who is norville rogers?

A series of conversations over the past few days have led me to question lots of things, including the messages I received as a child. One message was about Norville Rogers.

Norville Rogers is a well known fictional detective. His exploits have appeared on a great many television series since his inception in 1969. His past is a mystery; all we know of him is that he appears on our television screen occasionally to solve a mystery or two.

In terms of physical appearance, Norville blends into a crowd quite easily. Norville is often found clad in a green-colored shirt of some making and brown corduroy pants. His disheveled brown hair often covers his eyes, and he usually remains behind when a crowd moves onward, marching to the beat of his own drummer.

He stands quite tall and is a bit on the gangly side, as he is extremely thin. He is also a master of disguise, demonstrating an uncanny and lightning-quick ability to assume new personas and costumery, seemingly out of thin air. Given this trait, Norville time and time again squeezes his way out of countless tight situations.
His demeanor is often quite sarcastic, and his appearance to others is pretty low on his priority list. He often resorts to publicly proclaiming his fear of many things, his voracious appetite, and his penchant for eating dog snacks. His most faithful companion is a friendly brown dog that often accompanies Norville on his misadventures.

He quite often falls into a habit of using 1960's style lingo, overusing the term "like" in conversation, and even dropping the kitchy term "zoinks" on occasion. Added to his demeanor and appearance, he casts an air of friendliness and approachability, which often results in Norville gaining valuable clues as to the solution of a particular caper.

Norville's main knack for solving crimes, however, is largely through his uncanny ability to literally stumble into solutions. He often frees others who have been kidnapped or otherwise victimized by a particular villain simply by wandering into a situation and using his basic nature and intuition. It is often amazing to watch his character repeatedly stumble into the solving of a complex crime simply by being at the right place at the right time.

Norville's final useful attribute is his razor-sharp wit, which he uses in verbal dueling contests regularly with both his friendly acquaintances as well as with those villains who oppose him. He often uses witty wordplay as an excuse to amuse and baffle both friend and foe, often resulting in Norville heading toward the kitchen for yet another delicious snack.

One last thing: Norville is perhaps better known by his nickname Shaggy from many classic television series, but most famously Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

Shaggy's traditional voice artist in the original series and various spinoffs was Casey Kasem. Scott Innes and Billy West briefly took over the role in several of the direct-to-video films produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In the recent series What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Casey Kasem resumed the role. In the two live-action Scooby Doo movies, he is played by Matthew Lillard.

Currently Shaggy is a vegetarian, by request of Casey Kasem who in real life is a vegetarian. In the past Shaggy had a tendency to overeat and eat anything he could. Shaggy's eating habits angered Kasem. In 1995, Kasem walked out as the voice of Shaggy, when Shaggy and Scooby-Doo were to be portrayed in a Burger King Commercial.

Zoinks, indeed.
Via Leo, the Laff-A-Lympics, and Wikipedia