TV’s Golden Girls may be closing up their Miami home at the end of their eighth season—but at least two of the show’s stars will be back in a spinoff called Golden Towers.

“Bea Arthur has told everyone that she’s leaving Golden Girls at the end of this season,” a source says. “And Estelle Getty isn’t sure she wants to continue.”

But Betty White, 68, and Rue McClanahan, 57, will continue their roles as ditsy Rose and sexy Blanche in the spinoff to premiere next year.

“The producers have decided that a change has to be made,” says the source. STAR can reveal that in the new show:

• Blanche will have sold the house she shared with her senior “sisters”.
• Rose and Blanche will open a small resort hotel in Miami Beach and name it Golden Towers.
• Sophia may join them as a part-time cook and resident card-shark.
• Empty-headed Rose will marry a brainy college professor.
• Blanche will remain single—and as wild over men as ever.
  
• Blanche’s daughter will join her at the resort as a prudish bookkeeper.

“The concept is very similar to the English comedy series, Fawlty Towers,” reveals and NBC source.

“It’s ironic that the girls will be running a resort because that’s the role Bea Arthur once played on her old TV series, Amanda’s By-the-Sea.

“The producers had thought about making this change two years ago to perk up the show, but Bea was dead set against it.”

Arthur, now 65, said: “The idea was a stinker when I did Amanda’s By-the-Sea and I won’t ever be talked into a set-up like that again.”

But the source says: “Now that Bea has said she won’t renew her contract after this season ends, the producers have decided to make the change.

“They think it’ll help the ratings, which have been sagging, and both Betty and Rue are all for the change.”

Arthur says she plans to move to England to work on the London stage.

“Estelle, who’s 68, hasn’t definitely made up her mind,” the source says. “So the writers will work on the assumption that she will return.”

The NBC source says Betty and Rue (and Estelle, if she stays) will get hefty pay hikes. “I hear Betty and Rue will be offered $95,000 each week to continue their roles. Estelle probably will be offered the same amount. They now make approximately $48,000 a week, plus meal allowances, secretarial services, limos and health insurance.”