NEED TO KNOW

The first episode of The Golden Girls aired Sept. 14, 1985 on NBC

The sitcom was an immediate ratings success and ran for seven seasons

The Golden Girls continues to be embraced by new generations of viewers—in part, through streaming the episodes on Hulu—40 years after its debut

It's been 40 years since it debuted on NBC (official birth date: Sept. 14, 1985) and more than 33 years since production of new episodes ended, but in reality, The Golden Girls never really went away.

The iconic sitcom's seven seasons continue to stream on Hulu and reruns have aired on various networks, including Lifetime and TV Land, over the years. Meanwhile, the theme song, a remake of singer-songwriter Andrew Gold's 1978 Top 40 hit "Thank You for Being a Friend," is one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable TV themes of all time.

As a result of The Golden Girls' enduringpop-cultural omnipresence, for decades, new generations of viewers have continued to fall in love with the antics of Dorothy Zbornak, Rose Nylund, Blanche Devereaux and Sophia Petrillo, four over-50 ladies sharing a house (complete with a lanai) in Miami. A new one-hour ABC News special, The Golden Girls: 40 Years of Laughter & Friendship — Special Edition of 20/20 will air Nov. 11 on ABC. It will pay tribute to the legendary sitcom and do a deep dive into the ongoing phenomenon.

Our new app is here! Free, fun and full of exclusives. Scan to download now!

In the trailer for the documentary, shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Kelly Ripa, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Laverne Cox, Mario Lopez and others discuss the impact the top-rated sitcom, which ran from 1985 to 1992, had on their lives.

"Who wasn't a fan of The Golden Girls?" Ralph asks at the start of the trailer. (Answer: Everyone was a fan!) "It's more than golden — it's platinum," she adds.

Mario Lopez, who guest-starred on The Golden Girls in a 1987 season 2 episode as a foreign-exchange student also named Mario pops up and reveals that he considers himself a Dorothy, the upstanding, no-nonsense character played by Bea Arthur. (Ripa, Ralph and Cox also reveal which Golden Girl they are in the trailer.)

In fact, earlier this year, Lopez told PEOPLE that his professional history with Arthur helped him land his gig on the sitcom at age 13.

"I didn't have to audition for that episode because I worked with the producers before, and I had worked with Bea Arthur before on a show called a.k.a. Pablo, a Norman Lear show," he said. "The ladies were so sweet, and they were so nice to me and welcoming. They were so funny. Even as a kid, I was finding humor in it. As I got older, as an adult, I got to appreciate them even more, and I just feel honored that I got to work with these TV legends. They always have a special place in my heart."

Related Stories

The Golden Girls Turns 40! 7 Surprising Revelations from Behind the Scenes of the Iconic Sitcom

Everyone Compares 'The Golden Girls' to 'Sex and the City'. Here's Why the Sitcom's Creator Hates That (Exclusive)

According to the trailer, The Golden Girls has streamed more than 100 billion hours on Hulu, which is a testament to how "timeless" (in Lopez's words) its humor is. "The jokes still land," Cox says. "It's really, really funny." The trailer underscores that point by showing scenes from The Golden Girls conventions and snippets of some of the show's most hilarious moments. A sample:

Blanche: I have no secrets from you. My whole life is an open book.

Sophia; Your whole life is an open blouse.

As Ripa says in the trailer, "It's 40 years, and it's Day 1 fresh."

The Golden Girls: 40 Years of Laughter & Friendship — Special Edition of 20/20 premieres Tuesday, Nov. 11 on ABC. It will stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.