Ex-"SNL" Star Morgan Cops to DUI

Former SNL player pleads no contest to DUI charge; sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to attend alcohol-awareness classes

By Gina Serpe Feb 24, 2006 4:35 PMTags

Maybe it's time for Tracy Morgan to lay off the Uncle Jemima's Mash Liquor.

The former Saturday Night Live player has been placed on three years' probation and ordered to attend alcohol-awareness classes after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving stemming from a December traffic stop.

Morgan had been scheduled for a pretrial hearing Thursday in Los Angeles. But according to the city attorney's office, the comic entered his plea Feb. 17 before Superior Court Judge Rex Heeseman. In return, prosecutors dropped a second DUI count.

It was a switch from the SNL star's Jan. 13 court appearance, when he pleaded not guilty to two counts of driving under the influence.

Morgan, 37, was pulled over by police for speeding on Dec. 2 and, after reportedly failing a field sobriety test, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. The small-screen funnyman was released on bail later that same day.

Morgan starred on SNL for seven years, from 1996 to 2003, where he regularly scored laughs with lovable if uninformed characters. He's best known for characters like Astronaut Jones, animal show host Brian Fellow and singing sewer dweller Woodrow. He also did a wicked Cuba Gooding Jr. impersonation and, of course, hawked Uncle Jemima's 190-proof Mash Liquor, the booze that gets you drunker quicker.

Following his late-night run, he apparently wasn't yet ready for prime time as his NBC sitcom The Tracy Morgan Show was quickly axed.

But he's set to try again in an untitled NBC sitcom pilot written by and costarring fellow SNL trouper Tina Fey. Morgan will play an overly confident comedy star in an SNL-like sketch show-within-the-show titled Friday Night Bits. The sitcom will follow the behinds-the-scenes antics of Bits, and should not be mistaken for NBC's other behind-the-scenes of an SNL-like drama series starring Matthew Perry.