Betty White, still as spy as when she appeared in The Golden Girls television sitcom, recently spoke on the phone about her experiences on that popular show. She described how excited the cast members were after the program’s first weekly ratings. “We did the pilot and hoped for the best,” she said. “Bill Cosby was on at the time, and he kind of owned the television business. And we beat him out the first week on the air, we were No. 1, he was No. 2 and we thought, “Oops, we’re on to something.”

Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s recent DVD release of “The Complete First Season of The Golden Girls” reminds us of the many talents and creative forces involved in this amusing show. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy in its first year, and every week during the 1980s, actresses Beatrice Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty and Betty White came into our homes to make us laugh about four South Florida seniors sharing a house.

Writers Susan Harris, Winifred Hervey, Barry Fanaro, James Berg, Stan Zimmerman, Kathy Speer, Mort Nathan, Liz Sage, Susan Beavers, Stuart Silverman, Christopher Lloyd and Terry Grossman delivered plots and dialogue that kept viewers coming back for more each week.

“They had us doing a little bit of everything,” said White. “You just don’t get good writing that holds up like that over time.”

I, for one, found the characters sensational. Beatrice Arthur as Dorothy, was a brooding, no-nonsense woman who abided the shortcomings of her roommates with little patience. Rose, played wonderfully by Betty White, was a less-than-brilliant but lovable character similar to Gracie Allen. She certainly gave the writers plenty of opportunity for good material. Blanche -- whose house the women lived in -- was the colorful, I-don’t-care-who-knows temptress that set the senior world ablaze. Estelle Getty brought the caustic character of Dorothy’s mother to life quite convincingly. She definitely wasn’t afraid to speak her mind!

Everyone has their favorite episodes -- whether it’s about the funny antics of Blanche in “Blanche and The Younger Man” or the touching of real feelings in “Guess Who’s Coming to the Wedding,” when Dorothy’s ex-husband comes to their daughter’s wedding, each episode featured a different look at the world through its fascinating characters.

Witty dialogue that nailed a character’s personality became a hallmark of The Golden Girls. For example, when you heard Blanche say, “Isn’t it amazing how I can feel so bad and look so good,” you realized why writing contributed so much to the success of the show. “You can give us all the credit you want to, but we can’t save a bad show,” said White.  “We can screw up a good show, but we can’t save a bad one.  It was the writing that makes that hold up.”

The DVD includes an extra feature in which Joan and Melissa Rivers criticize the Golden Girls’ wardrobes. However, Melissa states at the beginning of the feature, “Let’s acknowledge, that in the moment of the time every woman looked perfect for where they were living and who they were, but in reality …”

Then Joan adds, “It is now 2000, so let’s get ‘em.”  Although  Joan and Melissa are probably supposed to be another comedic aspect of the DVD, their terms while describing the women’s wardrobes -- “nursery, shower curtain, Harlequin gone bad, who had the nerve to take that dress to the sales counter, it looks like Minnie mouse threw up”-- are certainly not funny. White didn’t seem pleased with this extra feature either.

“I heard about that yesterday. Bea, Rue and I were talking on a conference call, and we all got a little incensed about that. Judy was the best wardrobe lady any of us has ever worked with.  And she kept everybody in character, in period, in everything.  It was contemporary at that time. But I kind of think -- I’m sure they (the Rivers) were -- I hope they were trying to be funny. But, I don’t think I’m going to take Joan and Melissa as my fashion mentors. And I think if they can criticize somebody like Judy, they should be so lucky.”

The Golden Girls was one of the last great sitcoms. When asked how she felt about reality TV today, White responded, “Don’t get me started on reality TV, because I don’t want to use language I shouldn’t use.  But I think the problem with sitcoms, this whole youth wave that washed over -- people say, well older actresses can’t get jobs, but we work all the time.  It’s the writers who have an age block.  So many of the producers and network think, ‘Oh, you need young writers because they know what the audience wants.’  Well they have no frame of reference. So they write about today’s jokes, which by next week are, ‘What was that all about?’  Nobody understands it. So again, I think it goes right back to the writing. The lack of good sitcoms is because we need seasoned good writers and it’s a tough call.”

Is there any chance for a reunion show?  White replied, “I think it would be wonderful, Rue thinks it would be wonderful, but Bea just doesn’t want to do it and she’s probably right.  You know, quit while you're ahead.”

Were there any bloopers from the series that eventually might make it to DVD? “One time, I was making a baloney sandwich and I turned to say something to one of the other girls and the baloney flew out of the sandwich across the room and on the floor,” White recalled. “Well, that doesn’t sound funny. But this was on a camera-blocking day.  No audience, no anything. We all got the giggles and we couldn’t shape up. Bea is the worst, when she gets the giggles. Sometimes she just had to quit and go home because she can’t get to that point without breaking up again.”

Betty White’s honest comments about this beloved TV show made watching “The Complete First Season of The Golden Girls” DVD even more exciting and entertaining for me.

(Read  Diana  Saenger’s classic film reviews at http://classicfilm.about.com.)