Cho was less successful with her sitcom All American Girl, partly because she had to be more politically correct. Now she’s getting a chance to go all the way with her new reality series The Cho Show on VH1, which includes her mom, dad and ever-faithful assistant Selene.

Q: In your series, you have some moments when it seems clothing is close to being optional.

A: One of the things that I’ve always remembered was after I did my first screen test a lot of years ago for my sitcom American Girl, one executive freaked out and said, 'Please never ever show your stomach in public ever again. Never.' So that's why I'm like nearly naked in this show all the time. Now I can go for it on TV.

Q: How would you describe The Cho Show?

A: It's kind of like a cross between Madonna's Truth or Dare, Joy Luck Club and Little People, Big World. I think the only way we could top it is to do an Asian-American version of Melrose Place. But I’m not ready to be another Heather Locklear.

Q: Aren’t you a little worried about putting your mom and dad in embarrassing situations?

A: You know what? They've been through it, enduring my X-rated stand-up. They’ve learned to love it. My father says, 'We participate as parental duty to help you.' I mean, come on, Koreans like to work together. Whether it's a liquor store, a dry cleaners or a reality show, it doesn't matter.

Q: What’s going to make your show unique?

A: Our skin is kind of yellow and our eyes are smaller so we just look different. I’m kidding, please don’t e-mail me, but we are showing this family that is sort of invisible on the tube. I don't see any Asian-American families out there on television and I think people want to know about them. When I started doing stand-up I’d play in these small towns and I didn’t get prejudice so much as curiosity like, 'What are you doing here? Oh my God, you speak English.' I was the only Asian-American for miles so I was like a walking talking Chinatown.

Q: Are you proud of your parents?

A: They immigrated to the United States in 1964 with $25 and this dream—they wanted to live in America and raise a family, and they did it. Now you can watch our show and absorb all their advice that they've given me ever since. They have a daughter who goes on stage and talks about unmentionable body parts for two hours and yet they have given me all of this opportunity. They really totally accept everything in my life. They accept the fact that I am as outrageous as I am.

Q: What’s your feeling about the avalanche of reality shows?

A: I think reality TV has made people's lives accessible in a way that is very strange. I used to be friends with an ambulance driver, and he said the most exciting thing for him was going inside people's houses. That's what this whole reality thing is, looking inside people's houses at how they live and how they are. It's really, really fascinating.