gistfile1.txt

# remove parenthesis 
input_text_noparens = re.sub(r'\([^)]*\)', '', input_text)
# store as list of sentences
sentences_strings_ted = []
for line in input_text_noparens.split('\n'):
    m = re.match(r'^(?:(?P<precolon>[^:]{,20}):)?(?P<postcolon>.*)$', line)
    sentences_strings_ted.extend(sent for sent in m.groupdict()['postcolon'].split('.') if sent)
# store as list of lists of words
sentences_ted = []
for sent_str in sentences_strings_ted:
    tokens = re.sub(r"[^a-z0-9]+", " ", sent_str.lower()).split()
    sentences_ted.append(tokens)