Itinerary: Suburbia

For decades, Los Angeles has been derided as 40 (or 60 or 80 . . . ) suburbs in search of a city. Though few can deny that the nation’s second-largest city is decidedly urban, there is something about the sprawl here that makes that insult sting.

Perhaps it is because Los Angeles grew up differently from most other cities. First trains, then freeways, connected far-flung little towns. The next 70 years would fill in all the gaps.

Suburbs aren’t just a reaction to city life any more, they are a defining characteristic. According to census statistics, a majority of Americans now live in the suburbs. So this weekend, pay some attention to the suburbs, where tract homes stand, many neighborhoods, subdividable, with multi-car garages and shopping malls for all.

Friday

From its home base on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, the improv comedy troupe Groundlings takes a peek over the white picket fence into the homes and lives of suburbanites in the new show “Groundlings: A Planned Community” (7307 Melrose Ave., Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. $17.50. [323] 934-9700). Of course, the Groundlings, the dominant improv force in town for 25 years, turns the ‘burbs inside out to reveal cannibals, pathological film students and a Greek tragedy at the library.

Saturday

Take a walk through Angelino Heights, often called Los Angeles’ first suburb. Today, most would say its residents live downtown: tucked between the Hollywood Freeway and Sunset Boulevard, due west of Dodger Stadium.

The neighborhood, sort of a subsection of Echo Park, is a wonderful surprise to those who have never happened upon it. Developed during the booming ‘80s--1880s, that is--these six square blocks are lined with Victorian homes, mostly Queen Anne and Eastlake style, as well as some classic Craftsmans added around 1905. Not all the houses along Carroll, Kellam and Callumet avenues and others were built there. Several houses facing demolition elsewhere in Los Angeles County have been moved into the neighborhood in recent years.

If you want to see inside some of these private homes, you’ll have to plan ahead. Way ahead. The Los Angeles Conservancy leads tours the first Saturday of the month at 10 a.m.--but it’s booked up until Sept. 4 ($8; $5 for members. Reservations required. [213] 623-2489).

Sunday

Ah, yes, and who could forget the Valley?

Perhaps because America’s TV and movies came from L.A., the San Fernando Valley seemed to become America’s quintessential suburb. It was home to the “Brady Bunch” and the filming location for countless other unnamed suburbs.

Driving north over the Sepulveda Pass after sundown drives home the point that this one-time bedroom community now houses one-third of the city’s residents. Or, at any hour, the Grove Overlook, on Mulholland Drive west of the San Diego Freeway, offers a panoramic view.

But a funny thing happened to the suburbs on TV and in movies by the 1980s. Their boringness, their normalcy, became a foil for something strange: an alien in Northridge in “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” ghosts in the homes of Simi Valley in “Poltergeist.”

A trip to the video store presents a much more disturbing picture of the suburbs. Zombies attack in “Return of the Living Dead 2,” mobsters lie low in “My Blue Heaven,” and a guy with blades for fingers terrorizes teens in “Nightmare on Elm Street,” but is welcomed with open arms in “Edward Scissorhands.” And if you still think a big house in a gated community will keep you “Safe,” ask Julianne Moore.