What was the network's attitude towards Star Trek at the beginning?

NBC execs were puzzled. They thought they'd give this new show a chance. It did a little bit better in the second season and in its third season it definitely started declining and NBC realised they did not have a long term hit and it was cancelled.

A wagon train to the stars, is how it was described at the time. It was about exploration, it was an adventure series. Gene Roddenberry's vision was one of a more perfect society. It wasn't about the standard villains and good guys.

It was very much an idealistic type of environment - with Vietnam going on and all sorts of other political turmoil around the world. It definitely strove to be something more than just a blast 'em up sci-fi show.. It aimed to be very serious and high minded and tackled all sorts of social issues at the time.