First in a series: Two choices—which do you choose?

The mid 80s and early 90s were the golden age for television shows about old people. And no shows did that better than "The Golden Girls" and "Murder, She Wrote." Though both shows ended their runs nearly two decades ago and their stars' lifespans weren't expected, statistically, to last much beyond that, two of them—Betty "Rose Nylund" White and Angela "Jessica Fletcher" Lansbury—are still with us today and going strong.

Betty White, of course, is in the throes of yet another late-career revival. Now 90 years old, she's currently starring in a sitcom on TV Land, hosting a terrible candid camera [...]

Two good ones for all you theater people out there: New York talks to Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury about their collaborations over the years, while the New Yorker chats up Christopher Plummer, who says this about living in a hotel: "It's nice to have the bed done for you. That signals another day. The horror that happened yesterday is all over and forgotten. Clean sheets. You start life all over again." I can't wait until I'm old enough to say something like that with a sense of authority.