If you’re an older fan of Down Gilead Lane, you may be confused to see Seasons 7 through 12 of the show (episodes 84 [S-10] to 164 [12-13]) rebranded as Beyond Gilead. If you’re a new fan, you may think that Beyond Gilead is a spinoff of Seasons 1 through 6, taking the characters to completely different settings. The only statement publicly offered by Keys for Kids Ministries (formerly CBH Ministries, the producers of Down Gilead Lane) is the following:
In order to continue with Down Gilead Lane and fulfill our contract with its original author, we needed a new name. Thus, after Season 6, we transitioned Down Gilead Lane to Beyond Gilead.
Seasons 1 through 6, created by Beth Culp, were released from 2001 to early 2005. W. Mark Whitlock took over show direction in 2005 under new executive producer Terre Ritchie. After receiving numerous complaints from radio stations and parents about the content of W. Mark Whitlock’s first 3 produced episodes, those episodes were erased, the remaining ones were either shelved or discarded, and W. Mark Whitlock was replaced by Lori Twichell and John Fornof. Collectively, Lori Twichell, John Fornof, Terre Ritchie, and post-producer Steve O’Dell handled the show’s direction from late 2005 to 2009.
According to Simon Guevara, executive producer for Season 6, Down Gilead Lane was supposed to end with Beth Culp’s departure. Simon Guevara was involved in tying up as many loose ends as possible and “force-landing the plane” at the end of Season 6 under the assumption that the series would not continue. According to Beth Culp, she had no plans for the characters after even Season 4, and although she assented to write two new story arcs for her characters, she had closed the book on Gilead as an audio drama after Season 6.
Greg Yoder joined Keys for Kids Ministries in 2015 and became the new executive director after Terre Ritchie. According to the statement on Keys for Kids’ website, this was when he learned of the “contract with [Gilead’s] original author.” Seasons 7 through 12, which had originally been released as “CBH Ministries’ Down Gilead Lane” and then as “Keys for Kids’ Down Gilead Lane” were then rebranded as “Keys for Kids’ Beyond Gilead.”
The only content branded as Down Gilead Lane is that which was written by Beth Culp, Leah Gartner, or Sara Osinsky and that which was produced under Randy Hekman or Simon Guevara. Any other content involving characters and situations created by but not written by Beth Culp is branded as Beyond Gilead.