‘Crystal Lake’ Star Linda Cardellini Recalls Her TV Debut as a Contestant on ‘The Price Is Right’

Before Linda Cardellini became a famous actress, she made her TV debut on the longest-running game show — The Price Is Right. The Crystal Lake star reflected on her time and the prize that she won.

In 1994, Cardellini was just a college student at Loyola Marymount University trying to win money or a car or something that someone in college could use. This was two years before she made her acting debut in the 1996 children’s series Bone Chillers.

The then-18-year-old had the highest bid of $1,000 on a hardwood cherry fireplace. The actual retail price was $1,057. She won the fireplace and got to play a game for an additional prize, which was a bedroom set. She did not win it, however, because she said the game was too hard.

On The Sharon Osbourne Show, the actress shared that her parents kept the fireplace in their home until she had a place of her own and then would put a plaque on it that said “Linda’s first television appearance.”

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However, she doesn’t have the fireplace anymore, ironically losing it in a fire in a storage facility where she was keeping it safe.

Talking with Entertainment Weekly about her new series, Cardellini also reflected on her time on The Price Is Right. “It was one of the most exciting things,” she told the outlet. “Number one, I’d never been on television before. I’ve watched that show since I was a little kid with my grandmother, and the idea of being on that show just seemed otherworldly.”

“And then to win a prize, it was all of the things at once, but that moment of somebody actually saying your name and that moment of surprise and glee was so present. It’s like being on a roller coaster.” Cardellini compared hearing her name being called to winning an Emmy Award.

“I feel like the pressure and the people yelling in the audience for you to get it right is intense,” the actress went on. “Also, when you don’t know the price of something! I didn’t know the price of Sue Bee Honey or whatever it was. I was just looking out at the audience, and there were 200 people screaming numbers and doing gestures at you. I was looking for my friends — we were all in college — trying to find somebody who I could be a touchstone. Somebody I thought had a realistic version of the supermarket. It was fun.”

The Price Is Right, weekdays, 11a/10c, CBS, stream next day on Paramount+