Linda Cardellini was 19 and attending Loyola Marymount University when she went to a taping of The Price is Right with friends. Called down among the first contestants, she struggled with the bidding until her final offer of $1,000 won her the fireplace. She later described the experience as “maybe one of the most exciting things that has ever actually happened to me.”
Cardellini joked about giving the fireplace a plaque reading “My first time on television.” She eventually had it installed in her house, though she’s admitted she doesn’t love how it looks.
She’s revisited the story over the years, including during a 2013 appearance on The Daily Show with John Oliver and in interviews on NPR and Live with Kelly and Ryan. The game-show appearance came before Freaks and Geeks, ER and her turn as Velma in Scooby-Doo.
More than 30 years later, she’s playing Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother, in Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake. And when she won her first Emmy in 2026 for DTF St. Louis, she compared hearing her name called to being called down on The Price Is Right.
