Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Stargirl, season 1, episode 2, "S.T.R.I.P.E."
The second episode of Stargirl, "S.T.R.I.P.E.," confirmed the existence of Ted Knight - the scientist turned superhero who started the Starman legacy - within the reality of the DC Universe series. While the details of his story are saved "for another day," this revelation still holds major implications for the legacy that Courtney Whitmore has taken upon herself.
Ted Knight first appeared as Starman in Adventure Comics #61 in April 1941. A wealthy playboy in the same vein as Bruce Wayne, Ted Knight was also a brilliant astronomer and engineer who discovered a way to isolate and store a unique form of stellar energy. Thanks to a device which he called a gravity rod, Ted was able to use this energy to increase and decrease the strength of gravity around him, enabling himself to fly or levitate other objects. He was also able to generate bright lights, create force-fields and unleash focused blasts of energy. Donning a costume, he became the first superhero to call himself Starman and started one of DC Comics' strangest legacies.
This legacy apparently exists in some form in the world of Stargirl. At the end of episode 2, "S.T.R.I.P.E.," Courtney Whitmore asked her stepfather, Pat Dugan, if the Cosmic Staff was truly alive. Pat said that he didn't know and was quick to note that Sylvester Pemberton, who was the Star-Spangled Kid before becoming Starman, didn't create the staff either. Pat credits the invention of the Cosmic Staff to a man named Ted Knight, but quickly changes the subject regarding who he was.
Ted Knight did not have an entirely happy life in the original comics. He was in and out of sanitariums throughout the 1940s and 1950s, due to his guilt over his role in developing the atomic bomb. He nearly destroyed his marriage after having an affair with fellow Justice Society of America member Black Canary. This led to Ted having largely strained relationships with his children, particularly his younger son, Jack. Ted Knight then adopted Sylvester Pemberton, the Star-Spangled Kid, as a protege and start grooming him to take up the Starman mantle. Unfortunately, Pemberton chose to remain his own man and died at the hands of the zombie Solomon Grundy, though both of Ted Knight's sons would ultimately become Starman after Pemberton's death.
It's possible that Pemberton did become Ted Knight's heir apparent in the reality of Stargirl. However, it's unclear if Ted Knight is still alive or why Pat Dugan might be reluctant to tell Courtney about him. Perhaps he is fearful that Ted, learning of another young person able to wield the Cosmic Staff, might encourage Courtney in her quest to become a superhero, or perhaps it ties into the question of Courtney's parentage? Whatever the case, it seems certain that the legacy of Ted Knight is sure to be a major part of the the story to come, though it remains to be seen just how many Starmen may have existed before the first Stargirl.