Oscar inspired an Apple Macintosh INIT written by Eric B. Shapiro and shown at the 1989 MacHack conference, featuring a singing animated Oscar that appeared from the trash can when the trash was emptied. The hack was so popular that some parents lost the entire contents of their hard disks to preschoolers wanting to see more of Oscar, prompting Shapiro to create a stand-alone application using the same animation and sounds. The software was discontinued after Children's Television Workshop sent Shapiro a cease and desist letter.