We've been enjoying the endlessly quotable zingers of Rose, Blanche, Dorothy and Sophia for 35 years ("The Golden Girls" premiered Sept. 14, 1985). But back when it began, its focus on the friendship of four women over 50 was groundbreaking for a prime-time sitcom.
In celebration of its three-decade anniversary, we've dug into our archives and surfaced footage from 1991, in which TODAY’s Joe Garagiola interviews the four inimitable ladies about the show's refreshing attitude toward aging.
"You don't fall off the planet once you pass a given age," White, now 98, said. "You don't lose any of your sense of humor. You don't lose any of your zest for life, or your lust for life, if you will."
White added, "If you were a dull young person, you're going to be a dull old person. But I don't think just because the years go by that you have to be that way."
Her co-star Bea Arthur (Dorothy) revealed that she was sold on the show from the first moment.
"When I was sent the first script, the pilot, I just read it and I said, my God, this is literate, it's adult, it's funny, it's wonderful," she said.
Rue McClanahan (Blanche) concurred. "I thought, this is a piece of gold in my hands," she said. "I said, I want to play Blanche; this is a role I know how to play."
And Estelle Getty, who played Dorothy's sassy mother Sophia for all seven seasons, told TODAY: "I don't want to think about the future — not at my age. I just hope that my health will hold out, that I'll be able to work, that I'll go on working."
Watch the full video above to see what else the cast had to say!