I only saw Marj in the role (well did see some of Joan's short stint), so she's pretty much the only Alex, I knew. I liked her fine enough

Same here, she's the only Alex I ever saw and I thought she was great

Wasn't Robin ALMOST cast but Linda Gottlieb has a better offer?

Robin promised that she'd check in with OLTL (who exactly?) first if she was ever interested in returning to daytime. The BM situation came up over dinner with MZ and he was instrumental in RS taking a meeting with JFP. It was pretty much a go, they talked about making the part more youthful, et cetera, but JFP was already busy with contracts and nothing was signed. She'd be in touch. A member of the soap press saw RS leaving CBS and she figured that she better get in touch with OLTL as promised. LG wasn't familiar with her work but soon learned about her history with the show and her popularity and decided to bring her back in time for the big 25th anniversary and EP's contract was not renewed.

Speaking Of Bev did AW ever try to get her back AW prior to her GL stint?

Yes,I think there was talk of her returning in 84 but Bev wasn't interested in having to travel to Brooklyn to tape.

She was also rumored to play one of the leads in her friend John Conboy's Capitol in '82. I wonder what kind of discussion was had when Lemay brought Iris back.

I believe there was a quote in an old soap mag where Bev said she was content with playing Alex and didn't want to revisit Iris, when it revealed Iris was coming back to AW. Bev may have also said she turned down the chance to return in that same report, but I can't recall.