Tessa Thompson, who played Sam White in the original movie, makes a guest appearance in the second season as Rikki Carter.
Sam's days and nights of word fight with an anonymous Twitter account is based on Justin Simien's experiences with Twitter trolls after 1st season premiere. But according to his interview at IndieWire.com, he "never went as hard or as long as Sam did", although it was necessary to realize how much energy he was wasting with it.
Sam's headboard is the same as Nola Darling's in Spike Lee's 1986 film She's Gotta Have It. Same shape and style, they both hold candles as well.
During the pilot episode cast members are watching a TV show described as: "[It is] Not just a TV show. 'Defamation' Wednesdays are the epicenter of black college life." It is clearly based on the TV show "Scandal" starring Kerry Washington, as a strong black woman. It even shares the same flashing opening credits. The scene shown is much more racy than "Scandal" actually was.
Filmed at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).