Amazon.com
If you're a fan or student of American TV, you must have this book, which provides descriptions of 5,400 series and their major participants from 1948 to 1995. The information is presented in alphabetical order in entries up to several pages long. Special broadcasts are also listed chronologically in an appendix. Thankfully, the index is comprehensive, so you can easily trace the mayfly-like flitting of stars, personalities, and lesser deities from show to show. And, I don't usually say this, but it's really a heck of a bargain.
Los Angeles Times
There are other guides to television, but nothing so vast, so thick, so comprehensive as this one.