"Maude" and "Golden Girls" star Bea Arthur is happily poised to enter the TV Academy Hall of Fame. The fabulous funny lady said she turned the honor down a year ago saying "I had vaguely heard that George C. Scott had turned down the Academy Award, which I thought was kind of cool," Arthur said.

The Hall of Fame ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 9 in Beverly Hills, and Arthur said she's "delighted" to be included.

Other inductees are TV and movie writer Larry Gelbart ("M-A-S-H," "Tootsie"), the late talk show host and producer Merv Griffin ("Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy!"), writer-producer Sherwood Schwartz ("Gilligan's Island," "The Brady Bunch") and former Capital Cities/ABC executives Thomas Murphy and Daniel B. Burke.