In March, my 10-year-old son Hudson found out that he'd been cast as the lead in the ABC television pilot based on Eddie Huang's memoir, "Fresh Off the Boat." This week, the producers delivered the pilot into the waiting hands of network execs, who'll decide over the next week whether it will live on and go to series, or fade away, never to be seen again.

I spent a month and a half watching as it was shot, assembled and put through post-production — not as an on-set journalist, but as a dad standing by to dispense...