"Being in a band, it's either going to be intense love or massive hatred," Nunn said. "There's no middle. And with him, it went that way when we were together for 13 years. I loved him, I hated him. It was never neutral. So this is what it took.

"I mean, he's been in my life longer than both of the guys in my marriages. And it was like a divorce. . . . It's that intense."

Despite the band members' initial reluctance, "Bands Reunited" seems to have gone a long way toward healing their old wounds. "For me, being onstage with (Crawford) . . . was a healing experience, to get to see him again and say thank you after all these years," Nunn said. "To be able to say to him things that I didn't want to die not saying. He changed my life."

Crawford agreed. But agreeing to go back onstage after years away from music creates a whole 'nother level of angst in "Bands Reunited." "If you watch me . . . I have my head down the whole time, because I was so concerned with screwing up," Crawford said. "I haven't been playing (synthesizers), and it was very hard to do it again."

"I realized that I need to actually put the Berlin CDs in the player and drag a keyboard out from under my bed and see if I could remember the stuff," said band member Dave Diamond. "Afterward, Terri mentioned, laughing, saying that it's got to be in the DNA. It just all comes back to you."

All that angst and no money — band members weren't paid for their performances. "They did it as artists," Haleem said. "And as corny as it may sound, they did it for the love of music."

Was it just a one-shot? Will Berlin work together again? "I don't know," Nunn said. "We haven't gotten that far. I don't know if they want to play, period."

"It pumped me up a bit about the music," Crawford said. "I just had a blast. It was just great to see these guys. It had nothing to do with the fame or wanting to do the show. I didn't really care about the (performance) part of it. I was excited to see Terri, (and I) love this guy. That was wonderful.

"And when I got back, it was so much fun, I sort of started wanting to write (music) again, and that hadn't happened to me in about 20 years. . . . So I bought a little recorder and I've been out in my garage writing music again. . . . So I've done it, and everyone is quite surprised. And my wife wants to shoot me, because I'm out there six or seven hours at a time while she's changing diapers and making dinner."

So Berlin's may not be an ending, but it is happy. Which isn't necessarily the case with all the reunions.

"Not all of them ended as happily as we wanted," Haleem said. "That's actually the cool part of the series. Because if they all just lived happily every after and reunited, it wouldn't be too dramatic. And, trust me, there's a lot of drama in this show."

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If you watch

What: "Bands Reunited"

When: Monday, 11 p.m.

Where: VH1 (check your cable/satellite channel guide)

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E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com