i am working on another tank in gmax, and i have one thing showing and would like a hidden object to be shown, but not all of them. is there a way to do this other than unhiding everything and then hiding what i don't want?

Yes, or hit "5" to do the same.
You can use wildcards "*", as many as you wish, for instance you want to unhide all blurred props on a multi engine craft,
type "prop*blurred" and voila.
Check that little box "select subtree" to unhide the complete hierarchy below this certain part.
Same goes for selecting scene objects btw (hit "H").

Edited to get the brain shortcuts out of the characters:)