It’s funny, in hindsight, to think of The Golden Girls as the proving/staging ground for Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry and Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz, both of whom penned more than a dozen episodes of the series during the course of its seven seasons and 159 shows, including several here in this set. (The Golden Girls also gave a chatty youngster named Quentin Tarantino work as an Elvis impersonator, but that’s neither here nor there…)

On the surface, its premise should have rendered the show it a quaint little sitcom for almost exclusively older audiences. Yet the series’ whipsmart joke writing and strongly defined, amusingly drawn characterizations helped it earn not only an incredible 11 Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe statuettes, but also the respect and love of younger adult audiences who recognized a bit of themselves and awakened to the possibility of life after 50.

Per its title, The Golden Girls is centered around three somewhat aged friends — naive Minnesota native Rose Nylund (Betty White), promiscuous Southern belle Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) and perpetually exasperated den mother Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak (Bea Arthur) — who live together in the retirement haven of Miami along with Dorothy’s cuttingly sarcastic mother Sophia (Estelle Getty). The fall-back template for much of its comedy lies in the nudging, back-biting and loving sniping of their own relationships, but comedic fodder is often also found in their various romantic liaisons.

That’s certainly true of this penultimate season, in which Dorothy attempts to reconcile with ex-hubby Stan (Herb Edelman), only to have old problems flare up; she later gets wooed by none other than Sonny Bono. Sophia takes Blanche’s tips to attract men, leading to some unique disasters. Rose, meanwhile, tries skydiving to add some spice to what on the surface is an unlikely relationship. Other guest stars this season include Debbie Reynolds and Jeffrey Tambor.

Presented in 1.33:1 full screen, the 26 episodes of The Golden Girls: Season 6 come spread out over three discs and housed in an attractive cardboard slipcover in a pastel-hued shade of purple. The audio is anchored by a Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound track, and there’s a chat from a retrospective on the show from the Museum of Television and Radio, part of their nice recurrent series on sitcoms and serials of yesteryear. B+ (Series) B (Disc)