Betty White, Bea Arthur’s ‘Golden Girls’ feud ended with naked photos

There were some things a slice of cheesecake couldn’t solve.

The “Golden Girls” set wasn’t always, well, golden, for stars Betty White and Bea Arthur. And now, the ABC News special “The Golden Girls: 40 Years of Laughter and Friendship — Special Edition of 20/20” is revealing one on-set argument that involved production.

The iconic sitcom, which aired from 1985 to 1992 on NBC, starred White and Arthur as Rose Nylund and Dorothy Zbornak, respectively. Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux and Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo also starred.

“I used to get calls at home from Bea complaining about Betty,” the “Golden Girls” co-producer Marsha Posner Williams explained in the special.

“I got a call from Bea one day, and she said, ‘I just ran into that woman at the supermarket. I’m going to write her a letter.’ I said, ‘Bea, do yourself a favor. Please write her a letter, read it out loud, and then throw it away, because you would serve no purpose.’”

Their tension intensified, however, during the 1986 Season 3 episode titled “Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas.”

The episode followed Blanche gifting her roommates a “Men of Blanche’s Boudoir” calendar for Christmas.

Writer Barry Fanaro said that their anger “kind of boiled up” during filming.

“We heard yelling backstage,” he recalled. “And we all sort of crept out. They were having a fight. It was the only time ever.”

“The next day you could feel the tension in the air a little,” Fanaro said, noting that the stagehands ended up cooling things down in an untraditional way.

“They had taken naked pictures of themselves, riding horses, in saddles, as firemen,” Fanaro said. “So they had planted them in the calendar, and that immediately broke any tension. It was all over. They were hugging each other.”

Executive producer Tony Thomas recalled: “Bea laughed so loud.”

The ABC special aired never-before-seen footage from rehearsal of the women laughing over the pictures while on the classic “Golden Girls” sofa. A live studio audience was also present.

“Whatever was going on between them, the minute that red light went on, there were no more professional people than those actresses,” Williams recounted.

White and Arthur’s differences, meanwhile, stemmed from their work styles and opposite personalities.

“Golden Girls” writer Mort Nathan said that despite the ups and downs, the late stars’ relationship was “one of enormous respect.”

“Bea approached her acting like a Broadway actress,” Thomas explained. “She was very serious about her comedy. Betty was a woman from the TV era, and she knew she could turn it on and turn it off at any time.”

Producer Mitch Hurwitz reminisced: “What would happen, you know, is somebody would go up on a line, and Betty would go to the audience and say, ‘We’re just a bunch of old sluts that can’t remember our lines,’ and get a big laugh. And Bea would be like, ‘Come on, stop doing that.’ It’s totally understandable, you know. She’s trying to focus, and here Betty is, being beloved.”

In June, Williams opened up about White and Arthur at a 40th anniversary celebration of the show.

“When that red light was on [during filming], there were no more professional people than those women,” she elaborated. “But when the red light was off, those two couldn’t warm up to each other if they were cremated together.”

According to Williams, White, McClanahan and Getty were ready to sign new contracts after Season 7. However, Arthur’s response was “no f–king way.” The short-lived spin-off “Golden Palace” went on to focus on Rose, Blanche and Sophia running a hotel for one season in 1992.

Despite tensions, White gushed over her fellow co-stars during her 1986 Emmy acceptance speech when she took home the trophy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

“We’re a matched set, you can’t split us up,” she expressed at the time. A year later, McClanahan won her own statue, and Arthur took home her award in 1988.

Getty was nominated seven times for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy and finally landed the win in 1988. The show also won for Outstanding Comedy Series two years in a row in 1986 and 1987.

In her 1995 memoir “Here We Go Again: My Life in Television,” White recalled the awkwardness on set the day after she won the Emmy.

“Estelle gave me a big hug and kiss — but she did it outside, before we got into the studio. The crew couldn’t have been warmer or sweeter, but the congratulations were all whispered,” she penned.

Despite past tensions, Arthur gushed about the series in an interview with E! News in 2002. She recalled reading a “brilliant” script, thinking “it’s funny, it’s adult, and I will get off my ass again and go to work.”

“I didn’t know it was going to turn into a cult [classic],” she said. “I just thought it was wonderful.”