due to low ratings and finishes its run in June.

If you’ve dismissed that show as a trashy, slashy soap or simply devoured it as a guilty pleasure, Beaver had this to say in a recent phone interview: “There’s some stuff coming up I’m as proud of, in terms of the depth of the material and the level of the work, as anything I’ve ever done. Don't write it off -- there's some rich stuff coming,” 

But the bar is set high when it comes to Beaver’s other projects. He made a strong impression as Whitney Ellsworth, a determined yet taciturn prospector, in David Milch’s acclaimed “Deadwood.”

That HBO show, along with the prison drama “Oz,” will be broadcast in its entirety starting May 31 on DirecTV’s 101 Network, which has made a name for itself with its co-financing of “Friday Night Lights” and with airings of canceled shows such as "Smith," "Wonderland" and "The Nine" (the last of those three begins its 101 Network run May 27)

Fans of network television probably know Beaver best as Bobby Singer, the demon hunter who has been a mentor and friend to the Winchester brothers on “Supernatural” (8 p.m. Central Thursday, CW ). Beaver appears in the final two episodes of the show’s excellent fourth season, in which Sam and Dean Winchester have wrestled with Sam’s addiction to demon blood and -- wouldn't you know it -- an impending apocalypse.

In last week’s episode, Bobby and Dean locked Sam in a “panic room” to wean him from his addiction, which has given Sam useful but dangerous powers. [The next few sentences discuss, in a general way, the Bobby-Dean storyline of Thursday's episode.] But as things get dire in Thursday’s episode, Bobby and Dean, who’ve always been close in the past, differ on whether to let Dean use his unique skills to fight the forces of evil.

“There are some very heated moments between Bobby and Dean about what the priorities are and what’s most important here,” Beaver said. Their disagreement is “a really painful experience for both of them.

"Bobby is old enough that he's fairly clear-headed about what the priorities ought to be," Beaver added. Bobby's position is, more or less, "if you have a family member with a drinking problem and you want to stage an intervention, you might not want to do it in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina."

One of the perks of working on a show with such a loyal and devoted fan base is getting to go fan conventions -- which Beaver said he was nervous about at first but now loves attending.

"They have been so astonishingly good to me. I am extremely grateful," said Beaver, who said his convention fears disappeared when he realized that many fans were there as much to see each other as to see the actors.

"That went a long way to making me feel like this is not insane, it's absolutely sane," he said. "I have an absolute blast every time I go."

And he noted that it's not unusual for him to come across "Supernatural" devotees who -- like him -- aren't necessarily into the horror or, well, supernatural genres.

"What they come to the show for is not so much the spooky things happening but to see how things play out between the brothers -- certainly, that is the case for me," Beaver said. "What's great about the show his how these are real people with real emotions, and those emotions are complex."

Beaver’s most moving creative endeavor, however, doesn’t have anything to do with television. He recently published the book “Life’s That Way” (Putnam), which began as a series of nightly e-mails he sent to friends and family during a crisis in his life. In 2003, his daughter was diagnosed with autism, and weeks later, his wife, actress and casting director Cecily Adams, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Adams, a non-smoker, died in 2004.

At first the e-mails, which ended up being forwarded to thousands of recipients, were "a necessary thing" to keep loved ones informed of Cecily's situation, but Beaver said they became a "cathartic" way for him to deal with an overwhelming situation.

"Some nights I thought, 'I just don't want to do this.' I wanted to collapse in a heap and stop thinking about it," Beaver said. But he felt a commitment to the recipients of his missives, and he came to realize that writing down his feelings helped him sort through them.

“Looking at it, seeing what I’d writtenâ€"it would have the same helpful effect on me that it seemed to be having on other people,” Beaver said. And though he felt the e-mails were somewhat "personal and private" and he hesitated to turn them into a book, “people responded to what I wrote, and they said it had an effect on their lives. I thought, maybe, I can make something good out of a horrible situation.”

Below is a clip from Thursday's "Supernatural." After the clip, there are summaries of the final two episodes of the season. 

Photos: Jim Beaver as Bobby in "Supernatural" and as Ellsworth on "Deadwood."

Here are network-provided summaries of the final "Supernatural" episodes of the season, plus one extra tidbit after the summaries:

Thursday: “When the Levee Breaks”

Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Bobby (Jim Beaver) lock Sam (Jared Padalecki) in Bobby’s panic room so he can detox from the demon blood. However, as Bobby sees more seals are being broken he tells Dean they should let Sam out to help them fight the impending apocalypse. Dean disagrees and goes to Castiel (Misha Collins) for help. Sam and Dean have a big blowout confrontation. Robert Singer directed the episode written by Sera Gamble.

May 14: "Lucifer Rising"

The apocalypse is coming, and Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) prepare for the fight in very different ways. Sam joins Ruby (Genevieve Cortese) on a final run to kill Lilith (guest star Katherine Boecher), while Castiel (Misha Collins) and Zachariah (guest star Kurt Fuller) tell Dean it’s time to play his part in stopping Lucifer. Eric Kripke wrote and directed the episode.

And one more thing: This is a spoiler, so check out now if you don't want to see it.

OK, ready?

Before the season is over, there will be two deaths on "Supernatural."

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