Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty and Betty White will once again be swapping wisecracks in the fall, but this time in a plot which has them running a Miami Beach hotel.

Unfortunately, Bea Arthur will not be among them. The gravel-voiced stage and television veteran, who said in an interview with Broadcast Week last summer that this would be her last season as Dorothy, has made good on her word. At the time, Arthur admitted to being fatigued by the grind of doing a weekly series and seemed anxious to move into new creative areas. These days, The Golden Girls behind her, she's busy scouting London for a flat although she plans to retain her large secluded property in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

While the finale brings the curtain down on another piece of TV history--one of the most watched shows on the home screen--producers Tony Thomas, Paul Junger and Susan Harris are not about to let NBC kill the Golden goose as witnessed by the new hotel series, albeit on a rival network.

This week's Golden Girls finale is called One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest. In the one-hour episode, Blanche (McClanahan) convinces the brusque but kind-hearted Dorothy to go out with her uncle Lucas. Much to their surprise, the couple hit it off and decide to marry. Then comes the so-called dilemma: while Rose and Blanche try to keep the foursome from breaking up, Sophia must decide whether to go with the newlyweds or stay with her loyal pals.

Capitalizing on TV's current penchant for using weddings to spice up shows, The Golden Girls winds up with Dorothy marching down the aisle on the arm of Leslie Nielsen (Lucas) as her teary roommates, attired in their finery, don't know whether to laugh or cry.

"It was a weepy occasion," recalls producer Thomas. "From the very first taping it was like watching an all-star basketball team in action. They are a fantastic quartet and although there's a new series coming up, we all know that this particular team would not be on the same floor ever again. Bea was particularly choked up.

"For all of us it's been a delightful seven years. We've never had a major problem with any of the stars. They took good material and made it great and took great material and made it some of the best ever."

So why would anyone want to tamper or bring the curtain down on a show that has such comic magic and chemistry? The Golden Girls is credited with delivering unbeatable ratings for NBC on Saturday nights and pushing the peacock network into the first place during the 1985-86 season. The show became the network's unchallenged anchor for its Saturday night lineup. But NBC decided that for them at least, the show had run its course.

"Bea told us some time ago that she felt seven years was enough," explains Thomas. "We thought about moving a new roommate in but you don't mess with a winning combination. Now with our new concept we feel that what will happen with Golden Palace is not dissimilar to what Cheers went through when Shelley Long left and Kirstie Alley moved in."(In that instance, NBC stuck with the show.)

"It would have been foolish not to continue," admits Thomas, "but if we hadn't found an idea we could get excited about, I don't think we would have done it. Rue, Estelle and Betty told us that they didn't want to do it just for the money."