They say that gold withstands time and the elements, remaining, well, golden. For proof, just look to TV’s beloved sitcom about a quartet of elderly women, “The Golden Girls,” which continues to sparkle in Lifetime reruns and on home video over 10 years later. Bringing further (digital!) shine, The Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season is now available on DVD (Buena Vista).

“The fun of it is it’s such a generational show,” muses Betty White, who played the ditzy Rose Nylund. “When we first went on the air the network wanted to address an older audience that hadn’t been addressed before, but the kids picked up on it immediately and 75 percent of the fan mail came from kids. The mail comes in from all over the world. Finland, Bangladesh. They all say they got hooked watching the show with their grandmother and now they have ‘Golden Girls’ parties at colleges. To this day we’re a college cult. It blows my mind, and that’s what you call great writing. That has nothing to do with us as actresses. The writers had such a handle on humor.”

From 1985 to 1992, “The Golden Girls” ran on NBC. The show revolved around four housemates: wry ringleader Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), obtuse Southern sexpot Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), clueless Rose (White) and Dorothy’s zingy mother, Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty). Their weekly foibles ranged from romantic (more than one gentleman caller turned out to be married) to saucy to groundbreaking. Many episodes included queer content/characters, and the show broached surprisingly serious topics, including menopause and HIV. The second season DVD set includes “Isn’t It Romantic?” an Emmy-winning episode about a lesbian who falls for Rose.

An author and animal-welfare advocate, Betty White, who reprised her role as Rose in the spin-off “Golden Palace” (1992-1993) and sitcom “Empty Nest,” is also well known for playing man-starved Sue Anne Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (from 1974 to 1977) and, currently, Catherine Piper on ABC’s “Boston Legal.” To discuss “The Golden Girls” gayness, whether Rose would outlast Blanche on “Survivor” and whether we might see Rose bloom again, I spoke with the bubbly White.

Gay & Lesbian Times: “Isn’t It Romantic,” was just one of many episodes to feature gay or lesbian characters. What do you remember about making that one?

Betty White: Well, the whole show, the series, was a fave with the gay community so it was fun to give back when you know they were sympathetic, and we were sympathetic. The show was on Saturday nights and the gay bars around town would stop the music when the show came on and they’d all watch “Golden Girls” and they’d start the music up for dancing after the show was over. We just loved that!

GLT: The episode won an Emmy. Was that a proud moment?

BW: All the Emmys we got were proud moments. We treasured each and every one, both personally and for the show.

GLT: Do you think Rose should have taken Jean up on some lesbian lovin’?

BW: I don’t think so. I think the fun of it was the fact Rose didn’t have a clue what was going on!

GLT: What sort of behind-the-scenes discussion of gay content went on? Ever a concern it might go too far?

BW: I don’t think so. The writing was just pure gold, and I think they went through discussions before it ever got to us. Of course, as far as we were concerned, it was good writing. We weren’t making fun of anything.

GLT: Did you ever bring story ideas to the table?

BW: You were always given the privilege of throwing in ideas, but we never would presume to say, “Why don’t you do this or that.” We just, in the course of conversation or the cold reading of the script, would say, “That would be funny if so and so…” And another script would come out a week later that incorporated it.

GLT: The pilot episode featured a gay character, Coco the housekeeper/cook, played by Charles Levin. Yet Coco, without explanation, disappeared after that. What’s the story?

BW: I’m going to sneeze. [Lets out a couple of big sneezes.] I sneeze like a truck driver! [Sneezes again.] Yes, he was delightful and our hearts all ached for him. Everybody thought they deleted him from the series because he was gay, but that’s not true. Nobody dreamed Estelle would come in and make such a place for herself. She came in and a bunch of our activity took place around a table in the kitchen and [Coco] was just another body that got in the way of the four of us, like four points on a compass. So they decided to get rid of the housekeeper. Our hearts all ached for him because can you imagine thinking you got a job and the pilot sells and you find out you’re not part of it! He was such a nice guy.

