Star Trek

The article explaining how they divided up the 'number one' character for the next pilot is pretty interesting.

Honestly, I think the studio exec feedback was reasonable, given how USA society was at the time, although they come off as conservative assholes kind of. Making the show a bit more light-hearted and adding moments of humor, dumbing it down a bit, adding a bit of swinging 60's vibe, and doing some major recasting all combined to make a pilot that ended up being a hit, and although the show's run wasn't super popular among mainstream people, it was a HUGE hit among the early geek sci-fi crowd, and resulted in the gigantic franchise that came later.

I remember that Roddenberry sold it as a cowboy shoot em up western but using space as the venue. That was never his intent but how he sold it to the people who never recognize new creative ideas.