"The Golden Girls," a staple of NBC Saturday nights from 1985 to 1992, didn't really lose steam until its seventh and final season. Season 6, just released on DVD, has the girls still in their prime -- maybe slightly off from the raucously funny first season, but by no means in decline.

This set includes some developments in the girls' love lives, including a near-reunion between Dorothy and her ex-husband Stan and some ups and downs between Rose and Miles. Aside from that, you can watch the episodes in pretty much any order: There's a main story, a side story, lots of laughs, lots of cheesecake-eating, and a sunny finale, with everything back the way it was at the beginning.

The show continues its trend in addressing controversial topics in this season, too. Blanche seems to be a lightning rod for such stories. In this season alone, she dates a man in a wheelchair, contends with a daughter who's been artificially inseminated, and deals with her gay brother's wedding. Meanwhile, Rose believes she's been sexually harassed by her dentist, and Dorothy dates a convict.

The performances were always solid (Betty White and Estelle Getty were nominated for Emmys this season), but the show benefited from fantastic writing, too. This season includes scripts by Marc Cherry, who would go on to create "Desperate Housewives," "Arrested Development" creator Mitchell Hurwitz, and regular "Arrested Development" writer Jim Vallely. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon's father, Tom Whedon, contributes, too. (The elder Whedon shows a knack for wordplay, just like his son.) Some highlights:

SOPHIA: (on giving birth) It took me 3 1/2 days to have Dorothy. I finally coaxed her out with a pork chop.

BLANCHE: Do you know what horrible thing the folks in my neck of the woods did once when I was a young'un?
DOROTHY: You mean besides using phrases like "neck of the woods" and "young'un"?

DOROTHY: Have you ever given a eulogy?
ROSE: You mean at a funeral?
DOROTHY: No, Rose, at a pie-eating contest.

The only really bad episodes are the two flashback episodes near the end. The flashbacks are great, of course, but the interstitial material is awful. It was plainly written very hastily and has the characters behaving like imitations of themselves: Dorothy is mean instead of just sarcastic, Rose is imbecilic instead of lovably dumb, etc.

The rest of the season is snappy, laugh-out-loud stuff. It has aged remarkably well; apart from a few references, the jokes don't feel stuck in 1990 at all. It's good to still have the girls as friends, even after all these years.

Here are the episodes:

1. Blanche Delivers (9/22/90)
Blanche's daughter, who was artificially inseminated, wants to have her baby in Miami.

2. Once, in St. Olaf (9/29/90)
Rose finally meets her father; Sophia gets lost in a hospital.

3. If At Last You Do Succeed (10/6/90)
Stan finally invents something worthwhile; Blanche has St. Olaf war bonds that will bankrupt Rose's hometown if she cashes them.

4. Snap Out Of It (10/13/90)
Dorothy meets a man who hasn't left his apartment in 20 years; Rose tries to figure out Blanche's age.

5. Wham, Bam, Thank You, Mammy (10/20/90)
Blanche learns her childhood nanny was her father's mistress; Dorothy dates a convict.

6. Feelings (10/27/90)
Dorothy gets threats for failing a football player; Rose thinks her dentist fondled her while she was anesthetized.

7. Zborn Again (11/3/90)
Dorothy begins to rekindle her love for Stan; Rose tries to free herself from an annoying co-worker.

8. How Do You Solve A Problem Like Sophia? (11/10/90)
Sophia wants to join a convent; Blanche and Rose get involved in a lawsuit after a car accident.

9. Mrs. George Devereaux (11/17/90)
Blanche dreams her late husband is still alive.

10. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun ... Before They Die (11/24/90)
Rose takes a temporary vow of celibacy; Sophia gets a makeover.

11. Stand By Your Man (12/1/90)
Blanche dates a man in a wheelchair; Rose wants to adopt a puppy.

12. Ebbtide's Revenge (12/15/90)
Dorothy's brother dies, bringing up old grudges between Sophia and her daughter-in-law.

13. The Bloom Is Off The Rose (1/5/91)
Rose and Miles go skydiving; Blanche dates an unkind man.

14. Sisters of the Bride (1/12/91)
Blanche's gay brother plans to marry a man; Rose hopes to win the Volunteer of the Year award.

15. Miles To Go (1/19/91)
Miles turns out to have been in the witness protection program and must assume a new identity now that his cover has been blown.

16. There Goes the Bride, Part I (2/2/91)
Stan proposes to Dorothy and she accepts.

17. There Goes the Bride, Part II (2/9/91)
Stan blows it by presenting Dorothy with a pre-nuptial agreement.

18. Older And Wiser (2/16/91)
Dorothy gets Sophia a job just so she'll be supervised all day; Blanche and Rose become hand models.

19. Melodrama (2/16/91)
Rose does her first TV news report; Blanche wants to intensify her relationship with Mel Bushman.

20. Even Grandmothers Get The Blues (3/2/91)
Blanche babysits her granddaughter and is mistaken for the baby's mother; Sophia tries to get Dorothy involved in a mother-daughter dance.

21. Witness (3/9/91)
Miles returns and faces the mobster he testified against; Blanche learns she has Yankee blood.

22. What A Difference A Date Makes (3/23/91)
Dorothy faces the guy who stood her up at the senior prom and discovers it was Sophia's fault; Blanche tries to fit into her old wedding dress.

23. Love For Sale (4/6/91)
Dorothy is auctioned for charity and is alarmed when Stan bids; Sophia's brother shows up, bankrupt.

24-25. Never Yell Fire In A Crowded Retirement Home Parts 1 & 2 (4/27/91)
Sophia is accused of starting the fire at Shady Pines six years earlier, leading to a two-part episode of flashbacks.

26. Henny Penny -- Straight, No Chaser (5/4/91)
Dorothy needs Rose and Blanche to help out in her children's play.


THE DVD

There are optional English subtitles, but no alternate language tracks.

The 26 episodes are distributed over three discs. Discs 1 and 2 are positioned on top of each other in the digipak, i.e., you have to remove disc 1 to get to disc 2. Disc 3 is in its own spot on the opposite panel.

VIDEO: It's typical of a sitcom from 1990: shot on video, brightly lit, with colors that sort of blend into each other but are universally sunny and light. The DVD treatment is as good as can be expected.

AUDIO: Basic Dolby Digital 2.0. It's fine.

EXTRAS: Just one: Footage from an event at the Museum of Television and Radio, in which Betty White and Rue McClanahan sit on a panel with "Golden Girls" creators and writers. The event was held in 2004, and White and McClanahan demonstrate still-sharp timing and a charming sense of sisterhood. There aren't any major revelations -- I think fans of the series already knew that Rue and Betty originally read for each other's roles before being switched -- but it's fun nonetheless.


IN SUMMARY

The set is pretty bare-bones. Apart from that one extra, there's nothing -- no deleted scenes, no commentary, nothing. Fortunately, the episodes themselves are hilarious, well worth watching again and again.