by Alan W. Petrucelli

It's nearly 3 p.m., and the only sound that can be heard from Stage Two of the Hollywood Sunset-Gower Studios is the soft staccato of Estelle Getty's snore. The actress, along with her Golden Girls co-stars, has been rehearsing an episode of the NBC series since early morning, and now it's time for a nap.

Miss Getty snoozes in a chair. Bea Arthur sleeps on the set's living room sofa. Rue McClanahan rests in her dressing room.

But Betty White cannot sleep. The actress nervously paces back and forth, fortifying herself for an upcoming scene by mumbling her lines. But something is wrong. Something isn't working, and Miss White's face is stamped with worry.

Paul Drake, the episode's director, has an idea. "When you're doing the scene," he says, "try dusting the plant leaves as you talk." Miss White follows instructions. "Dust them gently," he coos. "That's a good girl." Miss White looks up. "This," she says emphatically, "is what's known as making a fool of yourself in front of America." Drake shakes his head. "This," he corrects her, "is what's known as making a hit."

Hit. As Drake says the magic word, Bea Arthur rises and immediately reaches for a cigarette. "Paul," the actress says in her husky, familiar baritone, feigning fright, "Did you say 'hit'? I'm not ready for a hit!" She pops a Milk Dud into her mouth, looks around the set and points to Miss Getty. "And neither is Sleeping Beauty!"

But The Golden Girls (which airs Saturdays on NBC), looks like the biggest hit of the new season. Last month, the premiere episode ranked #1 in the Nielsen ratings, ahead of even NBC's formidable The Cosby Show. America is graying, so perhaps it's time for a sitcom about four women of a certain age living in Miami.

DIVORCED SCHOOLTEACHER

Bea Arthur, the woman who has been Maude all these years, plays Dorothy, a no-nonsense, divorced schoolteacher; Miss White plays Rose, a dim-witted grief counselor; Miss McClanahan plays Blanche, an oversexed widow; and Miss Getty plays Sophia, Miss Arthur's 80-year-old mother. Golden Girls reunites Miss Arthur with her Maude co-star Rue McClanahan, who also co-starred with Miss White in the 1983-84 sitcom Mama's Family. Miss Getty, who played Harvey Fierstein's mother for four years in the Broadway show Torch Song Trilogy, admits she's the new-old kid on the block.

"When I first read the script," Miss Arthur confesses, "I said 'So what?' It's Maude and (Maude character) Vivian meet Betty White." "Then I read it again, and realized it has potential. It was so terrific, so witty, so opposite of everything I had ever done, that I knew it was time to get off my butt and get back to work. And I'm glad I did, because this show is like working with (Maude producer) Norman Lear again.

"I don't need the money," she adds, inhaling deeply on her cigarette. "I don't need the adulation. Maude gave me all that." The last Milk Dud vanishes. "What do I need? For this show to be damned good."

Miss Getty rubs the sleep from her eyes. "This show goes beyond bawdy," she says. "I cannot believe what we got away with in the pilot! But you can't have a successful TV series if you're going to put on pap. And that's what we're not doing. You know when you're alone, and you drink milk out of the carton? Well, that's what Golden Girls is all about--it's about letting your defenses down."