The Snorks

The Snorks was a 1980s cartoon, originally developed by Freddy Monnickendam and produced by Hanna-Barbera for NBC, about Snorks, who live in a domed village under the sea and have snorkel-like appendages on their heads instead of noses.

The Snorks were forbidden to ever leave their undersea village because those in power didn't want them to be found by humanity. So, Once an Episode, the heroes of the show had to leave the village for the greater good. And they always got away with it, despite the punishment for leaving being steep.

...at least, that was the gist of Season 1. The later seasons focused more on how the Snorks interacted with each other.

It's a little like The Smurfs but underwater -- and less conformist. They do their SMURFING in pretty much the same way (All's well that snorks well!).

Tropes:

 * All Animals Are Dogs (Occy)
 * Absent Minded Professor: Dr. Strangesnork, who can forget his name at times.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: In the episode "In Junior's Image", a mirror-image duplicate of Junior is brought into the Snorks' world. He appears to be the opposite of Junior with regard to personality, but
 * Big Eater: Dimmy. Jojo took on this trait when Dimmy disappeared.
 * Brother Chuck: Dimmy vanished without explanation after season 2 when his voice actor left to pursue other projects. He would later appear as a background character.
 * Conjoined Eyes
 * Cool Ship (a submarine)
 * Follow the Leader
 * Hidden Elf Village
 * Jerkass (Junior)
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Junior again, from season 3 onward.
 * Mad Scientist (Dr. Strangesnork)
 * Once an Episode
 * The Rival (Junior Wetworth)
 * SMURFING...er...Snorking.
 * Spoiled Brat (Li'l Seaweed)
 * Steampunk - Not in aesthetic, but all their technology apparently ran on it.
 * Tagalong Kid: Junior's brother, Willie.
 * The Unintelligible: Tooter speaks in the form of "tooting" various sound effects. He can also talk to animals.
 * One episode had a character named Tadah who only spoke in the form of "tooting". The only word she could say was "y'all".
 * Water Is Air
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: This happened with Junior several times.
 * You Fail Biology Forever