It was. As were a couple of the all in the family episodes.
Edit: I shouldn't be so definite. It was according to an interview I heard with Nichelle Nichols a while back. Apparantly there was hesitancy to film it, and then to broadcast it. She got some flack, I'm not sure of shatner.
As for controversy I suppose it depends how you define it. If you mean riots, protesting, fcc crap or whatever than probably not. But it definitely impacted her life, at least from what she said in one interview. *shrug*