When Maura Buete arrived home after a meeting one Monday evening, she wasn't surprised to see the television tuned to Nickelodeon. She lets her four children, ages 11 and under, watch SpongeBob Squarepants.

But after Nick at Nite's Glenn Martin, DDS came on, Buete snapped to attention. Hearing the line, ``Makeup sex is the best,'' the St. Petersburg physician checked and found her 11-year-old watching two cartoon characters in bed, the female unbuttoning her blouse and the male lying on top of her.

After shutting off the TV, she viewed clips of the show online and spotted more scenes she found objectionable, including a gag about a car's GPS navigator using a sexy voice and innuendos to direct the driver to ``Moorehead, Minnesota,'' and ``Climax, Florida.''

``It would be one thing if it were on at 11 at night or was on a more adult network, but Nick targets kids,'' says Buete, who fired off an angry letter to the network.

She's not the only one. The animated show about a traveling dentist and his dysfunctional family has the message boards on Nick.com filled with comments from furious parents. They're upset that the normally reliable family network is bringing adult swim-type programming into the kiddie pool.

And it's not just the raunchy humor. The show's violence has been called out as extreme, such as when a circus knife landed in a performer's eye, with blood pouring from the wound.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families, gave this show an ``iffy at best'' rating for young kids.

Though it premiered with mixed reviews in August, Glenn Martin, DDS has been a ratings hit. With a voice cast led by Kevin Nealon, Catherine O'Hara and Judy Greer, it ranked as Nick at Nite's No. 1 offering in the third quarter of 2009, averaging 2.1 million viewers per week, prompting the network to pick up a 20-episode second season.

The stop-motion series has a rich pedigree. It's the first television show produced by ex-Disney chief executive Michael Eisner's Tornante Animation. Eric Fogel (Celebrity Deathmatch) is the executive producer overseeing animation, while Sivert Glarum and Michael Jamin (King of the Hill) are executive producer-show runners.

David Bittler, a spokesman for Nickelodeon, said complaints about the show have been minimal and there are no plans to move it from the 8 p.m. time slot.

``The show is averaging almost 2 million viewers, so it is getting a fairly sizable audience,'' Bittler said. ``It is a sitcom and part of the Nick at Night lineup, so it's not the common children's fare.''

Nickelodeon is famous for its intense research and focus groups, so how could it not know parents of SpongeBob fans wouldn't feel duped by a show advertised during the day and airing in some markets as early as 7 p.m.?

``There's certainly no ploy for publicity,'' Bittler said. ``This is a funny show for the Nick at Nite audience which is 18 to 49.''

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