GLT: What in your estimation was the show’s gayest episode?

BW: Oh honey, I wish I could remember. We did 180 shows and I can’t help you on that because I haven’t seen them in a long time and I really don’t remember.

GLT: Has anyone ever assumed you are Rose? That Betty and Rose are one and the same?

BW: Oh sure. Rose was the cockeyed optimist and so am I. She always likes to see the happy ending, the upside rather than the downside. After Sue Anne Nivens, the neighborhood nymphomaniac domestic goddess on “Mary Tyler Moore,” it was such fun to play a role like Rose. Everybody would ask my hubby, “How close to Betty is Sue Anne?” and he said, “This is the same person except Betty can’t cook!” Then Rose came along and he said, “That really is Betty!”

GLT: Is Betty sharper than Rose?

BW: I hope I’m a little sharper. Rose was not dumb – she was just terminally naïve. I don’t think Betty is quite that naïve after all these years.

GLT: Who would outlast whom on “Survivor” – Blanche or Rose?

BW: I think Rose would get kicked off first. She means well, but I don’t think she’d make the grade.

GLT: “The Golden Girls” really helped pave the way for more gays on TV and pop culture awareness. Yet isn’t it strange that as we move forward there are big strides backward with, say, the whole same-sex marriage backlash in the federal government?

BW: Well, I get impatient with a lot of things the government gets into these days. For so many years in the business, 57 years, I know so many gays and lesbians I don’t even think about it. I take it for granted and enjoy them as friends. To each his own.

GLT: Do you have gay family members?

BW: Yes, I do. My stepdaughter is gay. She and her partner have been together in Chicago for 10 years; they have a wonderful relationship. I adore her.

She’s been my stepdaughter since she was 9 so we have a very good family relationship.

GLT: What sorts of strange moments have come out of the enduring success of the “The Golden Girls”?

BW: A very young gay man will come up [with a photograph to sign] and say, “Would you write to the four Golden Girls” and then give us four [male] names. It’s so cute and such fun. I always giggle and ask, “Which one of you is Blanche and which is Rose?”

GLT: In the season five episode, “72 Hours,” Rose gets tested for HIV after learning she may have contracted the virus during a blood transfusion. Did making that episode have an effect on you personally?

BW: Not personally. I was just glad to see the show deal with it. Especially with Rose’s innocence, to see that it can happen to anybody. Her panic and all that were well done.

GLT: Talk about how you landed the role of Catherine Piper on “Boston Legal.”

BW: Last year I did three episodes of “The Practice” and played Catherine Piper. She was an evil blackmailer, not the nicest character in the world.

So when I was invited to do a guest shot on “Boston Legal” and found out it was the same character, I was thrilled. I’m doing a recurring role and having a wonderful time.

GLT: Gay themes and characters are also part of “Boston Legal.”

BW: Why not? They’re going on in life all around us, why shouldn’t they in the show?

GLT: Have you ever played a gay role?

BW: Nope, never have. It never came up.

GLT: Would you?

BW: Why not?

GLT: Where would the Golden Girls be today?

BW: Everybody used to ask us, “Would you like that situation of four friends all living together?” and we would all as a chorus go, “NO!” But I think they would still all be living together.

GLT: What would a 2005 version of the show be like?

BW: Oh, I think we’ve run our course. I don’t think there would be any point in doing it – it would just be repeating. We started with a vanguard of older characters. Nobody really had old characters as the four principals, and we could get by with murder because we had been around the track so many times.

Had we been younger, some of the material would have been salacious, but it wasn’t because we had lived our lives and earned our stripes.

GLT: Would you resuscitate Rose for the right production?

BW: Only if the writers did. They own the character, they own the talent. If they ever asked for any reason I would jump at it, but there would be no reason unless there was something specific they were doing with the four girls.

The Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season will be released from Buena Vista Home Entertainment May 17. The Golden Girls: The Complete First Season is available now.