The Snorks was a 1980s cartoon, originally developed by Freddy Monnickendam and produced by Hanna-Barbera. The first two seasons aired on NBC, the last two were syndicated. The show was about the Snorks, who live in a 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. Things really changed once the show hit syndication; new characters were introduced, and the old ones either had their personality tweaked or were ousted altogether.
It's a little like The Smurfs but underwater — and the characters have their own individual appearances. They do their smurfing in pretty much the same way (All's well that snorks well!).
Tropes:
- Absent-Minded Professor: Dr. Strangesnork, who can forget his name at times.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Occy barks, growls, pants, fetches, and sniffs like a dog. He is even called an "octopuppy" when he's little.
- Ambiguously Bi: Tooter has been seen with a female love interest twice. But in "Snorkdance" he attempts to ask Junior to the dance.
- Baby See, Baby Do; Willie Wetworth copies and repeats what Junior does and says in Season 1.
- Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Casey Kelp, the most prominently featured female Snork, wears a green, midriff-baring suit. She is characterized as sweet, caring, helpful, conscious about her looks and very interested in romance.
- 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 near the end of the episode it turns out he's not only even more of a Jerkass than Junior, but he turns into a 12-foot-tall clawed abomination, which is all the more disturbing because his face didn't change at all.
- Big Brother Instinct: Junior in "Robin Snork" towards a kid snork named Shorty. He feels guilty for taking advantage of him and worries for him when he gets captured. He also tells Bigweed that Shorty had "better be alright".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome/Demoted to Extra: Dimmy vanished without explanation after season 2 when his voice actor left to pursue other projects. He would later appear as a silent background character.
- Conjoined Eyes: Not only do the Snorks have them, they take up over 50% of their faces.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Blowfish project, sending the Blowfish device above the surface, is presented as similar to launching a rocket into space.
- Everybody Must Get Stoned: The episode "Reefberry Madness", where the Snorks eat reefberries laced with silly powder and start acting silly.
- Forgotten Framing Device: The story of the man who was studying Captain Ortega's logbook is never concluded.
- Going Commando: Several female snorks who wear mini skirts and short dresses are revealed never to wear any undies.
- Good Parents: Tooter's parents, they love their son's quirks and worry for him when he's in trouble.
- Species Title: About an undersea species called Snorks (named for the snorkel-like appendages on their heads).
- Steampunk: Not in aesthetic, but all their technology apparently ran on it.
- Swallowed Whole: In one episode, the Snorks are swallowed up by a giant Snork Eater that plays hypnotic music that lures its prey toward it. They manage to escape by blowing a giant bubble inside it while Tooter duels musically with the Snork Eater.
- Theatre Phantom: In "Summer and Snork", Junior takes on a Phantom-like role to scare All-Star out of the lead part. Tooter takes over the role of a crossover between Sherlock Holmes and The Persian from the Gaston Leroux novel.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Junior is still a huge jerk in Seasons 3 and 4, but has shown to care about Allstar in "Allstar's Final Hour" and is much less cruel towards Tooter, helping him out at times and rarely making fun of his lack of speech anymore. It's to the point where Allstar and the gang can stand hanging out with him now.
- The Unintelligible: Tooter speaks in the form of "tooting" various sound effects. He can also talk to animals. In "The Whole Toot and Nothing But...", Tooter has failed speech three times, and will soon be held back. When his parents take him to the doctor to fix the situation, they discover there's more to Tooter than they had thought.
- One episode had a character named Tadah who only spoke in the form of "tooting". The only word she could say was "y'all".
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In the Season 1 theme's Opening Narration, the narrator claims the Snorks were described in the year 1634 in the logbook of Captain Ortega, after his ship sank into a lagoon by a barrier reef. The logbook was found in a monastery by the narrator.
