Dean Wormer had it wrong.

For the unitiated, Dean Wormer, was the college administrator/villian in National Lampoon’s movie “Animal House.” During a scene in the movie where he dresses down the members of Delta Tau Chi fraternity for their “unacceptable” behavior, Dean Wormer tells Delta Ken Dorfman, aka “Flounder,” that “fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, young man.”

Dean Wormer had never seen the Country Music Television show “Party Down South,” which features 20-something southerners doing precisely that — being fat, drunk and stupid. Or at least drunk and stupid. These folks party, get in arguments and occasionally do stupid, sometimes dangerous things, which brings to mind a warning southerners give to Yankees who come down to visit: “If someone says, ‘Hey y’all, watch this.’ Step away, those may be the last words he ever says.”

I bring up “Party Down South,” not to criticize CMT for producing a show that presents the stereotypical southerner, but to raise the question about so-called reality shows. Are they really real, and what seems to be the attraction.

It’s obvious one reason is because network executives have no imagination and it’s probably easier and cheaper to put a bunch of people in a room or a house and let the camera roll.

Ever since MTV came out in the 1990s with “Real World,” and Fox Television in the ‘80s with “Cops,” television has been inundated with “reality” shows that use stereotypes wherever they can.

Tune into any of the major networks or any of the cable or satellite channels, and you’ll be thrust into someone’s life.

From the Kardasians, America’s favorite dysfunctional family (they’ve replaced the Simpsons), to people living in trees or in the wilds of arctic Alaska, we get a chance nightly to intrude on someone’s life through the eye of a camera.

I must admit, I’ve fallen for one of these against my better judgment. I watch the History Channel’s “Swamp People,” about alligator hunting in Louisiana. I guess the attraction there goes back to growing up and working in South Central and southern Louisiana and getting to know folks like Troy Landry and the others whose activities are featured weekly.

But overall, I’m not a fan of reality shows. I really can’t see the attraction or why people would want to subject themselves to that kind of scrutiny. I know I couldn’t go through something like that — having the TV camera looking over my shoulder or sticking in my face.

I would like to see the television networks return to some decent programing. I’d like to see the History Channel go back to showing programs about history. Something that would look at the history of ancient Egypt or the founding of Iraq (formed by the British with a Saudi prince the first ruler), or something on the Civil War. I want to look at the Discovery Channel and discover something other than how some guy spends the winter in the Yukon.

I want to see a return to shows like Andy Griffith, “Night Court” and “Barney Miller.”

I see enough reality every day, and I truly believe what TV is passing as “reality” ain’t.