Asian women were rarely given prominent roles on American television. In 1994 Margaret Cho had a brief prime-time show called "All American Girl", which was not popular with audiences and did not last a full season. When the show aired, there had not been another Asian-American-centered show or an Asian main character at the time the Ling character was created. Unlike the 1970s depictions of docile East Asian women on TV, Ling's character was the opposite, but still a classic stereotype, that of the Dragon Lady. At the time, she was the only significant representative of Asian women on television in the United States (besides news anchors and reporters), leaving no one else to counteract this prominent stereotype. She remains the most memorable Asian TV character of the 1990s.