From a Seth MacFarane interview on tvshowsondvd.com:

I noticed "Road to Rhode Island"...there's some footage missing; an Osama bin Laden joke was cut.

There was some debate over that. I kinda stayed out of that debate because I didn't really have a strong opinion one way or the other. There are arguments for keeping it in and arguments for taking it out. The argument to keep it in is that's how the show aired and it was broadcast this way and it aired two years before September 11, and so there's a bit of entertainment historical value there. And obviously the argument for taking it out was that because it was one of the biggest tragedies, there was some thought that it might bring down the rest of the episode when that comes up. There was some thought at one point of putting it on separately at the end, and that was really...I guess it was a legal decision that Fox made to leave it out. It's unfortunate in that it's a part of the episode that was produced and was aired and is sort of gone forever, but it's a small loss in the grand scheme of things.

Now, you were almost involved in that whole tragedy...

Yeah, that came up at one point. I said, "Look, I'm probably as close to that incident as anybody at Fox." There was one point where I was arguing to keep that scene in. Yeah, I was booked on that flight and I was drinking the night before and hung over and I missed the plane by about 10 minutes. It was a very close call for me.

How has that affected you?

The only reason it hasn't really affected me as it maybe could have is I didn't really know that I was in any danger until after it was over, so I never had that panic moment. After the fact it was sobering but people have a lot of close calls; you're crossing the street and you almost get hit by a car....this one just happened to be related to something massive. I really can't let it affect me because I'm a comedy writer. I have to put that in the back of my head.

Well, I'm glad you got drunk the night before.

Yeah, alcohol is our friend. I think that's the moral of that story.

Yeah, drinking can save your life.

Absolutely.